The Parent Connection Meeting

Jim was off today, so it was really nice that he went with me today to the SCOE Parent Connection meeting. It was at the Doodle's school and today the subject was speech. We learned about some really cool things some of the other parents are doing to help their children talk and communicate. We learned about programs and techniques that might be instrumental in helping our Doodle talk.

Talking is just one more thing I used to take for granted.

I never realized all of the prerequisites required before the speech comes. And, I'm just hoping--that the speech does come. Some day. It's one of my biggest fears, that the Doodle will never speak. I never realized what a key role things like taking turns, imitating and different foods/textures/liquids played in the development of speech. For normal kids this all falls into place and comes easy. For "our" kids, it has to be taught.

I never imagined a life like that for him. Then again, I never imagined him with a seizure disorder either.

He does really well getting his point across and communicating with us without speech. He's still slow to learn new signs.

So, Jim came today and saw the Doodle's classroom for the first time and met his teacher. While it was an informative subject that hit really close to home, it was even more informative and comforting meeting and hearing from the other parents of autistic children, going through what we're going through. For me, it was nice having Jim by my side.