Update on Caleb's Speech

First of all I want to thank all of you for your prayers for Caleb' stuttering. We have definitely felt your prayers and have had a great sense of peace about Caleb's speech. We did end up taking him to Charlotte Speach and Hearing this past Thursday to meet with a speech therapist. She did a speech and language evaluation as well as a hearing exam. We felt that it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and get a proffessional opinion about the stuttering problems he has been experiencing over the past 6 weeks and let them hear first hand how his speech sounds. I must say, I was very nervous prior to the appointment because I had this fear that Caleb would go in and not have any problems in talking! I really prayed hard that the therapist would be able to see all of the problems that he has been having. Thankfully, the Lord heard my prayers and she was able to hear Caleb in his full stuttering mode. Her name was Angie and she did a great job with him. She just had him play with her toys for about 1 and 1/2 hours and she played with him. While they were playing, she evaluated his speech and language comprehension. After the play time, she told that me she thinks that Caleb is not stuttering right now, but that he has a language disfluency. This just means that he is having some interruptions in his speech. She says that it does appear to be a phase, but there is really no way in knowing with a 2 year old. Both stuttering and language disfluencies start around the same time (2 1/2 - 3 1/2 years) and they are treated the same way with speech therapy sessions. Most of the time these speech issues are brought on because of stress in a child's life, such as a new sibling. A lot of times the child will eventually work out the speech problems and begin to talk normally again. ! We believe that this is the case with Caleb, but we will take him to about 4 therapy sessions so that we can learn to help speed up the phase! Angie gave me a lot of advice about how to help Caleb learn to speak slower and not feel so rushed for attention. After all of the evaluation, the language disfluency appears to be the only problem. He is great at language comprehension and he passed his hearing test with flying colors! We will start therapy in the next couple of weeks and we will learn how to help Caleb even more. Angie said that we were doing the best thing possible for Caleb by getting help with this early. Even if it does turn into a long term stuttering problem, starting early can help cure it. Russ and I were both very encouraged by this and we have started trying to implement some of the ideas that she gave us. Wouldn't you know, after the evaluation, Caleb has hardly stuttered at all! It does seem to come and go with him, but we are praying that it will go and not come back! Thank you so much for your prayers. I will keep you updated on how he is doing.