Category Archives: Speech Language Pathology

Hospital Homebound

School. It’s happening around here. Some of the counties near where we live have already returned to recess, brown bag lunch, and smiling teachers. We…start Monday. Well, my daughter starts Monday. My friend’s children start Monday. Jack. Not so much. See, we qualified for Hospital Homebound (HH). Basically, this is a school within a school….

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Conversational Carousel

The other day I took the child to a nearby amusement park. We enjoyed our mommy-daughter outing with one of her friends and her mom. One of the rides we most enjoyed was the 100 year old carousel. It was truly beautiful. The horses had hair tails instead of painted ones, and there were even…

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Language is Amazing

For the most part the child’s language seems pretty typical now, but every once in a while something pops up that just highlights how differently she processes words. The exchange yesterday between the child (age 7) and her little sister (age 3) went something like this… 7 yo: “You Dare!” 3 yo: “I’m not a…

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Complacent?

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…

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learning…

Learning…I’ve not written about homeschooling yet so I thought maybe this would be a good time. Homeschooling isn’t so typical for us, we have many challenges to get over. We do use therapies as part of our daily routine (even if we are still on sabbatical from professional therapies at our local hospital). We do…

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Let’s Get Real

I’m a realist. Because of that, I sometimes get frustrated when it comes to raising a child with Down syndrome. I want to know what is realistic and my questions are usually met with, “Don’t put limits on your child. She can do anything she wants.” Well, yes, and no. I mean, yes, if we…

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Have You Tried Sign Language

Sign language seems to be the current cure-all for those dealing with speech issues with their children. You are bombarded with it either for your toddler who is just learning to talk or for your child whose speech is delayed. In the beginning I had a positive attitude about sign language. I introduced it to…

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It Will Come

“It will come.” Three simple words meant as encouragement. Meant to give hope. They don’t. In fact, often they are received as a dismissal. As a means of telling me it’s not a big deal. Because I know this phrase is not meant in the way I perceive it, I simply smile and say, “I…

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Just Fine

“We’re going to meet teacher Susan*, Sweetie. Mommy needs you to show her what you know. Do your very best okay?” “Okay?” So many people had told me to stop worrying, “She’s fine…Why are you doing this?” that I walked into the assessment feeling a bit paranoid. It didn’t help that we arrived on the…

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The Domino Effect

For the last two years or so, we hadn’t had many appointments with specialists. Precious doesn’t have any serious medical issues. She’s got minor ear, nose, throat issues, so we go every 6-12 months, and she has dental issues, but these only require regular dentist appointments for now. She has an undiagnosed congenital (she was…

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