Say It With Me Now... Choo Choo!

This is going to be a long one, so I'd recommend grabbing a cup of coffee or a Diet Pepsi or something before you start reading. Go on. I'll wait.

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Settled in? Okay.

So. Miss P (who turned 3 on Wednesday) has a language delay. Not a Oh My Goodness This Is A Huge Problem language delay, but I'd say she's about 6-9 months behind her peers in terms of vocabulary and enunciation. On top of her tendency to put 'sssss' in front of most words, she also struggles with anxiety - particularly when in unfamilar places or around unfamilar people. As you can imagine, this has made our efforts over the last 15 months to improve her speech/language development rather difficult.

We worked with the local Parents as Teachers group and enjoyed the playtime interactions but I'm not sure we were really accomplishing anything in terms of language. Miss P managed to keep moving along at her own pace, making leaps in word counts and enunciation, but still with an approximately 6-9 month delay. In October, we decided we needed to pay a little more attention to these issues, particularly since she was about to age out of the free services provided through Parents as Teachers. We got in touch with a local organization that also provides free services (but only until age 3) and they brought out a speech pathologist, a psychologist, and another early childhood professional (referred to as ECP from here on out) and did a battery of observational assessments. I say 'observational' because it's rather difficult to assess the verbal abilities of a child who won't talk to you.

Heh.

Anywho, this second local group decided that their best bet would be to help Miss P qualify for and then transition into the services provided by our local school district that begin at age 3. They came out on a weekly basis to play with P, working on that anxiety issue. We encouraged P to use her words and basically built her comfort level with the ECP. Then, we had a couple of meetings with the school district, which relied on the ECP's observations and our own parental input to assess Miss P's skill levels and needs going forward. Normally, there is a litany of tests that must be performed in order to qualify for these services but ... once again ... difficult to test the kiddo who is silent. Luckily, the district folks recognized a challenge when they saw one and decided Miss P qualified to enter the school district's early childhood program.

On Monday, the school district's speech language pathologist (SLP) came out to go over Miss P's IEP (Individual Education Plan). For those of you who are going through this sort of thing, her goals for the first seven months of service will center on fixing substitution errors (using one letter sound in place of another) and cluster reduction (using one sound at the beginning of words when there should be two). Goals also were developed for her anxiety issue, with "making requests of adults" and "initiating turn-taking with peers" being the focus.

Now, let me make this clear: When Miss P is at home, she has ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM making requests of adults (in fact, we hear a few too many requests thankyouverymuch) or initiating turn-taking with her sisters. At this moment, she and Miss A are screaming at each other in what is obviously a sharing, caring, turn-taking moment with the legos.

However, put her with other adults or with kiddos that aren't her sisters and it's a different story.

So. Ummm... Goals. The goals are very reasonable, in my opinion. We're shooting for things like "producing two sounds together at the beginnings of words where appropriate with 80% accuracy" and "initiating play routines with 1-2 prompts during a 30 minute session with her SLP". These are not overwhelming goals, but rather something that will be worked on over the course of her first year in the program.

And how will we accomplish these things you might ask? Well, you might not be asking but I'm telling. Do you need more coffee or Diet Pepsi? A bathroom break??? :)

Since the anxiety issue also is a part of this IEP, the SLP wants to develop a strong relationship with Miss P before she enters into the preschool program. To accomplish that, the first 7 months of service (until August 2010 - the new school year) will consist of weekly home visits with the SLP and weekly phonology group. The home visits will last for 30 minutes and will be primarily play-based, emphasizing the need for Miss P to use her words and communicate effectively with her SLP. The phonology group will help develop appropriate sound usage. We had our first session today and, because you've stuck with me this long, I'll give you a play-by-play.

There are 8 kids in phonology group, ages 3-5. Miss P is obviously the youngest and the oldest will be going to kindergarten in the fall. I was the only parent there and the goal is for me to eventually be able to drop Miss P off and go about my business for an hour or so. Our SLP runs the group, assisted by two more SLPs. Each group session centers on a word sound. Last week was the final T - cat, hat, and so on. This week was CH - cheese, chair, etc. The session begins with a review of last week's sound, accomplished by having the kids bring an item for show and tell. This week there was a hearT, a haT, and a lighTsaber (let's face it... the kid's parents missed the mark on that one!). After show and tell, there was a review of the phonological alphabet - each sound has an item and an action associated with it. For instance, CH is associated with a train and the 'Chugga Chugga Choo Choo' hand motion.

... which I am currently demonstrating... but you can't see me... I'm so smart sometimes.

Then it was story time with a book about a train, so the kids could say 'Choo Choo'. For art, the kiddos made a mouse who eats CHeese and for snack, they pretended they were mice who eat CHeese. Right before we wrapped it up for the day, the kids played musical CHairs. Next week, the kids will start with a review of the CH sound and then spend the rest of the session on a new sound. Is that cool or what???

Anywho, that's all I know for now. I'm excited to get a few weeks into this and see how Miss P is doing. The goal is for her to join the daily preschool group in August, at which time she'll be reassessed and a new IEP will be written to recognize the goals she's already accomplished and set new ones. I'll keep you updated.