With all the recent drama with Seren and special care and effort taken there I don't think I ever followed up here with the Early Intervention side of things. We went in on October 16th to have the girls evaluated. The women that worked there were fabulous and so open and friendly. The girls both took to them fairly quickly. Even Kendall was right at home which came as a surprise to me.
They did an intake on both girls together for a few minutes just getting the jest down and going over forms we had filled out before to make sure it was primarily the expressive verbal that was concerning. Then they split us up, Jeff went with Seren and one lady and I stayed with Kendall and the other lady. They asked a whole bunch of questions regarding Kendall's language, comprehension and verbal development. Some of them were pretty technical and somewhat hard to answer as I wasn't sure. They asked about her understanding and her babbling and her word use. Some questions I didn't like as they would ask and I would tell them "no" and they'd be like "well she's not supposed to do that at this age so don't worry". She had some definite strengths and some areas where I wanted help for her. Seren was somewhat the same way according to Jeff. Seren does babble more and sing and is starting to imitate, whereas Kendall is a little more delicate and soft spoken and I think lets Seren do the talking or gets "taken over" in some ways with Seren being assertive.
They also did some play evaluations with them to see cognitive and problem solving development. They both did very good with this. In some areas Kendall tested at more of a 2 year old + level. Seren also did very well according to Jeff. So we aren't worried about them I think we just need help and direction in how to encourage speech.
They tested well and in all other areas they did not qualify for Early Intervention. In the verbal / expressive language they both struggled or were "delayed" a little. The team explained that they only qualified if they scored 77 or below. Seren scored at 79 and didn't qualify. Kendall scored at 73 or 74 and barely qualified. So we will be having follow up with another woman who wasn't present. She'll set up some meetings in our home to work with Kendall. I'm sure Seren will benefit at the same time. Once she/they start catching up then the services will discontinue. I'm honestly kind of looking forward to this help and guidance as I still feel like this is a shortcoming on my part. I always thought teaching babies and children to talk came pretty natural but I don't know if it completely is.
4 comments:
Please don't think it is a shortcoming on your part. Unless the early intervention is different where you live (and so far the evaluations as you described them sound very much like the ones J and A took), the speech therapy is someone playing with them encouraging them to speak. For example: "what is this toy?" "Can you point to the cow? What does the cow say? Moo?". So yeah, you can't actually make a child talk until they want to. The EI specialist can encourage them and help give them some one-on-one time, but they won't deprive them of a toy or anything else if the girls start to get frustrated. That would be counterproductive. Honestly, I found that our EI person was a wonderful resource for child development questions in general. And she knew where great preschoolers were and what community child friendly events were coming up. And after some initial adjustment, the kids ADORED her. In fact, the boys actually tested out of EI but our person came around to work with the boys about once a week, mostly as a support for my mother in law who needed another adult support! Sometimes I really felt that the EI specialist was as much here for the adults (by increasing our confidence) as she wa for the boys. Good luck!
Oh, and sorry for any spelling/grammar errors, I'm typing this on my phone. :D
Thanks Brenda. I'm sure it's very similar to the EI that your boys had. It's true you can't make them speak before they want to I just wonder if I did enough when they were baby small and didn't interact much is more my concern. I just worry about it when I see their friends (my friends children) who are 2 months and 7 months their junior and in many ways say more than my girls. The 2 month difference has taken off with vocabulary and the 7 month younger child is saying animal noises that our girls have no interest in. I guess you are always your own harshest judge. I know they'll catch up and I'm excited about the EI help just a little disheartening at the same time.
typical development has such wide-band timelines. By that, I mean that while we have some guidelines about when language, motor, social, etc. development occurs, it is meant as a guideline. I think it's great that you are taking them to this early screening and that you will get some intervention in the home. I suspect that their expressive language will just start exploding pretty soon. Once you learn to talk, you want to do it more and more.
And, like Brenda, I really don't think it's something you did or didn't do. The girls are developing in their own time, and clearly, you are supporting and promoting their development in each moment.
Thanks Augusta! I need that reminder and so does my friend probably as I think she privately gloats that her kid (2 months younger) is talking up a storm haha It really is up to them and unlike physical things you can't really even try to force them to talk (coaxing, bribing, etc yes...but still no guarantee). Thanks for the input and advice :)
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