My Dear, Sweet Caleb

My heart hurts for Caleb right now. My dear, sweet baby is so precious to me and I feel so helpless. I have started to realize how behind he truly is in his speech. We don't interact with other children much as we don't have any friends here in CT to play with. We were at the library the other day and I heard other kids, close to his age and he sounds nothing like them. I guess I kept thinking that any day, his little brain would kick in and just start talking better. Well, he does talk, but we don't understand him. He fails to make so many of the important sounds that he needs to make in order to form words and be understandable to others. Jacob was always so advanced in speech but I forget how well he spoke even early on. I still think of Caleb as my sweet little baby who shouldn't be talking yet, but how wrong I am.

I received his report today from the Speech Language Pathologist. In the areas of personal-social, receptive language and self-help/adaptive skills, he was in the normal parameters for other children his age. In gross motor and fine motor skills he was advanced. In regards to expressive language, he has a moderate to severe phonological impairment with fewer than 65% of his consonants being correct. His default word is always 'Da-Da' if he is unable to say a word. What does this mean for Caleb? I have no idea. I'm hopeful that in our first session, the speech language pathologist will spell it out for me. How much therapy will he need? Will this get better and when? When I research phonological impairment online, it seems that with intensive therapy, the outcome is good. I am confident that we can help Caleb. I will do everything in my power to see that he has the best outcome possible. This is all a part of God's plan and I'm confident that the good Lord knows best, so I will put my faith in Him and trust Him. Be not afraid!

Caleb has such a sweet disposition. He has a natural love for life and wants to share it with everyone. He is naturally a little shy with a very mild temperament. He is quick to love and slow to anger. He is easy to redirect. He has a contagious smile that lights up my life. He is always next to Jacob, wanting to do everything he is doing. He loves Jacob, quick to apologize and give hugs. He loves to randomly find me in the house just to give me a hug and then return to his play. He is a sweet boy, my baby boy that I cherish so much. All I want for my children is the best and to see him struggle with this breaks my heart. He tries so hard to speak. He rarely gets frustrated. When I guess what he is trying to say and am wrong, he just smiles sweetly at me, shakes his head and says "No". Other times he just shrugs and goes onto something else. For the most part, his inability to speak correctly does not seem to bother him and I'm thankful for that. But I also think that is why I have not been concerned, life just goes on and Caleb adapts and finds other ways to communicate.

Caleb has a deep love for animals, especially farm animals. His favorite animal is the "ow" or horse. He loves fruit snacks, pop-tarts, hot dogs and cheese. Caleb is very physical and I'm not surprised that his gross and fine motor skills are advanced. He loves to run, tries to jump, kick, anything that involves a ball or climbing! Caleb enjoys legos, puzzles and small plastic men to play with. The Imaginext are some of his favorite toys. He is great with small pieces and will sit for a long time trying to put something together. He is very patient and meticulous when he puts his mind to it! Caleb loves books and enjoys us reading to him. Here are some recent pictures of him that melt my heart!

He was playing with his farm animals in this picture!

Caleb running!!!

Caleb running to me to throw leaves on me. We had so much fun playing in the leaves!

It is hard to picture Caleb without a smile, because that is who he is!

I love you little buddy!
You are so precious to me and I can't imagine my life without you!