Intro...meet Payton!

I am the mom of a brilliant, smart and wonderful six year old little girl named Payton. Much of the rest of the world doesn't know what a smart little girl I have because they haven't heard this beautiful little voice! Payton is a Selective Mute and I created this blog to document our journey and to find other moms with these speacial kids!

We always knew Payton was shy but assumed it was that "stranger anxiety" many little kids went through. She would shrink back when strangers would come up and run their fingers through her beautiful red curls (I swear that red hair is a magnet for people wanting to touch it!) Payton was an early talker and had a very extensive vocabulary even at a very early age. I only worked part-time so when I worked a shift that she needed babysat my mom would watch her. She talked constantly at home and at grandmas so we didn't expect such a dramatic difference when she started school!

Payton started preschool right after she turned three. The first week a lot of the kids missed mom and were shy to the new experience. Payton wouldn't eat snack, color her pictures and she wouldn't talk to her classmates or teachers. When a month went by and then two we started thinking something was up. At her end of the year review with her teacher she brought up the term "selective mute." Payton started back into the 4's class in the fall with a wonderful, supportive teacher. She didnt put a lot of pressure on Payton and Payton started communicating through hand signals. She started feeling more open at school and started eating snack, playing instruments in music class and coloring. She went back last fall to pre-K with the same teacher and made even more advances. There was only five kids in her class that year and one other girl so they became good friends and Payton even talked to her by the end of the year!

Now to present...
Payton started Kindergarten about two weeks ago at a different school. I went in ahead of time and told the teacher that we believed Payton was a Selective Mute and she went three years in preschool without talking to her teacher. Payton is struggling, wanting to talk to her teacher and making new friends but we could tell it mades her extremely nervous. Payton is known in new situations to not make eye contact, move akward, put her head down etc and her teacher approached me on Friday asking me if she "was just stubborn" and telling me she HAD to talk by Monday because they were doing testing and Payton failed the verbal part. My husband and I have decided it time to get Payton help. The preschool was wonderful in working with her but the Public school is putting pressure on her which is only making things worse! We have talked to her pediatrician already and she agrees we need to see a speacialist so we are waiting to hear back for our referal. I've created this blog to record our journey with over very speacial daughter, to meet other parents going through the same thing and to help other parents who will go through this after us!

More to come! Time to get Payton from school....