Speech Garden Camp

When Charlie broke his arm in June, I panicked because it was June...pool season....and he now had a cast for 6 weeks!  How would we fill our hot summer days?  I felt so bad for the little guy because he LOVES the pool and it's only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  Well, when God closes a door he opens a window.  I heard about this wonderful camp that focuses on science and nature while enhancing communication and language skills.  I'm not sure if I've blogged about it in the past but Charlie was diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech when he was 21 months old.  It's actually a speech-motor disorder where the words are all there in his brain but he lacks the oral/verbal motor function to get the words from the brain to his lips.  Prior to his camp, he was saying about 30 words (at 27 months).  Right after camp, we saw an explosion of language (I counted about 300 words in August of 2011).  So, needless to say, we love this camp and he will be going back this year!!!  Here is a picture of Charlie with his teachers, Miss Sarah, Miss Amanda, and Miss Kara.  He loved them and they loved him.  Repeatedly, they would pull me aside to tell me that Charlie was their favorite student.  They told me how he would help them clean up the tables after lunch and how he loved to dance. :)

Just a side note, as of April of 2012, I have long since stopped counting Charlie's words.  It was impossible to keep up with him.   Charlie is now speaking in 7 word sentences.  He can pretty much repeat everything you ask him.  We now enjoy all of the cute things he has to tell us and the sweet preschooler pronunciations of difficult words like yesterday he told us "I am strong as a diamond-sore (dinosaur)" and "sissy, stop wowwy-gagging (lolly-gagging)".  He can sing many songs all by himself, knows his ABCs, can count to 20, knows all shapes (including the obscure ones like a quatrefoil) and colors.  He has worked so hard and we are SO proud of our little champ who NEVER GIVES UP!  I can't wait to see what my little boy will do with all of the perseverance and strength God has given him.