This & That
realisticdreams
member
This being M had her annual review for EI last week, they were giving me her age ranges for areas and when they came to expressive speech she stopped.
EI- "do you want to know this?"
deer in the headlight look from me.
Me-"yes..i mean I think I should know, it's fine just tell me."
EI-"we can take the ages off here you don't have to know"
Me-cue sporadic crazy lady crying. "No I want to know, it's fine, i don't know why i'm crying." (maybe bc she was making such a big deal about it!!!)
EI-"Ok, she's on a 10 month level for expressive."
Well bleh. lol. P's first speech eval was at 15 months and she was on a 9 month level and that hit me like bricks for some reason. This..I expected it. I mean she DOESN'T talk and she's almost 2. I know a 6 month old who says the same things she's able to say.
We still need to be evaluated by a medical model though (per neuro) and because EI won't give us an ST since she has no foundation for speech..
The THAT being that P wants things for Xmas that aren't exactly appropriate for her diagnosis. She's obsessed with a pogo stick. Has been crying about it off/on for days. I found one more tailored to toddlers and it's cheap so I'm going to buy it for her, but really? A pogo stick? lol I mean she can barely walk some days! I guess it's the irony of it that gets me. I know it's great she doesn't see anything in herself to hold herself back but I'm looking at the bigger picture because I know she is going to be beyond disappointed when she can't do it. She JUST started to be able to jump from the floor. And she's pretty obsessed about it, which may be why she wants the pogo stick. I just hate that even something that should be simple as picking out gifts is a reminder of the physical challenges that she has faced and will continue to have to face.
Re: This & That
I totally feel you here and live with something similar with DS2. He is obsessed with the Leap Pad and of course there are a couple of games he loves that requires he uses 2 hands which he simply cannot do. How do you handle things like this? I'm trying to figure it out for when I simply am not available to be a 2nd hand for him.
Sorry to hear about M. I don't understand why EI won't give her a SLP. Isn't creating a foundation of speech part of what they should work on?
I have no idea how we are supposed to handle things like this. On one hand I hate setting her up for failure and P is obsessed with all things electronic as well and gets easily frustrated. So far I've kind of being going with the approach of letting her still have what she wants. Her fine motor skills are OK so this pogo stick and scooter thing are the first things shes really wanted that I know aren't going to be easy for her to use.
I'm kind of looking at it from a therapy view now. She wants it, and so maybe if she gets it we can use it to work on building her strength in her right leg, etc. The pogo stick on the other hand, I have no clue! how it's going to work out. Probably with a broken bone lol.
M has been getting developmental services to try and work on creating the foundation...but I think we will end up having to go with a medical model program since they don't require a foundation before starting ST, which i'm not even sure if our insurance will cover.
She will be 2 in Feb so it is starting to be much more noticeable that she doesn't talk. She also failed her hearing test at the ENT though (although they think it's bc she was upset) she passed one ear for normal tones but not the other ear and neither ear for other pitches, etc. So it's something we need to get re-checked and if she fails again we have to go get a sedated ABR in Richmond.
So glad it's almost a new year and we get to start our deductible all over again! /sarcasm lol.
Hugs! I had a really hard few days when we got back Sister's eval. I cried for a few days.
I also feel you on the gift thing. Somedays it just sucks!
I love how the EI's have to be so dramatic with things. Just spill it, wait for us to have our breakdown and don't build up so much! I think it is great that she is improving- granted, being 2 and having a 10 month expressive skills probably seems tough to the family, but like you said, she went up by a month! These baby steps are what kill me. I am a very impatient person, so having small progress is tough, but I know that we have to do our best to recognize it for what it is.
For the pogo stick- when did this come back? My coworker said she was thinking about it for her child too. I reminded her that we work in brain injury, and that seemed to have her rethink it! haha. My children are going to grow up in bubble-wrap, I swear! But, I bet that the toy thing can get tough. At this age, so many of the toys out there are to help build that fine and gross motor skills. For what it is worth, I have to ban DH from buying anything like that, because I am tired of ER visits.
I may have wrote something wrong although I didn't re-read. P's first speech eval at 15 months was a 9 month level. This was M's annual review so we had never really been given a figure before for her speech, and they said 10 months, she is 21 months. :-
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00704IO48/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i02
That's what I ended up buying..I really don't know how she's going to use it anyways!