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| early intervention |
| 12.01.06 (6:50 pm) [edit] |
On the heels of Jacob having a ridiculously expensive, multi-part assessment by a neuropsych (results of which are pending), we were advised that Danny should be evaluated for early intervention. His preschool offered the opportunity to have the testing done onsite, but we missed the deadline or didn't get the forms or something, so on Wednesday I took Danny to the school district building and filled out a bunch of forms. The staff gave Danny a special name tag shaped like a school bus, with his name and birthdate and exact age (4.3), which he liked a lot. The women there (and they were all women) were terrific with him, and very kind to me. I was able to be in the room while they worked with him. I sat at a table with one of the women, going over the concerns that brought us there, while one of the therapists did the initial eye/hand tests. I could see Danny charming the pants off the woman. Once in a while, he'd look my way, and I'd just give him an encouraging nod. After the first round, Danny was handed to the speech therapist, a young woman who apparently does work at his preschool. It was nice to see he recognized her and seemed comfortable. Her "station" was closer to where I was seated, so I got to listen to him interact with her. She used a tabletop flipchart to show him pictures, and he was given clues about each page and something to point to, or a question to answer. After speech therapy, he was taken next door to do hearing and vision tests. The first therapist showed me Danny's hand-skills worksheet set. They agreed with the concerns of Danny's preschool teacher (and DH -- I was in denial). Danny has yet to select a dominant hand. He will often start a tast with his left, and when he's stumped, switch in the middle to his right. His comprehension was excellent, the therapist said, but he was indeed a bit behind the norm in terms of hand-eye coordination -- but they believed that the main culprit was the hand dominance confusion. The therapist was pretty sure he was right handed. She gave me several sheets of tips; ways we could help him gain better hand skills (and, most importantly, more confidence to try). The speech therapist said Danny's vocabulary was quite strong, and again his comprehension was good. His only speech impediment, she said, was his using a "Chhhh" sound from the back of his throat for s-words instead of the sibilant. He was able to make the sibilant noise when asked (for example, "what does a snake sound like?"), so she said it was a habitual issue, not a functional one. She said she could work with him at preschool to get him past it. After all this, I was advised to register Danny in the school district so he could receive Early Intervention benefits. I got all the paperwork and took Danny to preschool. I checked in with his teacher and confirmed her suspicions, and thanked her for forewarning us. I told her how frustrated I was, because at this point, Danny won't even try to write or draw. He wanted to play with clay last weekend but wouldn't even try to roll a ball by himself. He really has lost confidence, his teacher said. She thinks he compares his efforts to those of the other kids, who can pretty much all write and draw fairly well. I know Danny will end up being just fine; I mean Jacob had speech therapy and then never shut up. So for all I know, occupational therapy for Danny will result in him disassembling everything in our apartment and building his own Transformers. But what kills me is him being afraid to even try to write or draw. I hate that he finds himself lacking. |
posted by: mo from ne (reply)
post date: 12.04.06 (10:06 pm)
My son had a terrible time drawing or cutting. I thought I was a bad mother for not having a pen or scissor in his hand 24/7 prior to his pre-school years. You are doing the right thing by having him evaluated. Try to work with him at home if you can find the time. Five or ten minutes here and there will do.
My son is seventeen and still has terrible handwriting. He does have a killer vocabulary and can express his opinions clearly. It all balances out.
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