Mike and I signed Jake up for a speech/hearing assessment at his preschool this past week. We figured any additional information we could give the school district for his upcoming assessments would be beneficial. No matter how much you know and no matter how anticipated things are, they are still hard to read/hear.
His assessment read:
He has difficulty in grammar and formulating ideas, omits word endings, uses only single words, says various letters differently (s/f, g/d, g/k), 0% of his language was intelligible. His hearing screening was unreliable. He was recommended for speech and language full assessments and therapy.
We have an amazing speech therapist and will continue with her for as long as possible. We, of course, knew that Jake would struggle with this test. Yet we wanted it because we wanted to provide the school district with as much as we were able. The statement about "0% of his language was intelligible" got me thinking though. Am I doing something wrong when we practice each day that makes it worse somehow? Am I not correcting enough? Am I not modeling enough? Am I accepting "Jake's language" too easily when I should really be pushing him to do different things?
I don't know. Honestly, I really don't. With a child who does struggle w/ speech and language, it really is a fine line about how much/when to correct. He doesn't always have the ability to make the changes we are asking him to make. I dont want to spend our time with tantrums b/c I am pushing him. I want him to increase his confidence and grow in his abilities.
Well, after this stressful news, I choose to de-stress myself doing something I had not done in awhile- BAKE! :) It's been a perfect day for it with the weather being so cold. Currently, I have a homemade cinnamon crumb cake in the oven for the morning and have the ingrediants to make a 3 layer strawberry cake tomorrow. After, of course, I buy fresh sweet strawberries from the roadside guy.
I think we are all going to get up early in the morning to visit the snow too! So exciting! I hope we are all up for it. Alexis has to be at cheer by 10am, so we have to get moving faster than normal. I much prefer warm weather, but I have to admit I have been a little bummed it did not snow here- even a light dusting- as thought by everyone. I hope we still have a chance tonight.
Life is GREAT! :)
Your writing about speech struck a cord. Recently, I, too have struggled with how much to correct, how much to make him work to try and correct sounds and second guessing my own ability to help Lucas...am I making things worse? You are not alone.
ReplyDeleteIt's a hard journey. I think we need to realize that we know our kids well and that most of the time we will know when we can push our kids or hold back. Sometimes we'll make mistakes...I pushed Lucas too hard today. But I remind myself that most days we do fine. Gotta keep looking at the big picture.
Natasha