Speech Evaluation (Part V )

Part I, Part II, Part III (Nathan, age 2 1/2) -- Parts II and III have videos of him showing some of his sign language skills in case you are interested. :)

Part IV (age 3 1/2) - I don't think I blogged about this, so here's a quick recap:

After the age of 3, the free speech therapy must be done through the school system so that's the next route we took.

During his evaluation, he was given a hearing test with headphones and the little beeping noise and he was supposed to say if he heard it or not. Well, he didn't say anything... not because he didn't hear it, but I don't think he's understood the directions. So the therapist tried to just watch his body language for cues that he heard it. Not very conclusive as to his overall hearing, but it appeared that he could at least hear some of the tones.

He also did a lot of the same activities from his first evaluation (which he was disqualified from because he spoke more than 10 words at age 28 months). He stacked blocks, played with toys, told the therapist what pictures he saw on the paper. I answered questions about his development (which was normal).

At the end of the session, I got the same answer as before: He does have delayed speech, but he's not delayed enough for the free program due to tighter constraints on entry qualifications. Basically, they have so many children seeking help that they can only take the extreme cases. We were told that when he turns 5, he can be reevaluated in kindergarten through the school system if necessary.

And now we're at the present and PART V of his speech evaluations.

Nathan is not quite 5 and he's not in kindergarten, but his speech is still really slurred when he gets to talking fast. He misses the "r" and "th" sounds regularly. I still do a lot of interpreting for friends and family. Sometimes I just have to give up on what he's saying myself. It's very frustrating for him, but he really does a good job of trying to get his point across and repeating his words. Unfortunately, we have not kept up with the sign language with his growing vocabulary, so that is *generally* not a helpful alternative in trying to decipher his sentences.

An example of our frustration is a conversation just 2 days ago:

Nathan: "way-yah way-ee-oh"

repeating himself and changing one sound: "way-yah way-DEE-oh"

I asked if he said "radio" and he says, "yes".

Me: What kind of radio?

Nathan: "red-ah"

Me: A "red" radio?

Nathan: NO!

Nathan, again: "red-ah"

Me: ???

He tries again, screaming it: "WED- AH!!!"

So I begin to think about what it could be. Knowing his "th" sounds like a "d" I change it in my head to "weth-ah".

Quickly realizing the "ah" is actually the "er" sound, I finally get "weather".

"weather radio?" YES!!!!

This type of conversation is typical at least once a day to every other day; however, his speech is improving over time. Regarding therapy, my thoughts are that he will probably only need minimal sessions and that we'd be able to work on most of it at home. So, we signed him up for a private speech evaluation, paying for it ourselves.

Same rundown as the previous evaluations: play, chit-chat, tell the therapist what the picture is.

At the end of the session, the therapist said that for his age he's doing fine. The sounds he is having trouble with are typical for his age and even though he also initially missed the "z" sound during the evaluation, she when back over it and he was able to make it then.

She said that they could continue therapy, but all they would be working on is slowing him down and repeating the words he is missing. She suggested we just work on that at home... instead of shelling out $75 a session. (sounds good to me!)

She also said that if the "r" and "th" sound don't come by 1st - 2nd grade, to have him evaluated again through the school.

I left that day very satisfied with the answers I was given. It was no longer, "Yes, he's delayed, but not delayed enough" to "He's doing fine, he just needs to slow down". YAY!!!

{On a side note... with no other place to put this bit of info because I don't want a post all to itself... Nathan had an outer ear infection about two weeks ago. At his initial appointment, the pediatrician pulled a huge chunk of wax from his right ear. He was later referred to an ENT for the infection and was treated. At his follow-up visit, the ENT pulled a huge chunk of wax from his left ear. The left ear no longer has a tube and has healed, but there is pressure behind the drum. The right ear no longer has a tube, but there is a hole in the drum. We will follow-up in two months to see if it has healed and how the pressure is doing on the other ear.}

Now that you have that bit of side info, you can fully appreciate the following comment I got from Nathan yesterday:

"Mom, I can hee bett-ah now!" (I can hear better now!) ~ LOVE IT! :)

Speech Evaluation Part III - Here's Your Sign

Because he qualified, Nathan had his evaluation with the actual speech therapist this past week. However, even before the evaluation, I knew he wouldn't qualify any further than the first meeting with her. He's been trying out new words a lot lately. However, without the sign, I would have no clue what he was trying to say half the time, but at least he's trying. And he's getting better. Much better than two months ago.

During the evaluation, one of the questions she asked me was to list the signs he uses. She was at the bottom of her paper, ready to write and all I could think was, "You're not going to be able to fit them all on that little piece of paper." What I actually told her was that it would be easier to list what he doesn't have a sign for. She was quite surprised. And she was very impressed during the evaluation when he signed horse and cow (while trying to say them as well).

