I’ve been super busy lately and haven’t had a chance to write my first post.

My name is Jackie, I’m married to my wonderful husband Jeff and we have 3 great kids together. Jeffery is 5, Jaylin, our only girl, is 4 and our baby is Jaxon he is 1. All 3 have a speech delay.

Let me start with my youngest, since he’s the easiest lol. Jaxon is 17months old and is getting speech services. He has 2 older siblings that “talk for him” and has yet to have a ear infection, he is so far *knock on wood* the only one without ear tubes. His therapist comes 2 times a month to see him, she’s not a speech therapist but a developmental therapist…since he’s also slightly delayed in gross motor as well (he’s not walking yet…he pulls up and cruises furniture, but no interest in walking by himself) It’s been going well. We’ve started with sign language just as we did with Jeffery. He’s so rotten, and he’s enjoying being the center of my attention while the older 2 are in school. He’s laid back and a thinker…I think that’s why he’s not talking yet…he thinks things through lol

Jaylin. Oh boy, she’s something else. Being the only girl she’s spoiled. She has us wrapped around her little finger andshe knows it. She has had a rough time with illnesses and such. She had RSV as a baby (luckily we caught it early enough she didn’t need to be hospitalized for it) and she had her first set of tubes after many many ear infections in July of 2008. She had a tonsillectomy (removal of tonsils and adenoids) in March 2009 (yes, I was very pregnant with Jaxon at this time lol) after multiple sinus infections. She started speech therapy when she started her first year of Head Start in September 2009 (she’s currently in her 2nd year of Head Start) We know (or assume) the cause of her delay is her always being sick and not hearing very well. She got her 2nd set of ear tubes this past Summer. She’s making a lot of strides with her speech and everyone is impressed with how fast she learns.

Jeffery. Oh boy. This could get long. Jeffery will be the one I blog about most here. First, he has a speech

delay. He got tubes in October 2006 as a “guess” to the reason for his delay…the boy has never had a ear infection but apparently had a little bit of fluid on one ear…but not enough to affect him too much. Started speech therapy a few months after that surgery and he progressed quickly. We started in home of course, weekly. We now can’t get him to shut up haha! He also has behavior problems which recently have come to a head. He’s been to 2 different behavior clinics, JMU (local university) and Kluge Children’s Rehabilitation which is a top notch facility (even though it’s an hourdrive for us) I was told the first time pretty much that I was crazy and he’s just a kid, Kluge said he’s a “normal kid with not so normal behavior problems” that tells me a lot right? Let me list here:

• He’s impulsive
• He gets angry over little stuff
• He is sensitive to some things (his blanket has to be on one certain side because it’s softer…I can’t tell the difference in the sides)
• He screams
• He hits
• He kicks (he almost put me in labor with Jaxon early when I was trying to discipline him)
• He now back talks
• He does the opposite of what you tell him
• He don’t care if he’s punished
• He laughs in your face when you are fussing at him (or punishing him)
• He rocks, when he’s standing he goes from side to side

I’m sure I’m forgetting something. We’ve tried all sorts of punishment:

• Talking about it
• Time Out
• Charts/Stones in Jar (the jar thing worked for about a month then he got bored with it)
• Taking toys/activities away
• Spanking (that was last resort)

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, we’ve had so many things suggested to us and we’ve tried them all. Today I got a call from his Special Education teacher that they don’t know what to do with him anymore, he is acting out there as well (he is in Kindergarten and he didn’t act out in Head Start) I’m going tomorrow to “volunteer” in his class and get reports from his teachers on everything so I can take it back to Kluge and see what they say.

So that’s it for my introduction. I blog about all of my kids (special needs stuff as well as day to day stuff), as well as reviews and giveaways over on my blog Monkey Mayhem