This week, we took Sir Smiley to be evaluated by a speech therapist, and it was truly one of the funniest hours of my life. And I wasn't even allowed to laugh. After texting a few tidbits to some friends, they encouraged me to tell the entire story - because his logic is just so ... so ... well ... you'll see.
A bit of background, in case you're new here ... Sir Smiley had chronic ear infections for the first two years of his life. By the time we got tubes put in his ears just after he turned 2, he had lost 60% of his hearing. Because he couldn't hear, he also wasn't able to speak. After the tubes were placed in, he regained back all of his hearing, but it still took him quite some time to speak. Combine that with his almost paralyzing shyness, and we knew we were going to have problems. He's 4.5 now, and his talking has improved by leaps and bounds, and he's starting to open up a little bit more to people - instead of running and hiding.
In addition to all of that ... the older three kids were all early talkers. All three of them had substantial vocabularies before they were two, and they all spoke very clearly. With Smiley, I have no clue what "normal" is. I'm always a bit paranoid that he's behind, because the others were so far ahead, I can't figure out what the standard average is. And, it isn't so much that I think he has huge problems, but I just wanted to be sure.
Ok ... now on to the evaluation ... we finally decided that Sir Smiley could comprehend that he needed to actually speak to the therapist, and he was big enough to do it.
When we first meet Ms. M, she's Indian and has an accent. It takes Smiley almost 10 minutes to figure out how to understand her. It was hysterical. A text to a friend revealed *this* little gem: They adopted their daughter from Russian and took her to a therapist that had a thick Southern drawl. Their daughter now speaks with the same accent. I think Smiley has developed too much language by this point to pick up an accident, but that would be so funny if he did!!
The rest of the evaluation revealed a bunch of weird unveilings of Sir Smiley's weird logic:
~ She pointed to a picture and asked him to name what it was, and he answered "bunny". She asked him what another name for it was, he answered with, "Joshie" - the name of his bunny. She was very confused. So, I said, "Not the name of YOUR bunny, what is another word for bunny?" Then he looked at us like we were both morons and answered "Rabbit".
~ Q: Which one of these things doesn't match: milk, water, orange juice, banana?
A: Water and milk. (Because orange juice and banana are both fruit - duh)
~ Q: Why do we go to sleep?
A: Because it is night time.
Q: But why do we go to sleep when it is night time? And what about babies that go to sleep during the day? Why do you think they go to sleep?
A: Because they're tired, and their mommies tell them to.
~ Q: Why do we eat?
A: Because God tells us to.
(She didn't follow this one up ... I think she wasn't sure how to lol)
~ Q: What do milk and orange juice have in common?
A: They both come in bottles.
After that last one, she looked at me and said, " ... well ... he has very .... ummm..... interesting .... logic."
Little guy cracked me up. He giggled the entire time, I have no idea why he thought the whole process was so funny, but he sure did. I was very impressed with his ability to open up and communicate so well with her. He wouldn't say good-bye to her, though. Once the test was over, he was DONE. But I was proud!!
The result ... in case you're wondering ... actually isn't in yet. She scored each of the answers and has to send the test off to a doctor to be checked before a final determination is made. BUT ... what she did say? He made it through the entire test, and was able to answer most of the questions - something apparently most children his age aren't able to do. Usually, that is a feat accomplished by children in the first grade or above. She did notice some s/z issues, but we knew those were there. Overall, she thinks he's probably right where he should be. YAY!!!
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