Garrett's Speech Saga Continues!

As I sat in the reception area while Garrett was in speech therapy this week, I was reflecting on all that we've been through to get to this point in his speech, and what our future will look like.

A little over three years ago, when Garrett was only five years old, we met Mrs. Hart to discuss using the paletometer.  Before that it had been years of Kids on the Move, Special Needs Preschool, and speech therapy through the schools during Transitional Kindergarten, and then Kindergarten.  We've been going through programs to help his speech development since he was TWO years old!  At the time, he couldn't say one discernible word.  Now, six years later, after (sometimes intensive) speech therapy at least once a week, he has made enormous progress!  I was floored a few weeks ago when his primary teacher told me that she never has a hard time understanding him!  Wow!  We've come a long way!  (The video was taken the first month of speech therapy with Mrs. Hart.)

First month of speech; 2012.

Aaand, we're not done yet!  Let's talk about the future!

Garrett was evaluated again to see what we have left to work on.  We can't give a time frame on when we'll be done since it depends on how quickly he picks up on sounds, but based on what we have left, I feel like 2016 will be the last year with Mrs. Hart.  Maybe even by his birthday.  

Another aspect of all this (though not directly related to his speech) is his jaw.  In November, 2013, the orthodontist recommended headgear to correct his "severe" underbite.  Although he could have corrected his speech with the underbite, it did make it considerably more challenging for him to form the sounds with his jaw the way it was.  So, in March of 2014 we put the headgear on, and kept it on for eight months.  Huge difference in his jaw!  Wow!  

Oct 2013

Nov 2014

But, unfortunately his underbite was so severe that it rebounded.  To the point where his top teeth are a bit behind the bottom teeth again.  *sigh*  So, here we go with round two of headgear!  :(  April, 2016, we'll be putting it back on for another six months.  Thankfully, Dr Burrows took pity on us and is only charging us half the price this time, and that includes a new addition.  Since having his headgear removed, a lot of his adult teeth have come in, and have come in crooked, so he'll be putting braces on at the same time.  Oh my!!  Poor kid!

Nov 2015

  

So to summarize, we have another three months to use the paletometer for speech, and then the headgear goes back on.  We won't be doing the paletometer ever again, so we've got to make the most of these next three months.  

Man, we've done a lot in the last 6 years!!!