the THIRD Annual Margaretpalooza

Lilypie

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Early Intervention

I've been avoiding this. I don't want you to think that there's something wrong with you. I don't like the social stigmas that come with that kind of statement. You and I were both getting frustrated, I couldn't understand what you were trying to tell me and I could tell that you had something you felt you needed to tell me.

This morning Ms Jackie and Ms Julie brought two fantastic bags of tricks and toys. You got right down to business playing with them and exploring everything they had in their bags. We found out that you have done very nicely developing your motor skills- you're 10mos ahead of where you should be! We also learned that some of what I had suspected was right, your speech and communication is about 10mos behind.

At 19mos old your vocabulary sounds more like a 9-12mos old. Hearing that crushed me. I didn't know that most of what I was counting as part of your word base were what are referred to as declaratives or exclamations. Things like "uh oh," "no," "what's that," don't count as words on the evaluation. I was pretty sure that I was going to cry when I heard where they placed your speech.

I keep reminding myself that now:
1. You're going to get the help you need.
2. You're young enough that the delay shouldn't be apparent by the time you're in kindergarten.
3. I did what I was supposed to.

I'm having a really hard time not feeling guilty or upset about this. Logically, I know that your hearing was affected because you had ear infections which kept fluid in your ears. You had a hearing screening and birth but you didn't have another hearing test for the next 15mos. There is no way for anyone to accurately gauge when your hearing was affected, all we can do now is help you.

So that's what we're doing.

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