Episode 11: Finding River's Voice: A Journey Through Therapy

In this episode of 'Hear Me Out,' the official podcast of the Masonic Children's Clinic for Communication Disorders, hosts Niki Lampi and Tamara Pogin welcome Carolyn Garay, who shares her son River’s journey. Carolyn recounts her initial concerns about River's speech development, the support she received from the clinic, and the determination to pursue early intervention despite initial advice to wait. She describes the evaluations and therapies River underwent, including working with various specialists in audiology and speech pathology at the clinic. The podcast highlights the impact of the clinic’s supportive environment, personalized care, and the success of their non-profit mission to provide free services to children. Carolyn’s story concludes with River's progress and their plan to continue with private speech therapy as he transitions into pre-K.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to Hear Me Out, the official podcast of the Masonic Children's Clinic for Communication Disorders. This is the place where we dive into all things related to communication disorders and how we can best support the kids and families affected by them. We will be talking with speech language pathologists, clinic staff, families and donors to share stories, insights, and the impact of providing free speech, language and hearing services to children across our community. I'm Niki Lampi speech language pathologist and director of the clinic, And I'm Tamara Pogin, also a speech language pathologist with a focus on working with autistic children and their families. And we are your hosts. We're so glad you're here. Hello. Welcome. Today we have Carolyn, Garay, and her son River attended the Masonic Children's Clinic, and just recently graduated. We did just in May. And so you have had a long experience with the clinic. Tell me how did you hear about the clinic and why did you seek us out? Yeah, so when River turned right about one years old, I started bringing up concerns to his primary about his speech. And it was a lot of just wait. We're gonna wait it out, wait it out, and. A few months had gone by and we did a recheck up and he's like, oh, I just wanna keep on waiting. And as mom, I didn't wanna wait any longer. So I asked about some options and he had kind of passed on Masonic and said it in a passing conversation. And I have an aunt that is an SLP in Superior and she had done, I think it was like, kind of like an internship or something at Masonic. So I knew I could self-refer. Mm-hmm. So I called here and. Got in for an eval for him, and that happened within like the, a few weeks of being called with the first opening and. So we did that and got on the waiting list. So your mom instincts were going off, and even though he, you felt like yet everybody's saying he's young, you were thinking, he's not matching my other child. He's, he's not. Where you hoping to be? was he showing frustration at that point or he wasn't showing frustration? There just was a lack of like, even like any verbal sounds and he started most all. Actually all development had been right on track. And there was one other thing that was like, hmm, like it took him a long time to laugh. Like I had to work at it for months to get that boy to laugh. And then it was like the verbal communication at 1-year-old, he still wasn't doing a whole lot. And I He wasn't even vocalizing a lot, right? No, he wasn't. And I had done sign language. He has an older brother that is about 24 months older than him. Wait, no, that's not right. Yeah, it's 24 months older. So he, um, I had done some sign language with him for basic stuff, and so River was doing some of those things, but not much for like, even verbal sounds as far as like grunts, COOs. There wasn't much of that. And I, you know, just wasn't, I didn't have peace with it. Mm-hmm. So I started bringing it up and they just wanted to keep County and I was like, I would prefer early. Intervention or prevention versus reaction. Mm-hmm. And try to, get in there sooner to see if we can address anything. So Masonic was your first call? Yep. And then, so then you were evaluated and said, yeah, there's a need. And so River went on the waiting list. Yep. How long did you have to hang out on the waiting list? So I think we ended up being on the waiting list for about six months. Mm-hmm. And he did his eval with Natalie, who was here at the time. Mm-hmm. And she had mentioned like in the. Interim while you're waiting, you could look at the, we're in Douglas Coney, so over in Wisconsin. The birth to three program over there. I forget what it's called in Minnesota. But, so I called them as well and did an eval with them and we worked with the birth to three program until we could get into Masonic and I wanna say it was right about six to seven months. Okay. So when we first got on the waiting list, we were told