Wednesday, July 30, 2008

An Unnecessary Trip


When we made our last trip to the audiologist to pick up earmolds, two appointments were made. One for a hearing test, and the other for earmold impressions. I received appointment cards for both appointments, but foolishly never consulted them and remembered the dates (the 28th and the 7th). When I got home, I wrote down the appointments for July 28th (impressions) and August 7th (hearing test and earmold pickup).

Turns out I should have consulted the appointment cards and not trusted my feeble brain. I took the boys on a four hour tour of Western New York on Monday for no good reason! When I arrived at the audiologist's office, we were not on the list for the day. After consulting with the receptionist, it turns out our appointments were for August 7th and AUGUST 28th. Oops. Oh, well- that's what we're good for. Supporting local gas stations and the toll booths!

I also received Matthew's informal testing results. He is above age level for receptive communication (117th percentile), expressive communication (108th percentile), and severely impaired in articulation. I don't have the percentile yet, but a severe impairment means he is at least 2 standard deviations below his peer group. He doesn't say most of his vowels correctly, omits final and middle consonants, and has a few consonant subsitutions. We will, of course, be pursuing another hearing test just to make sure. I doubt a hearing problem with expressive/receptive scores that high, but there is always the possibility of a high frequency or mild hearing loss that is affecting his articulation. I am a tad concerned about the complete lack of plurals. This means he will stay in the early intervention system until his third birthday, and will likely transition to the local school district under an IEP for speech.

The wondeful thing about the early intervention system is that both boys have therapy on the same day in our home, so I don't have to go trotting off to an office four times per week (twice for Matt and twice for Nolan). With speech therapy, MOPS, library hour, and the Two-By-Two's program, I am going to be one busy mama!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good grief Leah, I don't know how you do it. I'm tired just reading this! Your attitude is admirable; I've made the same mistake with a trip to the hospital and we wound up spending 6 hours in the car. I was NOT HAPPY about either! Glad to see that Matt will likely transition from IFSP to IEP. Now hopefully you'll get a good SLP with the school who will assess him well and write good goals. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Loudest Mom said...

Wow- what a looooong trip (and all for nothing :) Sounds like my life- LOL! Oh the gas.....

But still with the upbeat attitude :)

Unknown said...

I don't know how you do it! I would have been so mad at myself! Thanks for all of the good tips and encouragement!

tammy said...

Oh Leah! UGH! Good news on Matthew's expressive & receptive language! It's amazing what a good SLP can do for kids with artic. issues! If you need help/questions about goals, my BFF is an AWESOME elementary (ages 3-11) SLP, let me know!