A few weeks ago I talked about Lucy being evaluated by a early child development team to figure out if she has a speech delay, and if it was at the level of needing intervention services.
It turns out that she does have a speech delay and it does need some intervention services. I knew it was coming and I don't care who you are, you are never ready to hear that your child isn't developing at the same rate as other kids their age. Rationally, I know I haven't slacked in parenting or failed her in any way.
I KNOW THIS.
My brain runs away anyways and I think of all the ways I could have done better. I should have encouraged her to talk sooner. I should have gotten her help sooner. It's ridiculous and I'm trying really hard at not focusing on that, instead focusing on what I can do for her now.
So here we are.
The people who came to evaluate her were incredibly kind and they totally loved her. Fortunately, I had told Lucy that these were teachers and we were going to do some school stuff before they came so she was all about it. Anything dealing with school, she's completely on board. They had her do some puzzles, color matching, some other things to see if it was a cognitive or motor skill delay. Her fine motor skills are pretty dang good. Her gross motor skills.... not awful but not at a 32 month old normally.
They had her go through this workbook and identify what the picture was. She actually did that longer than a child usually does, so that was good.
Overall the assessment went really well. They concluded that she has a speech delay, bottom line. She can say singular words fairly well but when she strings them together in a sentence she is hard to understand. Her articulation isn't very good and she has poor speech imitation. The recommendation is she would work with the speech therapist two times a week for 45 minutes. She only gets these services until she's 3, so that ends July 31 for her. After that, her therapy is turned into the hands of the school district if they feel she needs it.
We met with them last week and based on that assessment alone, the school district is going to get the ball rolling on enrolling her into that. It's a bit of a process and apparently we are sneaking in at the very last minute, so that mad me a little angry at myself and I should have done this sooner.
On Friday she had her first therapy session and that was another quick assessment and then a play session. She actually did really well and participated through the whole thing. Our guy is very nice and he has a great way with kids. He was letting us know that over the next few months we'll be able to tell if this is just a speech delay that she just needs help forming words OR if this is more of a neurological issue. He believes SHE thinks she's saying the words clear as day but she just isn't. We've always thought she could say the word, it's just "stuck", and he agrees. She's eager to learn and she likes the one on one attention, so I am hopefully this will be really good for her. She really is the sweetest kid ever and everyone really enjoys her. I'm excited for her and I'm excited to watch her blossom through this process.
6 comments:
I am sure it is hard to hear that she needed intervention, but I'm glad you are getting the speech therapy for her now. My friend's daughter has gone to speech therapy for a number of years now (she was a micropreemie) and she absolutely loves it and it has helped her so much. I am certain it will be the same for Miss Lucy!
One of my friends has a son in speech therapy, and other therapies too. He's almost five and definitely delayed. It's not fun to hear, but it's good to get help! And I'm glad that Lucy thinks it's school and she's enjoying it. Hopefully this will really help her speech!
-Lauren
www.shootingstarsmag.net
What a sweetheart! I know it's easy as a parent to find blame in ourselves. Your sweet girl is on a journey of learning all her own. I wish you both the best. I feel like you'll both grow with this.
I sure wish someone would take ME to Five Guys.
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