a year, and we just. Got lucky and got in sooner. Yeah, that's the interesting thing about the Masonic Children's clinic waiting list. We strive to always, keep it short or to get people in as soon as possible, but, there's more need than therapists. There is. And so that's why it was so wonderful in the last year and a half when, river already had a therapist, but, to be able to hire a new full-time person. Yeah. Because you know when your waiting list is, when you have to tell parents a year, you're like, okay, but that's a whole year of development that could potentially be missed. Right. So I'm really glad that you found. Another, uh, Minnesota, they call it Help me grow. Yes. That you found birth to three, so that you could see that there's a professional kind of like watching and kind of like coaching you and then to get our services too. That's, that was, that's a blessing. Yeah. And then even in the, in between, what we're on the waiting list for, to get in with the SLP here. We were still able to get a hearing test done. Yes. And use some of those resources that kind of helped start checking off some of those boxes. Like is it a hearing thing Versus trying to get it in through, his primary provider or whatever it may be. Yeah. And our audiologist here at the time, especially, um, they know kids, the pediatric, and, uh, that's. Yeah, they have that nice low pressure kind of environment so that they could like play to play audiometry. Mm-hmm. And I'm sure that was a big deal for him too, because he was little and Yeah. You know, it might not have been, might not been in a place where he could fully follow all those directions yet. Exactly. Yeah. And it was super helpful. And we ended up, I think in our time here at Masonic, we did four or five. Audiology, like in the booth tests. And then there were several times that, at a point in his journey he was having frequent ear infections. Mm. And it was like, so they had to do the follow up to see if the fluid was gone. Yeah. And if we didn't wanna, I ended up buying a home auto scope where I could look at home. But even coming in here for a speech visit, they're like, do you want us to check quick, quick? There's always that if they're in office, 'cause you know they're not always in, but if they're in, do you want us to check quick instead of trying to bring 'em into your primary where they're more comfortable here 'cause they're here, you know, twice a week or whatever it may be. Mm-hmm. So that was always super nice too, that, we could do a quick check here if we needed to. Mm-hmm. And River. And you really saw a couple different therapists, but also took a couple different acks to communication. We did. So, uh, he started here with, um, with therapy. With Nancy. Nancy, yep. Mm-hmm. So we were with Nancy. He started with Nancy just after he turned two years old and then that summer, he would've been about two and a half is when we started having those frequent ear infections he was having once a month. And then it got to that point where traditional antibiotics weren't working, so we had to do the higher dosage and we ended up doing tubes after six months of ear infections. And, he just continued to work with Nancy during all that. And we had chose to stop with birth to three at that time. But that's one of the bonuses of working with Masonic is because there isn't insurance involved. We could have been doing birth to three at the same time because only one of 'em works with insurance. So birth to three would submit through insurance, but Masonic doesn't. Mm-hmm. So we could have been getting services up to three. You know, three, four times a week if that's Yeah. What we had chosen. And of course, um, that's also the same thing with audiology too. Mm-hmm. Where it was nice where you could, especially when it's, I need to do a quick check to see if there's fluid behind the middle ear, to have to go in and make a doctor's appointment and then pay the copay for a quick little check. I mean, you would do it if you needed to, but it was nice that you had some options. Yeah. And I had good rapport with his primary too, where I could be like, okay, like I saw this, this happened again, or I. You know, we just had audiology at Masonic. Check there's fluid. Can you put in their prescription? They'd be like, yep, for sure. Like if they saw it, we're good to go. Oh, that's great. So that was always super helpful. So yeah, we saw Nancy, we did all the ear infections. We did tubes. And still up until that point he hadn't had a much communication. He would start doing some sounds. He was gesturing, he was using sign language. Mm-hmm. and that was like our really main foreman. You know, thankfully I'm at home with him. I'm a stay at home mom, so he was with me all the time. So I knew all of his cues and mm-hmm. You know, by his looks. So that was a blessing for us to, there wasn't somebody else trying to do it for