Speech

We were all sad when your Pre-School came to a close. Its been more than a month and you still ask to go back. We miss having Ms. Aubrie come to our house and play, and for all of her helpers. You always had a good time, and you were always sure to hang every single art project on the fridge immediately following each and every class. Some day you will love your summer break, but for now, we are missing your friends.

Right before you turned three you were tested again to see if you had made any improvements over the last six months and to see if you qualified for next years early intervention program for three year olds. I was a little nervous for you to be tested. I worried that you would not like the pressure, or the new speech pathologist, I worried that you would fall apart like I find myself doing in these kinds of situations. Fortunately, you didn't seem to realize it was a test at all. The moment you walked into that room you had all the Speech Pathologists laughing. You even were quick to joke around. When it was time to do colors they laid our several blocks. After asking you to find the red one, you started from the far right, and moving to the left, pointing at each block individually, you said " no, no no, no...there it is, I found it!" On a few occasions you got bored and decided playing under the table, it seemed like more fun. Your dad and I could not stop laughing.

During the tests I had very mixed emotions. I couldn't help but be so proud of how well you were doing, I was amazed with your confidence and impressed how well you did on various puzzle, you excelled on sections that we had never worked on before. You really are so bright. But at the same, I worried so much that you may not make it into the program, I worry that I might not be able to help catch you up developmentally on my own like I hope to. When we finally received the results it was amazing to see how far we have come. You had tested less than the 7th percentile in logic months ago, and now you were in the 80th. You fell completely within the normal range for 2 year olds.

After months and months of working with these specialists there are a few things that we have been able to identify, you are not lacking in problem solving or logic in any way. You can speak very well, in fact most people question why you are working with any specialist to begin with. You do however seem to missing one element of communication. Even though you can tell us anything and everything in some way or another, and even though you understand commands reasonably well, you don't seem to be able to understand questions, or understand that you are suppose to respond to them anyways. It is difficult for you to even give your name when asked. No one has quite been able to figure out this disconnect. In most situation you simply repeat the question being asked. I can't help but wonder what long term effects could have come from the trauma your little body may have suffered when you had surgery. Even though you physically are on track, could it have effected your speech or your ability to understand? Is there a coincidence that you seem to be nearly 5-6 months behind most kids your age and you underwent your surgery at nearly 5 months? I guess we will never know. For now we wait. We wait until September 13, 2013 to see if again another 6 months will have made any difference. If no difference has been made, you get to go back to pre-school, which you seem pretty excited about.