I scrambled up the hill to my daughter’s “old school” to pick up my son from his “new class.” My daughter attended this school from Early Intervention through Kindergarten before being moved to our neighborhood school for first grade. I know most of the Early Intervention staff pretty well, and I know the IEP process all too well. So when we decided to have my son’s speech evaluated for phonology issues I felt pretty comfortable about the whole process.
Unfortunately we got a bit of a hard spot in terms of scheduling. He has to be at his phonology group class at 8:15 am, which is the same time I usually leave the house with my oldest to take her to school. Luckily my husband can take the boy to class on his way to work, while I head down the street with the girls to take care of the other drop off. Then I head home, scarf down some breakfast and jump in the car with my littlest girl to pick up Bubba and head off on our adventures for the day. Today I was a bit late to pick up time, but the teacher was late letting them out, too, so it all worked out okay.
When I arrived a couple of other moms were there waiting to drop their kids off for their session (there are back to back one hour sessions) and they were discussing therapy plans for the Summer. I guess one already does private speech therapy while the other is considering it. I haven’t even considered the option of private therapy for my son. For one thing we can’t afford it. Time-wise I’m not sure it would fit. And I’m not sure he needs it…or maybe I’m just a bit complacent?
When my oldest was the age of my twins, she could verbalize about 300 words, but mostly expressed them in the form of echolalia. She could not answer questions, even yes/no reliably. She responded to anything beyond parallel play from a peer with aggression. Meanwhile my boy seems to be okay language-wise and just has trouble articulating words when he gets beyond one syllable, or strung together in a sentence. He sometimes seems to need a little time to come up with his words. Socially he can use some refining (learning to take turns, waiting, calming down when he is upset) but really, by comparison, seems pretty much on track.
So is this silent comparison, which I have run in my head since the day the twins were born, misleading me to an attitude of complacency? Am I under-responding to his needs simply because they are “less severe” than his sister’s? Or is my previous experience just giving me perspective to know that this is small potatoes?
Gotta love self doubt.