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Do You ALWAYS Know When
Your Child Has a Boo Boo?
I thought I did. We needed
the Toddler Talk Tool in 1980.
Amanda's Experience
When my middle daughter, Amanda, was a toddler
she had to have been in pain multiple times without being able to tell
anyone.
Since her condition started soon after birth, what would have been
pain or discomfort for someone else may have been normal for her. Or was
it?
She did fuss a lot
around eleven months of age; but I assumed she was either teething or
having issues with me helping to take care of other kids
There was one episode of what I would learn later was projectile vomiting,
around the age of twelve months. The only other symptom until after she
turned three was that she would always put the same leg out front when
running.
Amanda did not verbally
express any discomfort until she was three and a half years old when she
told me the sound from the running bath water hurt her ears. That was
about six months
after she had already been displaying very infrequent vomiting
spells that were repeatedly labeled as viruses by her pediatricians.
Unfortunately I made the mistake of seeing whichever doctor was available
at the time rather than seeing one doctor consistently. In addition, I was
very passive then. I did not have the medical knowledge or the confidence
to be assertive enough to get Amanda the testing she needed.
It took ten months to get a
proper diagnosis. One of the last incorrect findings from a different
doctor was that Amanda was vomiting to get attention (at the age of three
and a half - how infuriating!).
Finally two months
before she turned four, and while her baby sister was turning five weeks
old, Amanda was diagnosed with a
brain tumor that was nearly the size of what her brain should have
been.
Amanda was not expected to live past the age of 15. She has had
several near death episodes over her lifetime..
However, she is still alive at the age 28, after over 40 brain tumor related
surgeries, over 50 CAT scans, countless MRI's, and numerous non-surgical and surgical procedures and
countless hospital admissions. In
addition there have been years of intermittent pain, and numerous and
ongoing other complications.
One of those surgeries left
Amanda paralyzed. She had to have physical, occupational, and speech
therapy to again learn how to move and speak. While the Toddler Talk Tool
was initially created for nonverbal toddlers, there was also a time later
in her childhood when Amanda could have benefited from the communication
tool.
Quite a long time later Amanda developed a seizure disorder. She was literally a walking time bomb due to
the seizures. Usually twice a
day, everyday for three years she had seizures that put her life at risk.
Some days she would have four or more episodes until I figured out that
the red food dye #40 and a yellow food dye were causing extra seizure
episodes.
In addition, one of her generic seizure meds had red food dye in it as
well. The generic form caused extra seizures while the name brand seizure
drug did not. Eventually because of the consistent timing of the seizure
episodes following medication delivery, it finally occurred to me the
other meds were also causing her daily seizures. Once I started giving her
diphenhydramine with her meds, she quit having that type of seizure. A booklet could be written about that time
period alone. We are thankful Amanda
made it to live through that extremely challenging period as well.
Amanda is currently working on catching up on her education from when she
was passed on through school in special education classes. She was
withdrawn from school in the tenth grade after having had radiation.
The effects all of this had on my then marriage, the rest of the family,
teachers, classmates, doctors, nurses,
friends, total strangers, health and jobs are far too many to write about here.
While the majority of people listed were awesome in helping Amanda stay
alive, it was often obvious she touched their lives in a special way.
BUT, had Amanda been able to communicate with me the problems she was having at a much
earlier age, her life would have been a lot easier for her and all others
who were effected.
You might question if Amanda, or any other toddler, would have been smart
enough to use the Toddler Talk Tool. At twelve months of age, Amanda
happily potty trained herself so she could get the same praise her
two-year old sister was getting for her potty use.
As for other means of
communication, such as baby signing, there have been reports of babies as
young as five months old signing when they were hungry.
The Toddler Talk Tool is a lot
easier and instantly available to use than
using sign language. I do think learning sign language is valuable as
well.
Two Others?
As toddlers, two other family members would have greatly benefited from
the ability to share what was going on with them at the time as well.
However, I will not go
into further details regarding those two right now.
I will say, that the
youngest of these was the main spark for the inspired idea of the Toddler
Talk Tool twelve years ago.
Unresolved problems for the oldest child of the two have been a big
part of the drive that has kept me physically working on this project for
the past four years despite my inability to get adults to see what is
obvious to them, is not obvious to toddlers.
After having read about my family members' experiences, are you REALLY sure you know when
your child is physically, mentally, and
emotionally hurting?
We are
PASSIONATE to keep up the fight to help improve communication for toddlers!
Will you help us spread the word?
Our sincere thanks for sharing your time,
Deborah Kelso
and
Amanda Kelso
Pricing and Use
We purposely priced this valuable tool low enough
for everyone. Payment is through Paypal.com. .If you do not have a Paypal account. you can
pay through them using your debit or credit card.
While the tool was initially designed for nonverbal
toddlers
and babies,
it can be used by anyone who
is nonverbal.
The Toddler Talk Tool Printout
with Six Photos of
Daily Needs
One
Tool for One Dollar
If you are able, buy more than one copy to share with others.
You are welcome to save a copy of the
purchased
Toddler Talk Tool to your computer so you can print out
multiple copies for yourself.
Toddler Talk Tools
On Retail Products
The Toddler Talk
Tools are printed on multiple functional
products such as tee shirts,
mugs, bibs and more in our
specialty
store.
There are items for adults to use and wear to
help improve communication with toddlers.
Purchases of any
of our products helps
support the
development of more advanced
Toddler Talk Tools.
Toddler Talk Tool - Six Baby Signs
Upside Down - Tummy View
The tool is purposely printed UPSIDE DOWN in
order to be more easily read by the nonverbal wearer; works for toddlers, older kids
and adults; various styles available.
Toddler Talk Tool - Six Baby Signs
Right Side Up
Items worn by toddlers
through adults.
Also printed on mugs, stickers and lots more.
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