I Caught Them....
...being creative;
which I think is so cute.
Not much happening here. We still do not know about a possible job move, so for today, we are grateful for the home the the LORD has provided for us. Besides the earlier fire that threatened our area, there has been horrible flooding in our state. It has damaged so many towns. We have been safe, and thankful for this.
We have started school ... first year of home educating TEN children. With out the LORD's help, I have no idea how it is possible.
We have found that Clive has very serious stuttering problems, and I have had to accept that he is really more than 80 percent non-verbal at this time. I guess I wasn't really looking at the whole picture with Clive. Didn't we know, you may be wondering? I kept telling myself that he would learn English, and things would get better; or that we would start school and he would "see" the letters and improve. I just didn't understand that he CAN'T speak. He uses a little sign language, and any other ways he can, to "speak" to us. We just didn't realize how much we "fill in the blank" for him because it is so hard for him to say even a word. Now I am trying to teach him 1st grade with Aiden, and I am finding that I need help to know how to best help him. He is great with paper work - especially math. We will meet with a speech therapist in the next few weeks and pray for guidance. Have any of you helped a child that was non-verbal...any advice?
We arent' adopting right now ... I say that because many have wondered and asked...
And may be that is why I haven't blogged much these days.
We want to, if the LORD wills it, in the future. For now, we are shepherding the precious ones He has given us.
Once we bring home our 2 boys- shepherding is what we will be doing for our little ones too. It feel so right- I am thankful for those that we have brought home BUT know THEY need us NOW.
ReplyDeleteYou have perfectly described what God has called you to do for "now"!
I was wondering about your move and am thankful for now you will stay put ;-)until you hear more...
We have many with severe speech issue. We utilize our insurance and then pay extra for more session...
I think we will have to email each other regarding this issue- it's tough. At times I feel encouraged and then other time I don't... I just keep praying about it and giving it to God!
HUGS to you!
I love y'all and will be praying for Clive for sure!
ReplyDeleteAlways praying for your family and love reading updates! We too have a basically "non-verbal" child and although he communicates quite well with body language, grunts, points, and some sign language it is difficult to know what and how to help. We've had him evaluated but still waiting on the report....So my friend, I will just pray God's abundant grace and patient, strength and boundless love as you lean on Him and others as He so directs! Hugs!!
ReplyDeleteOur almost 8 year old is totally nonverbal, but has caught on to signing very quickly. Not sure why he doesn't speak - maybe just the autism, but he doesn't. Praying you have a great speech therapist that can shine a light in the right direction for your family.
ReplyDeleteSo, your first year homeschooling huh? lol just go with the flow and let life teach you. Willow caught a cricket this morning, she made me a "talking stick" and is now propelling into her artistic capabilities. yeah, science, history and art. ;) Can you tell we are eclectic?
ReplyDeleteSo, your first year homeschooling huh? lol just go with the flow and let life teach you. Willow caught a cricket this morning, she made me a "talking stick" and is now propelling into her artistic capabilities. yeah, science, history and art. ;) Can you tell we are eclectic?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I can't get over how much Clive and Noelani have grown. Praying for your boy!
ReplyDeleteHi Shonni,
ReplyDeleteI'm a frequent reader of your blog but have never commented. As a long-time public school Speech Pathologist, I'd like to recommend a stuttering specialist to you. Nina Reeves is located in north Texas but she does teleconferencing and consultation. She's one of the absolute best in the field of stuttering, having been recognized by the American Speech Language Hearing association for her work. As a personal friend of hers as well, I can tell you CALL HER!! Here is her website: http://www.ninareeves.com/index.html Best of luck to you and Clive!!
All of ours have speech issues, and two also stutter quite a bit, though not to the point of being non-verbal. We have speech therapy but have not addressed the stuttering because we have bigger issues. Our oldest daughter, whom we found through your blog! :-), is very difficult to understand. I think she has very low muscle tone in her mouth and have noticed at times that her tongue seems to fall more to one side than the other when she is talking, but I haven't ever been able to really confirm this. Her biggest issue seems to be that she talks too fast for her muscles to keep pace in forming different sounds. At any rate, we empathize with the speech struggles!
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