Jack's Speech Update

We visited the speech therapist yesterday for the first time (just an initial evaluation). She was great with him and helped me understand some issues that I hadn't related to his speech troubles before. Basically, he has a speech pattern called "H substitution" -- it's considered a unique (rare) impediment, but she assured me that every child she's ever worked with who has that particular problem has been able to fix it without too much difficulty. She asked me a series of questions about his eating preferences and habits, and I was amazed to realized that the reason he often spits out giant mouthfuls of food is because he has a weak tongue which makes it difficult to chew. It's simply not worth the effort to him to struggle through the chewing in order to get the food down. He's done this (and been a great frustration to me) since he was tiny -- and I could never figure out why. Now I know, and it's so wonderful to have a way to start to help the problem. So far they've just given me a few suggestions of ways to help him strengthen his tongue. Eating peanut butter is a good way, also licking ice cream, sticking out your tongue, and holding a smartie to the roof of your mouth. Weird (yet fun) huh? I'm very thankful for knowledge and for people who study these things. I know this therapy is really going to impact his little life for the better.