Hearing Test Tomorrow

Nolan was rather uncooperative today, which makes me nervous for tomorrow's booth test. With a two hour drive up to Buffalo, I seriously hope he wants to play the "hearing game" tomorrow. We plan on using the same techniques that worked last time, which include doing the test in the morning and keeping Mommy out of the testing booth. He fell for the "I have to get some coffee" trick last time- hopefully it will work this time, too.

If all else fails, I've bribed him with a trip to the Buffalo Zoo as a reward after the test is complete. A new children's playground was unveiled a few weeks ago, and the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new children's zoo will be held tomorrow. Here's to a fun day tomorrow!

Name Recognition Craft

When Nolan tries to spell his name, he always says, "M-O-L-A-M." That pesky /N/ sound is very close to the /N/ sound. We try to emphasize the difference in the sound, but unless he watches our mouths, he has no clue whether we are saying "N" or "M."

Luckily, Nolan recognizes most of the written letters, so I can use this knowledge to support his understanding of the sounds in his name.

I decided to recycle some old magazines into a mosaic name craft. I wrote his name onto cardboard, then cut squares from old magazines. We separated the squares by color, then applied them to the cardboard with watered down glue. As we were applying the green squares to the first N, I would say, "We're turning the N green. N says nnnnn. N is for Nolan!"


When we were done, I cut out the dried letters to round out the edges, and put them on construction paper. I sealed it with clear contact paper and placed it over Nolan's bed. He's quite proud of his name, and hopefully he'll start learning his name as "Nolan" rather than "Molam!"

Miscommunication

Yesterday was a tad rushed. Preschool, speech therapy, a CPSE meeting, a playdate at McDonald's, contractors over to look at the roof (we really didn't want a shower coming through the light fixture, thank you very much), and ice skating lessons.

There wasn't a lot of spare time in the schedule, so I poured Nolan a sippy-cup full of milk and handed him a snack to eat in the car on the way to Matt's preschool. Nolan took the cup, inspected it, and immediately declared, "Want deuce."

I speak Nolanese quite well, and informed him that he was having milk, not juice, for snack. He proceeded to have a temper tantrum as I eyed the clock and realized we had to leave NOW. I scooped up the yelling toddler, put him in his carseat, and handed him his milk.

All the way to the preschool, Nolan screamed at top volume,

"I WANT DEUCE! DEUCE! NEED MORE DEUCE! MY DEUCE!!!!"

I had to pull the car over in an attempt to stop the screaming. Trust me, it was earsplitting. I took his milk away and informed the lad he could have milk, or nothing at all. He begrudgingly accepted the milk and we were on the road again.

"MY DEUCE! I NEED DEUCE, MOM! MORE DEUCE!"

I wanted earplugs more than anything else in the world. Truly, the boy was carrying on at an incredible volume.

We pulled into the preschool and I stepped out of the car. Nolan was still howling, and I opened up the slider and Nolan glared at me.

He pointed to his feet and yelled,

"I NEED MORE DEUCE!"

Then I realized. He wasn't saying "I need more juice."

He was saying, "I need my shoes."

In my harried attempt to get out of the house on time, I had put him in the car without his shoes on. I felt quite chagrined as I carried him through the rain and into the preschool building. He relaxed once he knew I understood what he was saying, and I promised him we'd get his shoes in a few minutes, as soon as Matt was out of preschool. He wouldn't let me put him down, so I carried him until we had picked Matthew up and returned to the car.

I learned two things today:

• Twenty six pounds of almost-3 year old boy gets incredibly heavy after five minutes.
• Communication difficulties can cause one heck of a temper tantrum.
  

We have another busy day ahead... hopefully I'll remember everyone's shoes today!

Declassified

Today I bundled two children into the car and drove to our local middle school. We signed in, got our visitor pass, and walked into the meeting room in the Pupil Services Office.

Our beloved Speech Therapist brought toys for the boys to play with during the meeting. Honestly, she's the best SLP EVER. And no, you can't have her. She's ours!

We talked about Matt's scores (articulation standard score of 94: 100 is average). He now scores in the "normal" range, with no delay.

We completed the exit form, signed several consent forms, and gathered our things.

