Progress With Speech Therapy

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, Jack is getting speech therapy.  He works with Chris Garretson at IVCH one day a week and after just 3 sessions we are seeing some definite growth.  When I take him to his therapy, I make sure that I have someone to watch Teagan so I am able to participate in the activities that Chris is having him do and I am able to focus all of my attention on him.  He is always excited and happy to go play with Chris, she makes it very entertaining and fun for him.  I REALLY like her.  

Jack's expressive skills have really taken off.  I am not sure if it is a coincidence or timing, but Jack has really come out of his shell.  He is always telling us what he wants and is commenting and talking more in the car about anything that might catch his attention.  He is also more outgoing and social with random people that we see when we are out and about.  The other day when we were leaving Target he made it his mission to talk to every single employee that he saw while we were checking out and leaving the store.  He definitely would not have done that a month ago.

Jack has also made gains with his receptive skills, but that is definitely his area of weakness.  He is doing better at following two step directions and understanding what exactly we mean when we tell him something is on, under, in, out, etc..... But it is rather apparent when Jack isn't quite sure what you want him to do.  He will try to avoid the task by doing a couple of things.  He will either start laughing, running around and making silly noises, or just try to walk away and start playing with something else.  So he isn't exactly thrilled when we make him do the task.  Between his weekly therapy sessions and our continued work at home, I definitely think we will see more improvements with this also.  But so far I am very pleased with how quickly Jack is picking up on everything, he is definitely a little sponge. 

When Jack turns 3 at the end of September, he will no longer be able to receive speech therapy through early intervention.  At that point the school district is responsible for providing the service.  So that means he will have to get assessed once again.  I am waiting to hear from Ladd School to see when this assessment is going to take place.  Ladd is going to have preschool this year, so if I decide to send Jack to preschool he will be able to attend either at Ladd or at Oglesby because I work there.  Ladd also mentioned that if we didn't feel that Jack needed a full blown preschool program that he could just go to the school for his therapy and not be enrolled in the preschool program.  I mentioned this to my superintendent and he said that maybe they would be able to figure something out like that at Oglesby, even though that is not something that they have offered prior to this.  And he could also continue his therapy at IVCH, but unfortunately our insurance does not cover it and let's just say that it is VERY expensive.  

The more people I talk to, I really do not feel like Jack needs a full blown preschool program at this time.  If he started after his birthday, he would have 3 full years of preschool, and that really isn't necessary.  So we are leaning towards him receiving just the speech therapy through one of the schools.  But no matter what we decide, I will have to rely on our family to get him to and from his sessions.  This is when it really stinks to be a working mom.  I absolutely hate having to rely on other people to run my kids to and from different things.  Thank goodness we both have very supportive families that are always willing to help out.   

For now I am enjoying the growth that I am seeing with Jack and I am anxious to see the growth that is yet to come. 

So We Need A Little Speech Therapy

My adorable, fun-loving, sweet and energetic little Jack needs a little jump start in his speech skills, so that is exactly what we are going to do.  I started really paying attention to Jack's speech while I was home with him during my maternity leave.  Yes, he talks ALL the time, and yes he can identify and name everything in our entire house and when we are out and about, but he seemed to struggle with carrying out a conversation once he had someone's attention.  And I also noticed that he didn't use complete sentences/phrases when he was asking for something or attempting to ask a question. He has excellent rote skills.  He knows all of the shapes, most of the colors, can say the alphabet, counts to 15 consistently, and sometimes up to 20, and definitely knows how to use his charm and adorable looks to win people over. 

  In the middle of June I really wasn't seeing the progress that I was hoping I would see with Jack's speech skills, so I talked to my aunt Carol who is a Speech Therapist, and asked her who I call to get him evaluated.  I called and met with the coordinator, and on July 11th he was evaluated.  The evaluation went well and Jack was cooperative. They came right to our house, which I'm sure helped Jack to feel more comfortable.  I felt very good about everything because they saw the same areas of concern that I saw. Now we are just waiting for all of the paper work to go through the state and then Jack will start his speech therapy one time a week at IVCH. 

 The downside is that he can only receive it through Early Intervention until he turns 3, which is September 24th.  Then he will have to get evaluated by the school and then we will have to see what they feel is necessary and if he will be able to enter preschool after his birthday or if we should just continue with just the speech therapy. Since Ladd does not have a preschool program, they send their students to Spring Valley.  This might sound bad, but I'm not letting Jack go to Spring Valley because they have a very highly Spanish speaking and low income population in the school and I don't need my kid to speak Spanish, I need him to speak English!!! So I am keeping my fingers crossed that if he does get recommended to attend preschool that Oglesby will let him attend their preschool program.  It is very nice that they have some sort of tuition waiver program set up for their employees so that all employees can bring their kids to that school if they choose to do so.  So we will just have to see what happens.  

Nick and I have been doing things at home with Jack for the past month and he is already showing signs of improvement.  He has improved on asking questions and initiating or engaging one of us when he wants something, rather than just saying the one word name of the item or thing he wants.  And this morning Jack went to Linda's for the first time in 2 weeks and she said that she could see an improvement in his talking, so that totally made my day.  I feel that he is improving, but it is hard for me to judge because I am with him everyday.  It has taken A LOT of patience and quite an effort to make sure that we are consistent with making Jack use his new skills, even when it would just be easier to give in.  

So definitely a little bit of tough love is being used in our household.  And to top it all off, Nick was working out of town for the past month and he was only home on the weekends.  So it was a rather stressful time for me at home because there was no one there to relieve me or help lighten the load at the end of the day.  And I will admit I was a nervous wreck for the weeks leading up to the evaluation. And friends and family kept telling me, "Don't worry, he is fine, you have nothing to worry about, " but when it is your kid, that is pretty much impossible to do.  But after seeing the progress Jack has made, I definitely feel that we are doing the right thing.  And whenever I start worrying or stressing about it, I just think of some other people out there and the problems they have with their kids, and I thank my lucky stars that this is the biggest problem that we have right now.  So for now, I am just happy that we took the initiative and we are going to give Jack that little jump start that he needs.  Wish us Luck :-)