Cooper's Diagnosis

This week in our session with Teacher Judy, Cooper said six new words in 30 minutes! We love Teacher Judy. While blowing bubbles she got him to say blow, bubble, and pop. Why he never says those for me I don't know... And then she got him to say Ruby for the very first time! It was so exciting! Which he pronounces Rubah or sometimes Wubah. And she got him to say Cooper, or Toopah. And she got him to say Mama. Teacher Judy was so excited about that one that she gave him a hug and Cooper immediately ran away. Apparently Cooper's love for Teacher Judy does not extend to hugs.

Josh and I love hearing him say Wubah. We make him say it all day long and then giggle about it at night in bed. Wubah.

So at the end of our session Teacher Judy told me that Cooper has apraxia. Apraxia is a condition where the brain's signals to the mouth muscles involving speech are missing or incorrect. This means that the child has no problem understanding speech but when it comes to speaking themselves, they don't know how to move their mouth muscles to make the sounds. Children with apraxia have to learn how to make each sound, and then the thousands of combinations of sounds and practice them thousands of times before they become muscle memory and something they can say independently. It involves extensive and frequent speech therapy for years sometimes. But the good news is once they figure out how to talk, they'll be all caught up on their speech. It just takes a lot of work to get to that point.

It's a daunting task and right now it feels a little overwhelming. And I'm a little sad that speech can't just come naturally to him like it does to everyone else. But I'm glad Cooper has a diagnosis so we know what help to get him. I'm glad there is help available for him. I'm glad I get to stay at home with him so we can practice our speech together. I'm glad Cooper has so many people who support him. I'm glad my husband is just as committed to helping Cooper as I am. There are many things to be grateful for.

Luckily Cooper has a few words already that help him communicate. Once they practice a word enough to have it become a muscle memory they will always have that word and Cooper already has a few words, of course "no" being one of them. And luckily he can make all his consonant and vowel sounds, he just needs to practice them and learn how to combine them into words. So he has a few things working for him already and the rest we will help him figure out.

One thing I know for sure about Cooper is that he is smart. He can count to ten, he knows the first half of the alphabet, he knows his letters, shapes, numbers, and colors. After watching a Barney episode about China, I said hi to Cooper one morning and he answered, "nee how." He is a smart boy and if he gets the help he needs, he can overcome this. And he will have the added blessing of parents who listen to every single thing he says for the rest of his life because we're going to be so delighted by every word. "Wubah" has already brought a lot of happiness to our hearts.

So now we know what to do and what lies ahead for us. Good luck buddy. Mama is always cheering for you.