Since my last update, in April, we have added Olivia to our family. She was born two days after Mikail's second birthday and everything went super smoothly. To prevent a possible recurrence of Mikail's birth experience we had a planned cesarean birth with Olivia and we are so thankful we did (even though I had my own things to work through to get to this point).
After Olivia's birth, Mikail had his (expected) relapse with potty training and we are just getting back to normal with that all. Because he was potty trained so young, we expected he would relapse after her birth and probably until fall when life got back into routine. We were right.
Mikail has continued Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech and Language Therapy over the spring and summer. Physio isn't really needed anymore, so his file is still open, but the PT doesn't come to sessions anymore. The focus is mostly on Speech and Language with sprinklings of O.T. thrown in.
Truth be told, I have shed a lot of tears over his Speech and Language. We knew it would most likely be difficult for him after his stroke AND being a boy (they are proven to be slower with language development). The upside (and downside) is that he has incredible non-verbal communication skills and his receptive language is through the roof. Why do I say (and downside)? Because it is extremely exhausting to live life playing charades. He acts everything out and has gestures/signs for everything. It's 24 hours of guessing games. Yes, in the grande scheme of things, this is wonderful, but this tired Mama would LOVE it if he could verbally tell me things.
The upside is that when we go to Speech and Language Therapy he catches on to things really quickly, so the Speech and Language Play Group that he will be starting next week will be great. This is a 'late talkers' group and then in January or February he will join the 'early speech' group.
With Jason's new job we just got new Extended Health Benefits and they are wayyy better than what we had before. This also include Private Speech and Language Therapy. We are not quite sure whether we are going to take advantage of that just yet, we might wait until after we see how he does in these play groups.
This coming spring Mikail will be formally assessed and depending on the results, he may just qualify for the Alberta Education Program Unit Funding for language needs. That would mean he would get to go to the public pre-school program next fall. I think that would be really good for him, language wise, but also socially. He is a by-stander and needs to become a participant when it comes to socializing. I know, he is only two and has a long way to go before kindergarten, but still, I want him to have some of those social skills down pat. In this program he would receive pre-kindergarten curriculum instruction and specialized instruction targeted toward his individual language needs.
But...let's see how this fall and winter go first. A lot can happen in these months, but that is where we are at right now.
Off to play some more charades...
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