So, with that question of "What does he sign?" I thought I'd list some of his common signs, although he knows more (and says more) than I've shown:

Colors: red, orange, green, blue, the word "colors"

Fruit: apple, banana, grapes, pear, orange, strawberry

Letters: A B C D E F G I K L O R T V (and recognizes H M N P S U as well)

Outside: grass, flower, airplane, tree, star, rain, windy

Toys: ball, train, bike, ball, book, doll, scissors

Concepts: dirty, clean, share, more, thank you, please, hurt, yes, no, hot, cold, up, down, all gone, all done, wait, sick, silly, out, broken

Food: eat, milk, juice, bread, cracker, ice cream, cereal, water, cookie, cheese, candy

Animals: dog, cat, horse, cow, tiger, lion, bear, penguin, fish, starfish, lizard, frog, caterpillar, turtle, dolphin, chicken, bird, mouse, alligator, owl, deer

Action: bath, sleep, walk, play, stop, go, read, kiss, sit

Clothes: socks, shoes, boots, coat, hat

People: Mom, Dad, baby, Grandmother, Pa-paw, boy, girl

Other: potty, medicine

He is now at least attempting to say something with each of these signs. And soon I think the signs will disappear as he begins talking more. Maybe not, though, as I am starting to sign with Witt now...

Speech Evaluation Part II

Part I Here

Well, the Early Intervention group called two days ago to let me know that Nathan DOES qualify for help because of delayed speech! I was so surprised! However, I guess when you play the rule of averages and take into account my ANSWERS to their questions and not just Nathan's evaluation, he probably just skimmed the line into the qualifying zone.

Someone will be calling to set up the first appointment. I don't know how long we'll need the help as he is really starting to spit out words. He gets lots of praise and smiles so he thinks it's great to repeat a word when we request, "Say ....xyz..." We can't understand him sometimes, but he is at least trying. Maybe the therapy will help him with his enunciation?

I'm happy with the progress he's made so far. It's been so sweet to hear his little voice! I'm sure it will be all too soon when we'll be wondering, "Why on earth did we want him to start talking? He won't close his mouth!" LOL!! :)

Part III here

Speech Evaluation

I signed Nathan up to be evaluated for speech issues. Alabama has an FREE early intervention program for children that qualify. They came to the house for the evaluation. They also checked other areas beyond language - such as motor skills, emotions, and the like.

Two ladies did the evaluations. They asked general family questions and some medical history on Nathan. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until they asked how many words he uses on a consistent basis. My answer was 35 - 50. Apparently that's WAAAAYYYY too many for him to qualify for the program. That really floored me! He's 28 months old and doesn't speak more than 35-50 words. As they dwelled there, I took a moment and said, "Ok, let me think about this because maybe I'm giving him more credit than he deserves." One of the ladies told me to start naming the words he uses (or tries to) and she'd write them down. When I got to 10 words, the other lady said that she's going to pretend she didn't hear the 10th word because that would disqualify him on her end of the test. 10 words would disqualify a 28 month old! Wow. (To be fair though, it's not just the 10 words. Her test is averaged between speech and comprehension. He comprehends just fine, so that throws the average... but still!) Anyway, they continued through the test saying they would do the final evaluation towards the benefit of Nathan.

They also had him stack blocks, put like objects together, choose which object does which task (spoon for eating, shoe for the foot, etc). Then they pulled out a sheet of paper with some black and white pictures on it and asked him to point to certain ones (a car, shoe, dog, etc). Then asked him to say what the object was when they pointed to it. (What's this? He answers.) Oh, yes, he answered... EVERY SINGLE TIME! Ugh. He said something for every picture that at least resembled the correct word. My mouth dropped. I was astonished. I know the kid passed the test with flying colors. I know he won't qualify. I also now know for certain that he's a stubborn little bugger that can talk when he wants to.

Oh well! I'm thankful to know that he is doing fine (as far as the state of AL is concerned anyway - go ahead... insert funny Alabama redneck joke here; I won't mind). The evaluators did make the standard suggestions for helping him along (ie don't give in unless he says something, don't ask yes/no questions where he can just nod his head, make him say something when he signs, etc). To be honest, I've already been using these ideas for a while now and I have seen an increase in his attempts at talking. I've heard about 5 new words in the last few days alone!

I also was able to see how excited he was to sit down and do some one on one things with these ladies. I need to take advantage of the times Will is in school and Witt is asleep - when it's just the two of us. He'll probably really start to thrive when I give him some EXTRA attention! :) Poor little thing...mama doesn't love you enough... ha! Seriously though, I am going to make an extra effort with him.

This mothering thing sure isn't easy. Once you think you're getting into a groove, something else pops up...

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