Timeline

Over Thanksgiving I had a conversation with my mother about how Michael had started to catch up by the time he was Ava’s age. And as a contrast, Ava had plateaued. In fact, she was choosing to use more and more gestures rather than trying to use words to communicate. After that holiday it was going to be time to start making phone calls.

The week before Christmas Ava saw a private speech therapist for the first time and she agreed that Ava looked pretty apraxic. This was when the depression kicked in. I couldn’t hope that I was just an overly concerned speech pathologist mother any more. I spent a week crying most of the time that I wasn’t directly interacting with my kids. Then holiday preparations kicked in and I was too busy to obsess over it. Next, we visited family in another state for 4 days. If you’ve ever traveled 12 hours in a car with a 1 and 3 year old you’ll know that it’s pretty much all absorbing.

The week we got back was Ava’s early intervention evaluation. She qualified which was great, but also depressing. So I spent another week or so in non-productive mode. Then I started blogging, which helped. And researching, which also helped. Now I’m in full-on productive mode. Two modes actually. I’m being productive as a parent of a child newly diagnosed with a speech disorder. I’m also being productive as a speech-pathologist who has acquired a reason to become knowledgeable about a specific disorder in her field.