Payton!

For those that don't know Payton has been diagnosed as speech delay. His speech level is that of a 15 month old. He has been seeing a speech therapist every week and will be starting half day of school in April so he can continue to get the help he needs. If you have never had a child that can not tell you what he wants let me explain that it is the worse feeling as a parent. A typical time usually starts with Payton trying to tell us or show us what he wants, needs or desires but we can not understand so then he gets very frustrated and throws a fit and then in turn we as parents get very frustrated also. I know that both Jeff and I feel lost sometimes and feel like a failure as a parent because we are unable to understand what our child needs. I know there are other parents out that feel that way and there are also the parents out there that have no idea what it feels like and judge us because of how we do things. When you have a child with a delay or a special need you have to think different and you have to discipline different. Please do not judge us if you don't know what we are going through. Just be supportive. Be there if we need to cry or just listen if we need to talk out our frustrations. Please do not try to tell us how to do things because believe me we have tried. We have asked a million questions and I know we will have another million to ask. Payton is a sweet child and loves to have people pay attention to him. We know you can't understand what he says but if he decides to talk please listen and give him a chance to be him.