Update for DD1

First, before I forget, thanks to all that replied a week or two back about
DD1's speech. I did read through and found it all useful.
I did manage to make contact with the 3 speech-geared preschools that I was
given contacts for from the speech pathologist lady at the hospital. I did
call all 3 of those preschools... I got on the waiting list for 2 of them -
DD is first in line for one and there's about 10 of us on the second's
waiting list.
The third one I called, the guy I talked to wanted to speak directly to the
lady we've been dealing with at the hospital. She called me back yesterday
and set up a quick appointment for this morning that we went to. It was an
appointment specifically to see if DD could get qualified for the funding
needed for this third preschool program. Originally the assessment came
back that DD had a severe phonological delay and a couple other delays, but
this assessment this morning was to get to a few more specifics.
As it turned out, there was like 8 categories for testing. I'm not 100%
sure on the details just yet - I am being sent a report thing when it's
ready and will obviously know more at that point. The lady DID do a rundown
of it, though.
There were 2 categories in it that she was unable to score DD1 for. I guess
DD just wasn't grasping the idea of them and wasn't able to follow direction
to make a proper assessment for these 2 categories. I can't remember what
they were off hand exactly right now.
She scored within average for her age for one category - the one where she
was asked to point to the picture of the sad boy or the wet girl or
something like that. She did fine with that area, within the average.
Then there was 5 more categories that she scored severe delay with them.
There were things like sentences... with pictures infront of her... "The
girl is giving the ball to her... The girl is giving the ball to ____ (him)"
DD just kept saying something like "ball" or something. She also had issues
with repeating simple sentences... "He is playing with a ball" - she'd
repeat something like, "Playing ball" rather than the full sentence.
So, basically, there were 8 things tested and 2 were basically not done, one
was within the average and 5 were very low scores and considered a severe
delay.
Now, the speech lady is going to fax the results to the preschool contact
and I was told he will hold the last open spot for DD1 and it will be her
spot, pending the funding approval, but with the delays noted and all that,
I was told there's very little chance she will be denied the funding.
I also did ask a few questions... One in particular was about her speech
problems compared to the amount she speaks. It was brought up in the other
thread about how she could be speaking less because she can't speak the
words she has properly. If that makes sense. The lady said it was highly
likely that just from frustration or from the lack of ability to pronounce
words properly, she isn't saying as much because of that.
I'm so hoping we can start with this preschool program. I was told they
have special speech people there at the program, and if I start with this,
if she needs something more, we'd be able to go from there.
....and here's to hoping that not only will she benefit from this program,
but maybe I could get some real help that works with the potty training!
Maybe if I'm REAL lucky, she will be potty trained fairly soon so I don't
have THREE in diapers for long!!! LOL

Kat wrote:
Originally the assessment came
back that DD had a severe phonological delay and a couple other delays,

The preschool programs sound very promising. I hope she gets into one
of them quickly.

My oldest son has phonological issues too. I think one of my little
boys might but it is to early to tell.

Yay mom for taking action - well done!!

--

Nikki

"Nikki" wrote in message
news:UuydnRLOWfXxstXUnZ2dnUVZ_hmdnZ2d@prairiewave. com...
Kat wrote:
Originally the assessment came back that DD had a severe phonological
delay and a couple other delays,

The preschool programs sound very promising. I hope she gets into one of
them quickly.

I do hope so too. With Christmas coming up next week some time, it probably
won't be until after Christmas. I'm hoping it's fairly quickly after
Christmas, but I have no idea how long things like this take. The speech
lady said it shouldn't take too long - I should know either way in a few
days or so - but with Christmas, chances are it will be after.
Hopefully right after, though.
Perhaps this sounds stupid or selfish of me, but I think it might also be a
nice break for me as well if she's in some kind of program. Even half a day
of being out, not only will that give me a slight break from her, it will
also offer her constant, daily interaction with other human beings as she's
not in any daycare or similar, and never ever has been.
And to get, maybe, into a new routine with her before this next baby is here
might even be a big bonus!

My oldest son has phonological issues too. I think one of my little boys
might but it is to early to tell.

It's interesting, I find, how many people struggle with this on some level.
Until recently, I thought I was the only one, or one of very, very few. I
thought I was the only one among my close friends and family, anyways...
Turns out that I have one cousin that had MAJOR speech issues when he was
little, another cousin that had a slight speech issue, my brother had a
slight issue (it was more of a lisp that he no longer has and a few strange
words) I also know another local mom who's son had major issues, there's a
few on here that have similar dealings... It's interesting that when you
actually start asking around, there's always more than you thought.
I don't believe DD2 has any problems. She seems to be right on par with
others her age, and it's interesting - I find DD1 and DD2 speak at about the
same level, I wouldn't hesitate long to think that DD2 might even speak a
little better than DD1 at times!

Yay mom for taking action - well done!!

I've just been running myself down with all of this, but if I don't do it,
who would? And... the sooner to deal with things like this, I was told, the
better!

--

Nikki

Kat wrote:

The third one I called, the guy I talked to wanted to speak directly to the
lady we've been dealing with at the hospital. She called me back yesterday
and set up a quick appointment for this morning that we went to. It was an
appointment specifically to see if DD could get qualified for the funding
needed for this third preschool program. Originally the assessment came
back that DD had a severe phonological delay and a couple other delays, but
this assessment this morning was to get to a few more specifics.
As it turned out, there was like 8 categories for testing. I'm not 100%
sure on the details just yet - I am being sent a report thing when it's
ready and will obviously know more at that point. The lady DID do a rundown
of it, though.
There were 2 categories in it that she was unable to score DD1 for. I guess
DD just wasn't grasping the idea of them and wasn't able to follow direction
to make a proper assessment for these 2 categories. I can't remember what
they were off hand exactly right now.

It isn't too surprising that the tester wasn't able to score DD1 in all
areas. There are probably other areas where they don't usually even try
to test.

My oldest qualified for speech and had about 4 years of speech therapy
with an IEP. When she was first tested, her IEP was just based on one
area of difficulties. As she made progress with that, her SLP was able
to analyze her difficulties better and she qualified in two more areas,
first breathing, then voice. She spoke while breathing in as well as
out and her pitch varied 3 octaves withing a sentence. Although all
these difficulties were present from the beginning, they were not
identified initially.

Unlike your DD1, mine did not compensate for her speech difficulties by
using shorter phrases. We had a lot of frustration because even I
couldn't understand much of what she said. I remember her swimming
teacher when she was 3 saying, "She is speaking whole paragraphs to me
and I don't understand any of it."

You are doing a great job to be getting DD1 into a program. I remember
the many difficulties I had negotiating the system and getting mine into it.

Even after she was in, it was complicated. The first summer, she didn't
qualify for speech, because she hadn't been in the system long enough.
Since I was able to, I paid for private speech lessons with a good SLP.
I continued these along with her IEP mandated classes during the school
year. I had the private classes focus on quality of life issues, like
learning to pronounce her own and family member's names, that I couldn't
get into her IEP. The second and subsequent summers she didn't qualify
for speech because she hadn't regressed the previous summer, ignoring
the fact that I had been paying privately to continue speech over the
summer.

As you probably realize, a child can have speech difficulties and be
very bright. Mine is now in a gifted program.

--Betsy