Early Intervention

I took the kiddos to our evaluation for Early Intervention yesterday. I've mentioned before that the boys don't quite say as many words as they "should", so I wanted to see if they could benefit from some kind of speech therapy, or if they would at least have some suggestions for me to help them develop their speech.

We drove an hour to get to Lakeland, where the appointment was, and the evaluation lasted about 2 hours. Yikes. It was in a fairly small room/office too, with 4 other adults, plus me and the kids in one room. Slightly claustrophic for me, but I was too busy trying to answer questions about the kids while keeping them from drawing on the walls and trying to get them to show the evaluators the skills that they do have to think about it. They each had to demonstrate the skills that they can do- such as stacking blocks, fitting shapes in matching grooves, putting small objects in a bottle, etc.

Overall, they did great. It was a strange environment to do this kind of evaluation, with multiple kids in an enclosed space, and the evaluators recognized that this definitely had an effect on how the kids responded. For example, they all know their body parts such as nose, ears, eyes, toes, teeth, etc, but wouldn't point to them when asked. They also wouldn't throw or kick a ball, but they do that all the time at home. In the end, they scored well within the "normal" range for their actual age, even though they were prepared to use the adjusted schedule to judge their qualification if they fell below for the actual age. The speech pathologist said that they would like to see the boys saying 20-30 more words, and two word combinations by age two, but other than that, right now they seem completely normal. They actually both starting saying 'apple' yesterday, which is new for them. (That was Lily's word- she's rubbing off on them.) She also said she heard Lily saying two-word combinations, which I didn't hear, but ok.

They recognized that Cameron is a more "cautious soul", a little more timid and reserved than the others, so I have to keep an eye on him, and make sure the others don't "talk" for him, or overshadow him. This is something that I pretty much knew, but it's always interesting to hear a professional opinion. To be completely honest, I was concerned about Cameron possibly being on the autism spectrum when I saw him doing a lot of tippy-toe walking, (which can be associated with, but doesn't necessarily indicate, autism.) The walking thing, plus his lack of words, made me a little paranoid, so I feel much better after speaking to the evaluators. They saw no indications that would lead them to believe he is on the spectrum.

So for now, I have a few books to read (you know, in my spare time), and I can relax a little. I wish I didn't always think the worst whenever I see something questionable... It's just the way my mind works. I want to give my kids every opportunity to succeed and if they need any extra help, I want them to get it. It's such a relief to hear that they are "normal". (In some aspects, anyway.)

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