Child Find (Speech)

A request was recently submitted to me through email to update on J.R.s speech impediment. I have added a tab at the top of my blog titled," Speech Therapy and ADHD". In that tab I will post all the links related to this topic in my blog so they are easily access able.

Right now I am going to take a break in blogging about our R&R, and blog about the beginning of our Speech therapy Journey.

Background: In 2008 is when we decided to find intervention for J.R. and what to seem as a speech delay. My husband grew up with problems in speech/comprehension and reading. Sr. grew out of this by the time he was nine years old, had confidence J.R. would do the same. I, however, could not leave the situation up to genetics and time, so I contacted our local EDIS office, but since J.R. was already three he could not participate in their program and would instead have to go through, Child Find, which is a DOD program used to evaluate children for learning disabilities.

In February we went for our evaluation, at one of our local elementary schools. They asked J.R. lots of questions, they had him play ball, and a few other motor skills type tests. We waited 5 months before we got a letter in the mail with his results. His motor skills were at or above normal, but his speech and comprehension were below average for his age level. This came as no surprise, we knew he was struggling in this area.

He was accepted into the program. We started making arrangements for J.R. to attend one-on-one instruction with Mrs. R, twice a week for thirty minute sessions. This plan was called his IEP and would follow him into Kindergarten. August 2008 is when he started, and he loved going to see  Mrs. R. His speech did not  improve over night but it got better. When Junior started out with Mrs. R, he did not have a large audible vocabulary, and called every woman he came into contact with, "Mom", but over the year he learned. He learned to pronounce and remember every ones names, he learned to communicate better his wants and needs, and Mrs. R taught me of ways I can help him at home over the summer since Child Find only runs through the year.

-The speech pathologist finding was that J.R. had weak oral muscles which is why he struggled with pronunciation, he also spoke from the back of his throat instead of the front of his mouth. Example: instead of saying Dog, he said Gog, the G sound coming from the back of mouth compared do the D sound coming from the front. (Did you try it?)-

So June 2009 his first year of speech ended with slow progression. August 2009 we go in for another evaluation to see what J.R. has remembered from the previous school year, and also for me to inform them that  J.R. has developed a stutter.

Ill end this post here, and continue with that post another day.