him. And, uh, we continued with Nancy and we were kind of. You know, starting to get uneasy 'cause we hadn't had a huge progress. Mm-hmm. And I was so thankful for Nancy 'cause I could talk through it with her. I was, you know, try this at home, try that at home. Like, you're not doing anything wrong. You're doing everything right. Like, always that cheerleader in our corner. Mm-hmm. I had ended up taking him to another facility for some other testing, so like. We did another hearing test down there and they confirmed, yep, everything was good. Just like Masonic had here. We met with a neurologist and they're like, yep, nothing neurology, on our field that we can see. And we met with the speech department and the speech department there. By that time he had been about five hours into, doctor meetings and sitting in a clinic waiting and he was kind of a little bit more disconnected and they were like, well, we don't really. We're not ready to look at speech yet. We wanna have a behavioral and like a full developmental test done. And that just made me really uncomfortable. And so I came back to Masonic and that's where Nancy's like, we can do that stuff here. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And that's when you saw me. Yeah. And Nancy's like, I don't see it being a thing, but let's do it. Then we can get that conversation either on the table or off the table either way. And that's when we met with you for the, um, autism. The autism testing, autism spectrum Autism. Yep. And so I don't do the full autism. Testing or evaluation because I'm not a psychologist, but I do, several tests that are like standardized tests. Mm-hmm. And then also some informal tests that was gonna lead us to. Of the conclusion of this should be pursued further, like further testing or, no, his needs are more in the communication realm, and that's really what we saw. Right? Because he was doing lots of great socialization. He was looking at people, he was using gestures, he was, playing and lots of different ways, not just like one regimented way. So we felt pretty comfortable to continue on a different way, like Right, looking for another. Avenue to help him make that progress that you were waiting for. Yeah. Like we could close that conversation and keep looking at what else do we need to be looking at? Like we could, that was like one of the, hearing. And then that was the next one we kind of had to look at. And then we also saw, Jillian here to work with, an a c device. And just to remind everyone, A, a c is alternative augmentative communication. So it's, Using typically anything that helps another child talk with a different mode. So you were looking at, a tablet that had words on it for him to use? Yep. We had looked at even just like the small non-digital, 'cause I was really like on the fence about it. Like not really sure how it help him, it would fit into our lives and all the things. So I think it was like a go talk 20. Yeah. It was the. Talker, man. I can't think of what the brand of it was. Well, so anyway, it's like a mid tech device where you have to physically record each button to say what he could possibly say. Yes. But then he could then access it whenever he wanted to. Exactly. And then you would put in different sheets if, you know, were in the car, if you were at home, the things that would fit that day. And so, uh, in the end we ended up going with the iPad talker. Mm-hmm. And we used it for a short period of time, but just found that it wasn't. It almost frustrated him personally more trying to find the right button. And he did a lot of the babbling as mm-hmm. You would call it, where he's, you know, figuring it out, looking at it out, figuring out the buttons and what each one says. And also about that time, Nancy and I started having conversations on what's gonna be the best fit. Like we had about seven months left here at Masonic. Mm-hmm. We hadn't had any huge. developmental progress, we are still working on the same things. Um, and she had started bringing up conversations about going another with another speech therapist. 'cause um, even back birth to three, so, you know, reverse a year and a half. That speech therapist within one of the first few sessions had said, well. I kind of wonder if it couldn't be childhood apraxia speech. Mm-hmm. Which is a motor speech disorder. Yeah. where a child has a great, receptive language usually, but they're expressive language. There's a disconnect between what they want to say and getting it out. There's no musculature problems, but there's that, that pathway Motor planning. Yeah. Yes. Okay. And so they saw some signs, but he didn't have enough language to test for it. Yeah. 