Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Re-evaluated

Last Thursday was Sam's re-evaluation for Early Childhood Special Education, through which he's been receiving speech and language services for his communication delay.

It went well; he's still more or less in the normal range for everything except speech, with a few small exceptions. He's solidly between the 18-24 month and 24-30 month ranges overall, with some skills falling into each range. (He is 30 months old.) So he'll continue to qualify for services until he is 3 in May, and we're already registered for the next round of free ECFE where he receives services.

In addition, he'll be evaluated in January for autism. While I don't think he lies on the severe end of the spectrum, and his emotional expression and intelligence leads me to believe it is unlikely he has Asperger's, he does have some specific behaviors and personality traits which are common to autism. Once he figures out the communication piece, I think most of these traits and behaviors will serve him well later in life--he has incredible focus and the ability to learn what he wants to learn very quickly. For example, he learned to identify all letters of the alphabet by sight, not just in order of the ABCs, though he can also recite them in order. But without communication, these things are meaningless. Without knowing more words, he won't be able to read for comprehension, even though he can physically say all of the letters and most of their sounds.

Sam was super excited to see his therapists and speech pathologist come to our house, and was super sad to see them leave. He has made a good amount of progress since we started in September, and has met most of his speech goals for the term. Overall I am very happy with his "team" and their attitudes toward both Sam and me, and we are looking forward to the next term!

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