Here I was sitting in the doctor office, the doctor requested to see me in his office.

"Hello ma'am", he greeted me while taking off his coat. I nodded and slumped down on my seat.

"The reason I called you here was because of your son's health" my heart spiked.

"What's wrong" my voice croaked.

"Well, thank God. A good Samaritan donated his blood,luckily it matched your son's own" he smiled lightly while I grinned widely in return.

Allhamdulilai!,my son was alive.

"When is he going home" I asked excitedly, I couldn't contained the immense joy I was feeling.

"He will be discharge soon but we need to carry out some test because he might be having some internal injuries" he said while I sighed.

"When will that be" I asked anxiously.

"Today,when he regain consciousness" he replied shortly then continued,"he will be having CT (computerized tomography); a test performed for any traumatic brain injury. It's a scan with series of x-ray to detailed the view of the brain or quickly visualizing fractures and uncover evidences of bleeding in the brain" he said.

I waited outside while the nurse wheeled my son out of the ICU to another room - I guessed the test room.

I was called back to the room with my boy unconscious on the bed.

"When some get accident like your son, sometimes, some has external injuries like;fracture of the leg or hand while some has internal injuries like; hearing loss, memory loss, speech disorder - and that's dangerous" he looked at me warily while I nodded my head for him to continue.

"Ma'am, please can I ask you something" he asked skeptically.

"Yeah" I replied softly while hugging myself.

"Do you have any idea on speech disorder?" He asked, jolting something down on his clipboard.

"No" I replied softly

What has happened to abdullahi?

I hope he...

"Ma'am!!" I jerked away from my thought while the doctor shot me a disapproving look, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Sorry" I smiled sheepishly, slumped on my seat wishing to evaporate.

"Speech disorder have three different levels of classification when determining the types and the proper treatment or therapy,1) sound the patient can produce; phonetic or phonemic. 2) stimulate sound; easily stimulated or stimulated after demonstration. 3) cannot produce the sound; cannot be produced voluntarily or no production ever observed" he said looking at me while adjusting his glasses.

"There are different types of speech disorder - Apraxia of speech; may result from stroke or progressive illness, and involves inconsistency production of speech sound and rearranging the sound in words. Example in a case of a person wanting to say; potato not it may comes out topota or tatopo. Production of words becomes more difficult with effort, but common phrases may be spoken spontaneously without effort." I gawked at him.

I was grateful to Allah I wasn't talking like that.

"Then there is Cluttering; it is the opposite of stuttering,a speech and fluency disorder characterized primarily by a rapid rate of speech, which makes speech difficult to understand" I cut him off.

"I don't understand you" I furrowed my brows in a confusing way.

"What I meant is that those people with this disorder, talk faster without full stop like ( my name isabdulkjdsgkkzkkjlkl)" he said in a breath while I nodded in understanding then gestured for him to continued.

"We have Dysantria; a weakness or paralysis of speech muscles caused by damaged to the nerve or brain. It's often caused by stroke, Parkinson's disease Als, head or neck injuries, surgical accident, or cerebral palsy. Then we have Stuttering; Is a problem that interferes with fluent (flowing and easy) speech. A person who stutters may repeat the first syllable in a word (as in ra-ra-rabbit) or hold a single sound for long (baaaaaaaaall). There's Muteness, Dysprosody, voice disorder,speech sound disorder and so more." He waved his hand dismissively before he continued,"some of this disorder may connect to hearing loss" he sighed,rubbing his face.

"People with speech disorder maybe frustrated of how they speak or always complain especially those who stutters that listener tries to complete their sentences. Or listener pitied them by saying 'slow down' or 'take it easy'. While some people tends to look at them with pity or avoid looking at them. And people with disorder often open to being bullied and have low self esteem" the doctor stared at me while I watched my boy who was sleeping peaceful on the bed.

"Why are you telling me all these?" I asked in a low voice which resonated round the room. I fiddled with my fingers waiting for him to replied.

"Because" he drawn out slowly, "has stuttering problem" he smiled softly at me while he walked out. I used my hands to clamped my mouth shut from crying out, I sobbed gently while my body shook.

My baby had stuttering problem

I walked to my body and touched his cheeks while sniffing, the tears rolled down from my eyes to his while used my free hand to wiped it.

I turned around as I reached the door knob to opened, I heard my baby's croaked voice making me rushed to him and wailed out.

"Mo-mo-momma I'm o-o-okay".

~~~