Speech Evaluation

As most of you may be aware, Ryan has been followed by Early Intervention since he was 6 months old. Early Intervention is basically a support system for children with developmental disablities or delays and provides occupational, physical & speech therapy. In some states it may be called something slightly different such as "Birth to 3" since children can be in the program until age 3. Since Ryan will be 3 in July (Yikes!), we have now started the transition to see if he will qualify for school district speech therapy. Last month we met with our school district therapy coordinator to ask questions and for her to assess Ryan's speech. It was not a formal evaluation but gave us a chance to find out what the school district therapy was all about and what would happen if he did end up needing and qualifying for services. She then came out to our house a couple weeks later for the first part of the formal evaluation...basically she needed to see how he was in his "home" environment. Earlier this week, was the second part of the evaluation in which we went to the office and met another evaluator who did tests with Ryan. These "tests" were more like play to Ryan. It was pointing things out in a book and following directions when a certain toy was put in front of him. The first toy that was on the table when we walked in was a shape puzzle. Well, I'm pretty sure I've said this before but Ryan's ability to put a puzzle together or in this case, shapes in the right hole, is phenomenal. Ryan can do 24 piece puzzles with no problem so this 6 piece puzzle was a breeze. The area where he is lacking is his ability to answer simple questions such as "what is your name?". He knows his name is Ryan but he only answers that question every so often...almost seems like only when he feels like it. Yes and No questions he either won't answer or will only answer No to. Our speech therapist says part of this is a processing delay. Ryan needs time to process what's being asked or needs to be asked more than once.  Based on these two areas, the evaluator is going to write the report so Ryan will qualify for services. It would be once a week at the school in a group setting of probably just a handful of kids. He did say though by August (when the school therapist will evaluate him), that in those areas, he may have improved significantly where he might not need the school therapy. We talked about the fact that Ryan has been congested basically since before Christmas and we've passed it off as a never ending cold or allergies. Since we took Ryan to the pedi last month and he was put on the 10 day antibiotic, his speech has defnitely improved. He is now saying many 3 & 4 word sentences. The evaluator said, even if he doesn't have an ear infection but he's congested, this can and does affect their ability to hear, thus his ability to talk and thinks we should look more into why he's been having this prolonging congestion. We had already decided to see the pedi about this issue, since once he came off the antibiotic the runny nose & congestion came back. I'd like to have him seen by an allergist since as a child I had terrible allergies, both food & environmental. But we'll see what the pedi has to say first. As far as the school district therapy, we'll get an official notification in a couple weeks that will tell us that he qualifies. He will still remain with Early Intervention until July and then in September will transition over to the school system. Once Ryan turns 3, it will be 2 1/2 years since we started Early Intervention and we've had the same coordinator for that time. It will be 18 months with the same speech therapist. It's definitely going to be a little sad to be saying goodbye, not only because we've gotten to know them so well and they've helped Ryan make such significant strides but because it means our baby is growing up.