'cause he wasn't making, any even like sound gestures or anything like that, that we could mm-hmm. Even begin an evaluation on. Yeah. That, and so then you and Nancy were thinking, how do we pursue that? And so that's when they brought in Sorina. And so we started talking about whether we make the switch or even do halftime. And eventually I made like, yep. I think. Maybe now's the time. I said, even if it isn't childhood apraxia speech, like maybe just a change in SLP because maybe he's just, he loved Nancy. Like maybe he's just like a little too comfortable where it's not pushing him out. 'cause he would be like, yeah, no, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna talk for you today. Nancy thinks so. Like he just was so comfortable with her and so. We ended up making the decision to switch. And when I say I cried, I mean I cried his last session with Nancy. I was just so sad 'cause she had been such a cheerleader for him, for me, supporting us through all of the, you know. Which way next and was just such a nonjudgmental, talk through your options. What's gonna fit River best and what's gonna fit mom and dad best? It was just like such a hard decision. Mm-hmm. But we did it and we started with Sorena and it was. One of those, another blessings within Masonic is, it was right about summertime, so there was the field trips. Mm-hmm. So there was a few times that River got to see Sorina s and Sorina together at the field trip and like kind of get to talk to her a few times before he started, with her in her room. And that was just like, I think it helped make that transition even easier for him. So we started with Sorina and jumped right into working on some of those evals. To see if it was officially could be diagnosed. Childhood apraxia of speech. So Sorina has a protocol that she goes through and it's like, so she has like several assessments and then, looking at what he can do. Yeah. And so that was probably the first few sessions, right? it actually took us about a month and a half to get through all of 'em. Mm-hmm. Um, 'cause there was that little bit of a period of. Just getting used to Sorina versus Nancy and some of that different, approaches. Mm-hmm. So yeah, it took us about a month and a half to get through 'em and we were able to confirm Yep, childhood had apraxia of speech, and then we could start working on some of those DTTC type methods. he didn't quite have the attention span to. Do true DTTC. but we were able to start with some of those and pick our five type target words that we were gonna start working on. And I'm not sure if it was he just hit that tipping point, or if it was because we started that, different type of therapy or the combination of everything above. But that is when all of a sudden he started talking. And we would keep adding words and he would have a, a target word that we were working on in session. And he might not be super cooperative with Sorina. Like there were some days that he would not say a single word for her. Like he was just so stubborn and spicy. I have no idea where he would've gotten that from. But then we would get home or even driving home, 'cause we have about a 45 minute drive. Mm-hmm. And he would. Use the word on the way home. So it was going in and he was attending to her facial. Mm-hmm. You know, cues, because that's the thing about DTTC is like the idea of they need to be able to see how the everything's being made, how the articulators are moving together, and then she cues in different ways. Yeah. And so sometimes maybe it, you could say like. You could say baby, and he can say baby. Mm-hmm. But then she's like, now say baby. Just to kind of get some, shaking it out a little bit. Like, you know, all those different prosody Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Using different prosody and stuff, and so he was keeping it in there and trying it. That's really cool. Yeah. So there would be different times like that, or, you know, he'd get one word. So, so he'd master one, but then still kind of working on the other? Yeah. Like for the longest time, no, was always Mo with an M. Mm-hmm. So we started putting in new, and after he got new, then sometimes he would get no. And even up until when we finished in May and graduated, he was still, he would get no correctly. When she was, trying to target it, but at home or like in spontaneous production, it was Mo and you'd look at him and like, Hmm. And so I would, do it at home. And about three weeks ago, all of a sudden I, I realized he wasn't saying MO anymore. And it's just no all the time. Which sometimes you're like, you're not gonna tell me no 'cause you're, being a spicy little toddler. But it's also just like the best. No, you've ever heard in your entire life, right? Because there, there's such a journey behind it that you're like, oh yeah. Or like as he's screaming mama across the room and you're like, would you give me a second? But also, man, am I so thankful that you are screaming mom at me right now? Right. 'cause that was a time where he couldn't do that. