Speech

Hunter has recently began speech therapy at the school. I have been concerned about his speech for quite awhile. I took him last year to the school to be evaluated by the speech pathologist. We were there for only about 20 minutes, and about all she had to say was "He's three." Ok? So we left with no answers other than his speech will possibly flourish as he ages.

So here we are a year later with the same concerns, if not more. I can't help as a parent compare the development of my own children to those around us. It was apparent to me I could hold a better conversations with many 2-3 year olds better than I could with my 4 year old son.

While Hunter would pronounce words wrong, he also couldn't form long sentences, as well as when you would ask him a question, he couldn't seem to comprehend what you were asking him and therefor come up with an off the wall answer. I feel like I am his translator when we are around other people who don't understand him or when they ask him a question, I tend to rephrase it for him so that he will understand what they said.

I re-contacted the Special Services at the school and requested additional and more extensive testing on him. The speech pathologist is only in Vienna twice a month, and of course she had just been there before I contacted them, so we had to wait nearly a month to get in.

Hunter was so excited to go to school. Here he is patiently waiting for the "fun" to begin.

The testing was supposed to take about an hour. We were there for 2 1/2!!

The following week I went in for a meeting to discuss the results.

He was found to have a phonological disorder and an expressive language disorder. I felt he had more of a receptive language problem, but he tested well in that department (but I don't think it is accurate because I believe a 1 year old could have completed what she asked of him on this particular test).

Therefor, he was finally approved for speech services. He will go twice a week for 30 minutes. Right now they are going to focus on the phonological (articulation). They feel once he does better at that then, possibly the expressive language will begin to develop. So we will see.

I pray so hard that the speech therapy will be successful and he will flourish and be back up to par with the rest of his peers by the time he starts school. It breaks my heart to see him struggle. A speech and language problem effects so much of his life and his ability to learn new things.

I know it could be so much worse. He is a healthy boy and I am beyond grateful for that.