If You've Been Handed It...

You can handle it...

So I've been having a problem with Kylee and her speech. Or very lack thereof. About 9 months ago her ped noticed that maybe she was a little behind and suggested that maybe we consider getting a speech evaluation done through a speech therapist. Ryan was very ADAMANTLY against this and it's something that we disagreed on for about 6 more months to come. For sake of argument, we didn't do the evaluation. About 2 months ago, her ped herself was getting adamant about getting her evaluated so we did. We had this retarded lady come to the house who only spent a half an hour with Kylee and said she was fine and "age appropriate" in all 5 areas that they critique and then rushed out the door because she was gonna be late picking her kids up from school. A few weeks ago when I mentioned to her doctor that she didn't qualify for services because she wasn't behind enough, she pretty much told me that was impossible and I should get her reevaluated. So I got a new speech therapist to come to the house who wasn't in a hurry to leave. She spent an hour and a half with Kylee and without even scoring her test told me that she most definitely qualifies and fell "significantly behind" in two areas of communication. For anybody who doesn't know about this... AZEIP is a program for children birth to 3 years who are delayed in any area of communication. It's a state funded program and is free for any child who falls 50% behind or more. So that means that Kylee would have had to fall at a 12 month range or below to be accepted and she scored below that in two areas. So we'll be doing a speech therapy program once a week for the next year. Kylee's ped and the therapist both had said that if she isn't caught up by the time she's 3, the school district picks her up and will put her in "special" preschool classes. Though I would give her whatever help she needed, it is difficult to swallow considering I had an academic scholarship to college and would hope that she got at least some of that from me. But the therapist swears it has absolutely nothing to do with intelligence or lack of. As of date, Kylee only has a few words - mama, dada, baby, please, cheese, ball, and bath. But this therapist didn't give her credit for any of them because she can't use them functionally. Meaning, she only says them if I say "can you say.....?" She doesn't use them without being illicited, so she calls them "imitations" not words. Needless to say, the language barrier between Kylee and us is significant and puts a lot of strain on us as parents in trying to find out what she wants or needs throughout the day. It can get quite frustrating. Then of course there's the issue of Ryan who still doesn't think she needs any help. He has a huge ego and I think it embarasses him more than anything. But he does also think that it's impossible that any child of his would ever need help with anything and that her doctor and the therapist are blowing this out of proportion. Well, I'm not holding her back anymore for sake of argument. Whether he likes it or not, she'll be in therapy for at least the next year to get her where she needs to be before she's 3. I will do everything in my power to assure that she's not in "special" classes in school. And as a parent, it all falls back to why? Though there's not an answer for that, there are things that may or may not have attributed to it.... the magnesium sulfate that I had to take during my pregnancy, the terbutaline in massive quantities that I had to take, the fact that she was premie, and that she was tongue-tied until she was 17 months old all are being taken into consideration in playing a factor as to why she's behind. Though we'll never know what the reason is, at least we're on track to getting her to communicate with us. I would love to see her wave hi/bye because she still doesn't do that, or blow kisses, or shake/nod her head for no/yes. I kinda feel like I'm missing out on what would be the funnest part so far of having her - listening to the cute little things that she says. I don't have that yet. And though I know it will come some day, it makes me a little sad that it's not something that I get to hear all day long right now. However, I should probably be grateful that her being in full swing of her terrible two's she still doesn't say the word "NO!!".