A little more help

Last June Jaden was evaluated by the school system to see if he qualified for speech services. He had been receiving speech therapy (with a WONDERFUL therapist) from BACH. But, BACH only provides services to children under 3. The good news was that the school personnel who conducted the evaluations did not feel that Jaden needed the extra help at that time.

They did make sure to tell me that even though they don't qualify at this time doesn't mean that they won't later. We were very happy at the progress he had made to that point and felt that starting preschool in the fall would help to move things along a little more "naturally". We thought that the interaction with the other children and the desire to communicate to play with them, etc... would encourage him to continue to develop his language skills.

While Jaden is pretty vocal and interactive at home turns out he is very shy and quiet at school. He isn't really exhibiting the kind of behavior we had hoped for. He needs to actually talk in order for his speech to be reinforced, corrected, etc... Fortunately, a speech therapist came to the school to do evaluations. I was not surprised when I got a phone call about my little Jaden. She felt that he would benefit from some extra help - particularly on his articulation.

So, he had another evaluation. The good news is that his language and comprehension are actually a little above his age level (3 years 10 mos.) but his articulation is WAY below (2 years 4 mos.) The speech therapist believes he has something called apraxia. He is going to speech therapy two days a week now. We are hoping that we can give him the support he needs now so that by the time he starts school his speech skills will be indiscernible from his peers. In just two sessions he's already mastered the "d" sound. Now, we'll be building on that and practicing lots at home. He's going to need to work really hard but we know he will be great!

I will be anxious to post updates on his progress. But I'll admit I'll be a little sad when the day comes that he doesn't say "all-wight" anymore :)