Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Do-over

As a parent, do you ever want the opportunity to take five minutes and do them again in a completely different way? We were at the store. Ava didn’t want to ride and so she and I were walking behind Daddy who was pushing the cart. We’d been there a while and so the adults were ready to finish up and leave. We’d lost sight of Daddy because he’d turned a corner and we hadn’t. All of a sudden I was tugged to a stop. Ava had caught sight of a little white jewelry box on an end-cap. It was placed right at her height and was the type with lots of little doors and drawers. She was already trying to open a door.

I glanced down long enough to see what was holding us up. What I said to her was, “Don’t touch, baby! Come on. Hurry up. We need to find Daddy.” Then I just pulled her along. At the time, I didn’t give it any more thought than that.

However, after my own lights out, as I was lying in bed thinking back over the day I found myself dwelling on that moment. I wish I had knelt down and helped her open every door and drawer on that jewelry box. It only would have taken a few minutes. She’d have loved it. We could have used the words, “Wow!” and “open” at least 10 times each.

As I thought back over it, I did the mommy guilt thing for at least 15 minutes and then decided to file the experience away as a lesson learned. I will try harder to remember that this is her life too and she doesn’t want to be rushed through it. I will try harder to remember that even a few minutes of our time makes a huge difference to her and her memory of any given outing. Next time, I don’t want to be lying in bed wishing for a do-over.

5 comments:

  1. I just found your blog. My son has a "non official" diagnosis of apraxia. I trust his SLP and she is treating him as if he has an official diagnosis. I thank you for your blog because it is comforting to read about another mom and child going through what we are. I will keep signing in.

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  2. Welcome, and thank you. How old is your son, and how long has he been receiving services? I'm so glad you've found an SLP you trust. That's truly a gift. Good luck and thanks for reading. It makes me feel less alone too.

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  3. My son is 3. He was adpoted at 19 months. He has been receiving services for over a year, but for just a few months for Apraxia. Slow steady progress. He just started a speech communications preschool with our school district, but I am questioning if they have the skills to work with him. We are still using private SLP and will continue.

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  4. Interesting. Did you notice that he seemed to make faster progress after services switched over to treating him for apraxia?

    Congratulations on starting the preschool. Even if they don't know a lot about apraxia specifically (definitely continue with your private SLP) it should be good for him to be around his peers. They should also be good at structuring the preschool routine to maximize opportunities for speech and language. I can't think that it would hurt. Good luck with it.

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  5. Yes definitely, but there were a few other factors, an unrepaired cleft palate, eating issues and lots of mouth gaurding so it took a long time for him to allow the SLP and us to touch his mouth. Our first SLP we loved, but she never mentioned there might be more than a delay. She moved and we switched over, gave the history and the new SLP said... has anyone mentioned the possibility of a motor processing disorder. Huh!!!

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