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's just been like those little, that's amazing things, along the way that mm-hmm. Um. You know, and that was something that my family personally struggled with because we, do, we are Christians and we like have a strong belief and like, you know, can this be something that just can be, you know, miraculously healed or does is God putting people in our path mm-hmm. To help us? And that has always been my thing is like. This has been a blessing to us that like Nancy, Sorina, you, Jillian, the audiologists like, have just been these like tiny little nuggets of gold of reassurance and helping, like, encourage us and you know how his, he's been able to have such a strong voice even before he actually had. A voice. Mm-hmm. And how we like, were strengthened to have a voice for him while we were waiting for his voice to show up. And it's just like, right. All the strategies that you were taught beforehand. Mm-hmm. how to follow his lead and accept what he's giving you and how that built on. Finally getting to right. Those words. That's exciting. so what are you guys doing now that he's graduated and are you seeking out other services or you said, you mentioned on the, in the elevator. his, he's going to pre-K He is, so he's gonna be going into pre-K. And, we had the option that, you know, we could have done speech through his school district. Mm-hmm. Um, but that wasn't gonna be a fit. For us with the school district that we're in and the, we are a homeschool family, so it just wasn't a good, wasn't a fit that was gonna work, I guess is a way to put it. So we were looking at some other options and, I had looked at the child, um, the apraxia kids website at other speech pathologists in the area that are, and we are in Soland Springs, Wisconsin. So we're kind of a ways from everything. So there was limited. As far as like, we would either be driving to Ashland and Rice Lake and we were looking at some of those things and shortly after we started working with Miss Sorina, I was like, so, uh, we're gonna be done here soon. Are, are you sure you don't wanna. Like continue, like can we just hire on the side? And so that's eventually she's, does this private speech option outside of Masonic. Yeah. She has an LLC called Speech sprouts. Yeah, speech sprouts. So we are gonna be working with Sorina doing it that way. And that's another one of those things that has just been, it was just this thing that happened that you're like, though it lined up and you got to go at all at the same time. And then, he already has that good rapport and comfort with her, where we would've been starting over somewhere else and On that kind of delay for a few months, building up that comfort. 'cause with that DTTC, you're so close in their bubble Yep. Face to face. And some of those you're, trying to touch the face to mm-hmm. Produce certain sounds and things like that. And Sorina was so patient with him and he was patient with her to the. Now they're at the point that they can do some of those tactile cues. Mm. So that is what we're doing is working with her. and so you just recently started that? Yeah. Actually we're scheduled to start this week. That's right. Because Sorina, shout out to Sorina. She got her Wisconsin license. Yes. Yes. So she has a license to practice speech language therapy in Minnesota. And then she just recently got that license in Wisconsin because Duluth and. Superior, they're kissing and so you're in Wisconsin, so it's nice that she can offer that to Wisconsin families as well. Yeah, so we were gonna drive to Minnesota in the meantime, but if you're from the D Superior area, you know how wonderful the bridge and construction is. It's just one of those things that I was like, oh, I might wait a little bit until she got to Wisconsin and she did. So we're gonna start with her over in Wisconsin and get to work with her, once a week and, mm-hmm. And continue his journey. Yeah. Which that's exciting. I think he's gonna be excited about too. 'cause even, we told him I was coming here today and he started crying 'cause he wanted to come see, he didn't get to come. Yes. Oh. Because even towards the end of our time here at Masonic, we'd pull into the parking lot and he'd go, yay, miss Rena's house. Oh, how fun. So that, it's just one of those little things that, he built up that comfort for and would love to come here and see her. And then of course, the waiting room. Mm-hmm. All the toys and the how, the things, all the, the toys. We how the, the two care workers, Emily and Andrea change things out to keep it interesting. Yes. But also are just there and available to play. If Sorina had to talk with you about something, go over a treatment plan, he got to play for a little bit longer than Yes. In the room. And he was never, never sad about that. No. And there was even, I think at least two days for sure, one that we ended up doing. Uh, his session in the waiting room. Oh. 'cause it just, what worked better? Yeah. 