Severe Speech Delays: Chelsea's Story Part 1

I sat down to write about one thing this morning and instead it's evolved into the story of my beautiful nine year old daughter and our journey over the years with her severe speech delay. I'm going to have to do it in a few posts because thinking of it all at once overwhelms me.

Chelsea was born at our local hospital, no major issues or complications. I wanted to breastfeed so we began trying and got some help from the nurses. We finally realized that my little girl had difficulty sucking on a bottle. After being told that nursing would be near impossible with her, (yes I know first time mom who listens to the nurses) I gave up the idea and stuck with bottle feeding. We also noticed a few other things that made us suspicious of her having the same issue her daddy had.

picture from the hospital

Time goes on and she starts saying Mama but not really babbling like most babies do. Eventually when she did start trying to say other things it was nothing but vowel sounds. Around two years old we took her to an early intervention specialist who taught us to use signing with her. All the while we are being told that her speech issue isn't anatomical and it will eventually come along.



By the time she was three years old though, Chelsea had realized that nobody else could understand her (other than mom and dad). She stopped speaking at church, school and even with extended family.Kids would approach her at the park and ask her name and she would just come back to me instead of going and playing with a new friend. I would look at other kids her age and hear all the stories they told their friends and parents and I felt like I was missing so much. I knew my little girl had so much she wanted to tell me but she just couldn't.

So there's the beginning of our journey. I'm in tears as I sit here finishing this. I will share more of our journey soon.  If you have a little one with a speech delay I pray that through this story you will find hope and encouragement!