The Power of a Voice

Micah is talking to his dad on the phone.

For most 2 1/2 year olds, this isn't really a significant thing, but to for my little guy, it's HUGE.

In October of 2007, we had Micah evaluated for a speech delay. I knew something was wrong. Kids do all develop at different speeds and some kids just don't talk until later, but those kids rarely scream and cry for hours because they can't get their needs expressed.

The testing revealed that while Micah understood everything being said to him and was typical in his receptive language in play, he was like a 9mo in his expressive language. The theory is that is recurrent ear infections basically made him deaf for most of his life up to that point. In fact, 6 months after the evaluation, he had a surgery to get a second set of tubes and his adenoids removed. We immediately started my little guy in therapy and in addition to the speech delay, he was later diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder.

Fast forward to now, Micah's been in therapy for over a year and has been in a school program for language delayed toddlers since September. Micah can now tell me what he needs. He's making sentences. He's telling me he loves me. He's happy. He's joyous. He's SINGING!

And in the past couple of weeks, he's talking on the phone. Before he never even tried because nobody understood him. But now, he's confident in his ability to speak. Confident enough to talk on the phone where he knows that the only thing connecting him to the other person is his voice and they are understanding him.

Sometimes, in this crazy life I lead, I just love to celebrate the little things. And today, my son talk to his dad on the phone.