Friday, September 19, 2008

Yeah! My Child Has a Speech Problem!


Brenley finished her second round of testing today and I really feel like things are falling into place!

On Wednesday I took her to her initial screening. It took me 6 weeks to get that appointment, so we have been waiting impatiently to begin the process. She tested well above average in social, cognitive, physical etc. but a little low on intelligibility. This basically means that her family can understand a lot of what she says, but others can't.

We did this same process with Kindyl when she was three. She was well above average on the other scores as well, but was borderline on intelligibility. ( Brenley is not quite as borderline, as you would know if she ever tried to explain anything complicated to you;) So Kindyl got to go to speech preschool, and it was fabulous. She had fantastic teachers, and a great program. By Kindergarten she didn't need any extra help at all, and she has done great ever since.



Brenley has been so sad since all of her siblings started going to school. She wants to go to school too. I don't usually put my kids in preschool until they are 4. But I was pretty confident that she could get into speech preschool.

On Wednesday's screening she qualified for a more extensive review. This can sometimes take over a month to schedule. But we were lucky enough to get the place of a cancellation two days later! (That means today, if you are counting;)

She had an appointment for 8:30 this morning. Unfortunately, I had to be at the hospital between 7-8 to get my second steroid shot to develop the babies lungs.(my doctor ordered it after another lovely hospital scare, and fun adventures with magnesium, the medication they have previously only threatened me with. Evil stuff. Don't worry, she and I are both fine, and now her lungs will be O.K no matter when she comes. Woo hoo!)

Luckily wendell was able to take her to her appointment and I met them there. One of the two screeners was Kindyl's old preschool teacher. She was fabulous, and we loved her. After additional lengthy screening, she made it into a speech only preschool with other students who only have a problem with intelligibility. There is one close to our house with only one slot left. Luckily, they have a meeting on Monday with our screeners who will try their best to get her in. Then we have a meeting with her new teacher to set goals on the 29th, a week from Monday.




This is a lot quicker than usual, and I really feel like things are falling into place for us. It is important to me to get her started before I have this baby, and it looks like that could really be any time now. I think it will help her to be comfortable if I am with her at first.

So everybody wish us luck! Hooray! My kid rides the short bus!;)

5 people know I love comments!:

Vidal's Nest said...

I hope she gets in! I think it would be wonderful for her.

Devan and Robyn said...

Hooray for the Short Bus!! That used to be one of my favorite things, getting James off the bus! My other kids are still jealous that he got to ride a bus at all! What a great blessing it is to have all of these resources right at our finger tips! Good Luck!

Rhonda said...

1st of all..you are one busy little blogger! I can never keep up with you! maybe it'd help if I got on the computer every once in a while! 2nd..sounds like it helped Kindyl a lot, I'll keep my fingers crossed for Bren! 3rd, you kill me...you are by no means fat & preggo, just PREGGO! You look adorable and are way too hard on yourself! I walk around with my belly hanging out too. My hubby thinks it's sexy! Ok, I'm totally kidding! So, haven't had the baby yet, huh? I know that you're ready if it happens, but I hope she cooks for a little longer! Better for the baby and all.

Crazymamaof6 said...

YAY! that is so exciting! congrats on that!

good luck with the baby stuff. glad they are taking care of her lungs now. just in case.

DANI KYNASTON said...

Good luck with all of the speech stuff. It will be so nice to get her in before the baby comes if you can. I need to get Joe going with speech therapy but my doc is really a stickler with waiting it out. He just feels like 3 is the magic age. So, we will wait until then. I hope I won't be too overwhelmed with a new baby and all that work!