Then Matt looked at the secretary, who was taking the notes, and said in a clear voice:

"I don't need therapy anymore. I just need to go to big boy school now."

Today was A Very Good Day.

IFSP: Six Month Review and Goals

When will they make mud-proof hearing aids?

Nolan's six month review for his Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) through Early Intervention is due this month. We held the meeting yesterday, and nailed down some new goals for the little guy prior to transition to the school district setting.

Early Intervention meetings are very informal, consisting of the service provider, the family, and the service coordinator. I love these cozy, low-key meetings. The process to create an IEP through the school district is far more bureaucratic and formal.

We reviewed Nolan's test scores, which are as follows (an average score is a percentile rank of 50, for the math-impaired):

Chronological age at the time of testing: 2 years, 8 months

Auditory Comprehension:
3 years, 5 months (Percentile rank of 82)

Expressive language:
2 years, 11 months (Percentile rank of 55)

Total language:
3 years, 1 month (Percentile rank of 70)

Articulation:
Standard score 79, 100 is average (Percentile rank of 8)

He is excelling with his auditory comprehension, is age appropriate with his expressive language, and is now showing a moderate impairment with articulation.

We reviewed the goals from his former IFSP, to see which ones he has met and which ones need to be continued:

1. Nolan will engage in appropriate turn-taking in conversation without additional prompting. Goal Met.
2. Nolan will continue to use sign language in addition to verbalizations to express self. Less emphasis has been placed on signing because he is excelling with language skills/prefers to speak. He recognizes familiar signs- goal to be continued.
3. Nolan will auditorilly discriminate sounds in structured activities from a field of six: Goal Met. Nolan can discriminate many environmental sounds including bird calls.
4. Nolan will identify objects by function: Goal Met.
5. Nolan will use plurals: Goal Not Met. This goal is emerging and will be continued. Some of the expressive fluctuations may be related to the fluctuating hearing loss.
6. Nolan will answer simple "wh" questions: Goal emerging and will be continued. He is still noted to repeat a question at times instead of answering it.
7. Nolan will discriminate and use "inside voice" and "outside voice" appropriately. Goal Met.

We created goals for the next six months, which are:

• Nolan will use sign language in addition to verbalizations to express self.
• Nolan will use plurals.
• Nolan will answer simple "wh" questions.
• Nolan will produce age appropriate consonants and words.
• Nolan will produce the verb plus "ing" in conversational speech.
• Therapist to provide suggestions and ideas and provide written and oral updates as available.

This is our last Early Intervention meeting- the next meeting will be in August, to transition Nolan to the school district and implement an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

CPSE Meeting Scheduled

The school district called, and I thought, "Aha! They're calling to schedule Nolan's CPSE meeting!"

It was the school district, and it was the Special Education Chairperson, but the meeting was for Matt. Sometimes I forget that he's still in speech therapy, too (even though I'm a participant in every therapy session)! Next Wednesday, we'll meet to discuss his progress.

Matt has come a long, long way since he entered the Early Intervention system. At the age of two, Matt had almost no words. "Go," and "Uh-oh," were the sum total of his communication. If we tried to get him to say, "Ball," he would strain out a "Fah-vah." Nothing even close to the word.

Now, at the age of four-and-a-half (because you must never forget the "and a half"), he speaks in paragraphs. He tells stories, he sings, he jokes. He even has those dratted /s/ blends. The only sound he still struggles with is the /r/ (weally wed fokes = really red forks). The /R/ sound is the latest developing sound, however, so this is a normal developmental variation.

Pending the results of his recent articulation test, we are planning to "declassify" him at the next CPSE meeting. He will leave the special education system, forever.

My heart sings.

Off to the Library

Dennis is working all day today, thunderstorms are expected, and I don't want to get stuck in the house today. Two small boys have far too much energy to keep cooped up, even if the weather is threatening.

We're heading out to the library, to make use of the children's area (puzzles galore). I also have a book on hold ("The Help" by Kathryn Stockett, if anyone cares).

Nolan is quite whiny again today, so this might be a very l o n g Saturday. Sometimes I wish there was an indoor playground for children in our area, since we have a lot of inclement weather. I hope the library "re-sets" Nolan's attitude (and mine)- we've already had two hours of non-stop crying.

If that doesn't work, I'm investing in earplugs!