'cause he was just like, no, I'm not leaving here. So there's too much cool stuff. There's too much cool stuff. When we were at a time, there wasn't many in the waiting room. It was just us. So, that was always one of those things that, that, like you said, the rotation of toys out there that, you know, in the, in the rooms. The different themes every two or three weeks rotation and that kept their attention and everything. Like, and River did get to join. in the summer therapy we do the story times so that he had access to peers other than just his brother. And so figuring out like, oh yeah, this, this other child will wait for you to try your words to say go or to say next or whatever. And yeah. And he did that really well too. Yeah. And then, there's the field trips. There's the garden outside, like in the summer, getting to go for a little break out there and do the big bubbles or the water table or, yep. That is coming up. All the things, it was always one of his favorite things out there too. So being able to do those things or, the days, my mother-in-law would always watch Big Brother, but some days, it just didn't align. And being able to just bring him with, and he could play with Andrea or Emily or, whoever was available that day while. River did speech, and that was one of those things that where there could have been animosity built up because River got all this one-on-one time and all this special playtime at this really fun place that it eliminated that a little bit for brother too, because he could sometimes come and see what it was all about. Mm-hmm. Like, oh, this is kind of cool, but I also get to stay with grandma sometimes. Exactly. Yeah. So that was always one of those things too that kind of helped. Mm-hmm. eliminate some of that for them, especially two boys. Close in age. Yeah. Yeah. Two, two boys close in age. Yes. And is there anything that, like theme wise, or especially as you're getting into homeschooling, that you're like, oh, I'm gonna plant peas in the cup, or, like what Sorina did or, I loved when Sorina put the, the, pced in a bag of dirt and then taped the bag up onto the window. Window. Yep. Yeah. Did, did. We didn't do that one. Oh, we didn't see that one. We did see it. Yeah. I think we were still with Nancy then. Oh, okay. So we did the cup. Mm-hmm. Which is growing in our garden now and then, yeah, there were some of those things that, and there was toys that were here that we ended up buying or, or like are always on hunt that too big of hits for like that. The treasure chest with the doors. The treasure chest game. Yeah. Called caribou. Yes. Yes. That one is all I'm, every garage sale. I'm on the hunt for that thing. Yeah. They don't make it anymore. And it has become a speech language pathologist. Holy grail for sure. Because there's so much you can do with it because the balls are hidden under these doors and it, they roll around so you don't know where they are. And so then use the special key to open the doors and like, is there a ball? Mm-hmm. And a lot of times we put like different target words. Or vocabulary on the, on the outside of the door so that you can be like, oh, let's open garbage truck. Or let's open dump truck. And then you see if there's a ball and then it's a, it's a collaborative game. Yeah. Yeah. He loved that. He did. That was one of his favorites, especially with Nancy. And we did a few times with Sorina, but he would just be so funny in those rooms and you know, he had certain things that he would do with certain SLPs that. He's like, I know you have this game. I know you have this game where we like would pretend to take naps in Miss Nancy's room to play like some different noise games and different things like that. And, and it was just of funny how some of those things would then cross over into home. Like for a while, that sleep game he would do with Nancy would cross over into home. And, more recently with Miss Rena, he would look at me and like hold my face. And say, watch my mouth and try to get me to copy what he was saying. So he's like playing speech a little bit uhhuh, like he was the teacher now and I had to copy what he was saying or two different proess on. Mm-hmm. different words and doing things and you're like, Hey, it's practice. I don't mind, like this is easy. Like let's just keep doing this. And so it was just those things that like you would get to see it how it. he went from Miss Sorina teaching him to then, now he's using that to teach me and it's just developing that stronger connection even more for him. So those were cool little things that would happen and I mean, still happen. Mm-hmm. He yells at me all the time to watch his mouth or hear me talk. Ah. So those are some cool things that That is really neat. He wants to hear me talk Mom. Yep. And then, some other things that like have happened for us along the way that have helped him is like we talked about the augmentative communication. And