Update on Colton & New Words

Yesterday, I had an appointment with the Tuscaloosa County schools regarding Colton’s delay in speech. Since he will be turning 3 in a few weeks, Early Intervention will stop with their speech therapies and the Tuscaloosa County Schools will take over. Colton had an evaluation last week and I was anxious to see what they thought about Colton. Turns out he is not behind as much as we had thought!! (Praise God!) When we started therapy at the University of Alabama in November, Colton was on about a 13 month old level for speech. Last Friday, they said he was on a 26 month old level!!!! Just in 6 months he has caught up and is only 10 months behind in his speech development. I couldn’t be more proud of him!

Since I had a meeting with the school, Big Daddy took Colton to speech at the University. Big Daddy said Colton did GREAT and Ms. Angie his teacher was shock at how much he had improved in just 2 weeks since we had seen her. He is now saying more words each and every day and is gaining more confidence in himself. Our goal in therapy is for him to start combining words (2 to 3 words together), for him to pronounce words more clearly, for him to communicate more with words and to get him ready for Kindergarten. Please say a special prayer for these four goals.

Here is a new list of words Colton has said over the past few days:
Play Outside
Go Outside
Slide
Swing
Thank you (Said this after I gave him some candy)
Please
Sock
Soap

FYI: Pictures will be posted soon!! I got a new camera for Christmas and for some reason I can’t get them uploaded on the website. I’m working on it though, so hopefully soon I’ll have some new ones to show you.

Update on Colton

Chris and I took Colton to the University of Alabama Autism Clinic on Monday September 27th and Monday, October 4th for an Autism evaluation. We were advised to take him to the clinic because Colton has a delay in speech and has a few symptoms of Autism. (His symptoms include the following: flapping of the hands, repetitive behavior, speech delay and minimum eye contact). The first Monday went great and Colton enjoyed playing with all the toys and he performed all of the tasks very well. However the second Monday was a hard day for him. They pushed him really hard in speech and communication and he wanted nothing to do with either teacher that was in the room. It was a hard day for both Colton and mommy. (It’s so hard as a mommy to sit and watch your little one struggle with something as simple as talking and I wanted him so bad just to say one simple word). The evaluation lasted about 4 hours each day and we were all completely drained by the end of the second day. The worst part was that we had to wait there another hour so that the Autism Evaluation Team could discuss their opinions. After a long hour, we were all brought into a room where they informed us that Colton had a very mild case of Autism. At that very instant, I felt as if all of my dreams had been shattered. I’m so glad that Chris was sitting in that room with me because if he wasn’t there I probably would have crumbled to the ground. At a time when I could barely speak, Chris knew exactly what questions to ask and I could never thank God enough for bringing me such a strong Christian man into my life. When we left the clinic, Chris kept telling me that we would make it through this and that God would be walking with us each step of the way. Now 2 weeks later, I feel as though our family of 3 is stronger than ever! We are trusting God each step of the way and we are praising Him through it all! It’s not the outcome that we had hoped for, but we know that God has an Amazing plan for our family and we are looking forward to experiencing it together.

Since that Monday, Chris and I are doing lots of research, reading books about Autism, and we are hoping to help fight this disorder for Colton. We’re meeting Thursday with a new doctor in Tuscaloosa who actually has a son with Autism, so we’re hoping to walk away from the appointment with a little more knowledge about the disorder. We both know that we have a lot to learn and that it’s not going to be an easy road ahead of us but we are love our little boy so much that we are willing to do anything for him. Thank you all so much for your continuous prayers and support throughout the past few months. Colton is a very blessed boy to have so many people who love and adore him!

Speech Update on Colton

So many of you have asked about Cotlon and his speech, so I figured I would just update it on here. As of right now, Colton is still taking speech therapy and a class called Special Instructions with Early Intervention of Tuscaloosa. The classes are going great and Colton loves his teachers!! Ms. Jeanie and Ms Marilyn have been wonderful teachers who have a gift for working with toddlers with speech delay. Colton is still working on his communication with others and he is picking up new sounds every day.

He can now say the following words: "dada", "chip", "bye bye", "see you soon" (this sounds like see ou oon), "bug" (ugg)

We work on our ABC's every day in the car and he will repeat some of the sounds. He usually will say "B", "C", "I", "P"

Then he tends to say other sounds for the other letters. But this is HUGE considering he wouldn't even try to make a sound before.

Since Colton is not talking and he is over the age of 2, we have decided to get him tested for autism. Autism is a brain disorder that often makes it hard to communicate with and relate to others. No one knows what causes it and it is estimated that every 110 child will be born with the disorder.

At the end of September and the beginning of October, we will be going to the University of Alabama for an evaluation with Colton. They have a great program at the University!

His teachers have told us that his talking could take off at any minute and that he may not even have autism, but we feel that by doing this we will be able to find ways to help Colton communicate better.

We would really appreciate all the prayers over the next few weeks and months. We're praying that he will start talking soon and that we can rule out Autism; however we know that God has a special plan for Colton and he will praise him with either outcome.

It was very hard for me at the beginning to watch Colton struggle with talking and communicating for so long, but I have finally come to the point that I know God has a plan for him. It's far better than anything I could possibly imagine and I can't wait to see it unfold.

Thanks again for all the prayers. We are all so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends in our life.

2nd Time at Speech

Colton has his second speech class yesterday afternoon and he did great!! As soon as we walked in the door, he headed for his chair so that he could sit down and get ready to play with Ms. Jennie. Yesterday he played with the puzzles, a tractor and farm animals, blocks, the musical pink pig with coins and his favorite BUBBLES!! He signed "more" pretty much the entire time that we were there and he made great eye contact with Ms. Jennie when she was working with him. I'm sooo proud of him!! He is making great progress and amazes me everyday at the new things that he learns.

1st Day of Special Instructions Class

Ms. Marilyn from Early Intervention came to the house today during lunch to meet Colton before they start the actually classes in 2 weeks. She has a lot of fun activities planned for Colton and I can't wait for him to get started.

"More"

Colton signed "more" last night for the first time. Chris and I were in the living room working with him on putting puzzles together and putting shapes in a box and after I showed him a few times how to sign "more" he picked up on it. He did great putting his fingers together and then tapping both hands together. He really is improving everyday and we are so proud of him!

1st Day at Speech Therapy

Colton had his first day at Speech Therapy today. He did great!! Today Ms. Jennie worked with him on putting together the farm animal puzzle (He was a pro at this!), putting coins in the Piggy Bank (his favorite activity), stacking the circles on the musical star, and cutting the wooden fruit in half. Since Colton is so active and likes to move around alot, Ms. Jennie put him in a booster chair to complete all of the activities. This worked great because it made him focus on one activity. She also worked on signing "more" and "all finished".

The Pink Piggy and Coins was his favorite!

Melissa and Doug Fruit Tray