Connor's private speech therapist did a new assessment on him today. One year ago he was at 1SD (standard deviation) behind in receptive, nearly 2SDs behind in expressive, and his expressive was so low she couldn't do an accurate articulation assessment.
Today he is smack dab in the middle of the "normal" range in receptive, right at 1SD in expressive, which was enough for her to do an articulation assessment. In articulation he is nearly 3SDs behind, way down at the bottom of the bell curve, but it gives us a number to start with!!
His progress has just been A-MA-ZING. Truly. It seems that his vocabulary jumps by leaps and bounds *daily*!! Understanding him is still very difficult, but boy those words are flowing!!!
2 years ago we weren't sure if he'd ever be verbal. His oral motor issues, structural defects, and hearing loss were so severe that we were prepared for ASL to be his only option for expressive communication. We kept pushing the speech therapy anyway, and aggressively worked on correcting everything else. His oral awareness is still moderate (he drools a lot, still has issues with his tongue, very hypotonic through the face) but his palate, lip, and larynx issues have improved greatly, and we finally (FINALLY!) got him fitted with an appropriate hearing aid (well, sort of a hearing aid, an iSense Micro is what he wears) this summer and that was the last little leg up he needed!! The verbal language portion of his brain just exploded and there's no stopping him now!!!
He still has an ASL interpreter at school, and I'll fight to keep her through preschool at least, until his articulation improves some. He still has Apraxia that we have to work through, and that might take a while still.
But...WOW for PROGRESS!!!!!!!
Today he is smack dab in the middle of the "normal" range in receptive, right at 1SD in expressive, which was enough for her to do an articulation assessment. In articulation he is nearly 3SDs behind, way down at the bottom of the bell curve, but it gives us a number to start with!!
His progress has just been A-MA-ZING. Truly. It seems that his vocabulary jumps by leaps and bounds *daily*!! Understanding him is still very difficult, but boy those words are flowing!!!
2 years ago we weren't sure if he'd ever be verbal. His oral motor issues, structural defects, and hearing loss were so severe that we were prepared for ASL to be his only option for expressive communication. We kept pushing the speech therapy anyway, and aggressively worked on correcting everything else. His oral awareness is still moderate (he drools a lot, still has issues with his tongue, very hypotonic through the face) but his palate, lip, and larynx issues have improved greatly, and we finally (FINALLY!) got him fitted with an appropriate hearing aid (well, sort of a hearing aid, an iSense Micro is what he wears) this summer and that was the last little leg up he needed!! The verbal language portion of his brain just exploded and there's no stopping him now!!!
He still has an ASL interpreter at school, and I'll fight to keep her through preschool at least, until his articulation improves some. He still has Apraxia that we have to work through, and that might take a while still.
But...WOW for PROGRESS!!!!!!!