there was a time about a year ago, 'cause he still wasn't talking, that he would just walk away and you wouldn't know where he went. He would give up, not quite give up. He would like one morning, like he just walked out of the house and we live in the country and he walked next door to where his grandma and grandpa are building a house. And it, Scared me 'cause he just walked out and we're mis We told Nancy about it and she created a sign for us to hang on all the doors where it said, stop. And then had a picture of mom and the thing that he could come take me to tell me he wanted to go outside where, I wouldn't have thought to make something like that. And you know where Nancy went above and beyond to take that time to create that thing and laminate 'em all with the Velcro sign on so he could come tell us that. he wanted to go outside mm-hmm. Instead of just walking out. 'cause three, four years old, they're starting to get all that independence. Yep. And yeah. So to a way to honor his autonomy, but also keep him safe to be able to inform you I'm on my way out. Exactly. I wanna go out instead of quietly just walking off. Mm-hmm. And doing his own thing. So those were, all those little things for us over the last, two and a half years. About, yeah. That have made such a huge impact or such a huge difference in, well, we're so glad that you found us and that you had that word of mouth kind of referral. I think that's what I'm assuming. Like you, you knew about us from your aunt pretty much, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so we do rely on that a lot is the word of mouth, but also some doctors, you did say the doctor did mention it in passing, We are a clinic with a small town feel we wanna look at the whole child and do what's needed since we don't have to bill insurance and do those special things like what Nancy did for the, visuals and trying things out. And also just to be able to take advantage of everybody's specialty. I mean, you did while you were here. It's like you audiology and Nancy and Sorina and myself, we were all like, we had different. Specialties, but that they still fed into what river needed. Yeah. It's that whole team approach. Mm-hmm. That, makes it work and then just makes him. Even before he had his true, verbal voice, he had one because like he always had a say and he always felt special. 'cause there's little things like getting to bring a book home every once in a while. Yeah. Or on his birthday coming and then there being a crown ready for him and like a little something from his SLP or there's just those little things that are just, Help him feel loved and welcomed and like, yep, I have a voice, I have a part here. Mm. And getting to do all those, fun things or, going, like last year we went to the Huskies game Yep. With Masonic and like getting there and getting to dance on the bleachers and see all these people that he, either other kids that he sees in the waiting room and the other SLPs. And getting to see all that outside of the clinic too, I think was always such a really great thing. That, I have a voice everywhere, not just in that room. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's, that's true. Where it's, where, how do we bring it? That's one of the reasons why we do the field trips and why we do the story times it is, is to bring it into a different context instead of just the, the therapy room with one therapist. Yeah. Yeah. And we even got to see that just in the waiting room, waiting for, Either Nancy or Sorina to be ready. 'cause he would always just sit in my lap. He wouldn't look at anyone. He would just sit in my lap and wait no matter how long it was. And as even in just the last seven months, he would get off my lap and go to the end of the bench. And then the next time he would go over and he'd start playing with something. And even like Sorina would come out and like, was he just all the way across the room from you playing? And then. If another person come in, he might run back and then eventually it was, he was playing with the other kids out there while he was waiting. Oh. And so that, it's his safe spot. It ca became his safe space to venture and to like trial some of those things. That's really neat. Yeah. So he started to feel safe and then he started to feel confident. Right. Exactly. That's exciting. Yeah. Oh, awesome. That wraps up this episode of Hear Me Out. Thanks so much for listening. Be sure to subscribe, share the podcast with others, and join us next time as we continue learning from the professionals, parents and donors who make this work possible and celebrate the amazing kids we serve. To learn more about the Masonic Children's Clinic or to support our mission of providing free speech, language and hearing services, visit our website and consider making a donation. Every gift helps us give children the voice they deserve. Visit us at masonic children's clinic.org.