Manic Monday
Monday, April 5, 2010 at 11:04PM Good Day.
Happy Day.
Got a lot done day.
Tomorrow is Aiden’s last appointment with the Special Education Dept.
At age 2 he was diagnosed with a significant speech delay & low muscle tone in lips and tongue. We had him tested by a Dev. Pediatrician, Speech Therapist and Pediatric Psychologist as a group. His level of delay was in the Medium range, while Emily had been considered Severe. He was my only boy and as much as I hate to say it, boys are “different’. His gross motor skills are off the chart and he tested in the high intelligence range. We had started teaching him sign language at about a year old. We would sign the word and say it. He had voice inflection down pat, could mimic the cadence of speech, but speaking total gibberish.
His very first speech therapist was Jen. She had been Emily’s speech therapist and had known Aiden since he was a year old. He gave her a run for her money. Sessions were an hour long, he would spend the last 15 minutes messing with her.
Aiden met Jessica when we moved to our new house. He was 2.5 and LOVED her. She was “Sessica” and she drove a white car, EVERY time she came to our house he would point to her car and repeat “Sessica’s CAAAA”. Her sessions were also an hour long and she focused on getting him to SLOW DOWN. To focus on WHAT he was saying. To say the WHOLE word and not just start the word and vomit out an ending. She put peanut butter on his upper lip and tried get him to lick it off. To do this lip and tongue muscles are engaged. Aiden was a drooler. A champion drooler. Spit would leak out of his mouth and down his shirt, or on you. By the time he turned 3 he had MOSTLY stopped the drooling and was working on just the articulation of most words.
At age 3 he started Pre-school and had speech with Marybeth 2 days a week. “Maribef” was patient with him. His Teachers at Pre-school were great with his personality.
At some point in between age 3 and 4 he really seem to “get it” our focus shifted from speech to reigning him in. He lacks impulse control is LOUD and BUSY and has NO FEAR.
I worried for him when he was younger that he would not be able to be understood by his friends, that he would be made fun of or give up trying to communicate if he wasn’t understood. I worried and worried.
He is him. He is LOUD. He is TALKY. and as of tomorrow he is a SPED Graduate.
Reader Comments (1)
Congratulations to Aiden--and to you, too, for getting him the help he needed and for believing in him. As a speech-language pathologist, I've worked with a lot of kids with speech and language disorders, but the ones that make the best progress are the ones who have committed and proactive parents. Give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.