Never Ceases to Amaze Me...

We had an IEP review meeting today and also reviewed Christian's Speech Language Evaluation this year. All I can say is WOW! I'll put the full review of the tests below for all the folks who are interested. In a nutshell, my deaf son, who has technically only been hearing for 1 year and 5 months is testing an entire year over his chronological age (he is pushing 3, and he is testing at the 3 years, 8 month level). Our IEP meeting at Christian's school was painless, as we continue to maximize Christian's successes and help him advocate for himself in situations where he can't hear that great (Reminding him to speak-up and let folks know to "Please say it again" and "What did you say? I can't hear you"), and continuing to develop his language.

Christian never ceases to amaze me. How he keeps up with all his challenges, let alone exceeds age appropriate expectations is a marvel. This is the boy that I was afraid would never speak. And now look at him! My sweet boy. My hard worker. My guy who defies the odds. My superstar. My love. And my hero. Christian, you make us SO proud.


TESTING REVIEW

5 tests were administered, and I'll go into more detail on some rather than others.

1. Reynell Developmental Language Scales (RDLS)
2. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-PPVT (Form A)
3. Kaufman Speech Praxis Test-KSPT
4. Oral Motor Evaluation
5. Classroom Language Sample

The RDLS evaluates Christian's verbal comprehension and expressive language development. He received a standard score of 121 (verbal comprehension) and 110 (expressive language). These scores reflect above average receptive skills and expressive skills. His scores indicate an approximate 5 month developmental advance over his current chronological age (2 years, 7 months).

Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-4) assesses a child's receptive vocabulary at the single word level. Christian received a standard score of 122, which again indicates above average receptive vocabulary skills. He was in the 93rd percentile, meaning he scored as well or better than ninety-three percent of his peers. The age equivalent was found to be one year ahead of his chronological age.

The Kaufman Speech Praxis Test assessed Christian's ability to motor plan and execute speech sounds. Part 1 examined oral movement, which is tested in the average range. Part 2 tested the simple phonemic/syllabic level (producing vowels and consonans in isolation as well as in monosyllables, repetitive sullables, and bi-syllabics. He received a standard score of 98, which indicates average skills. Part 3 of the test had Christian produce complez phonemic productions in different parts of a word, as well as words with increased syllable and complexity. He received a standard score of 95, which indicates sound production skills in the average range. Part 4 measured Christian's spontaneous speech skills. His score of five indicates increased intelligibility skills.

This test really helped us ID some of the articulation issues that he has, including the initial /v/ deletion, substitutions of initial /b/ for /f/, /v/ for /b/, /f/ for devoice /th/, and /w/ for l.

The Classroom Language Sample included a sample of 100 consecutive speech productions in the classroom during choice time play activies, over two twenty minute time frames. During the sample, Christian communicated with both his teachers and peers. The language sample examined his voice, fluency, imitation, pragmatics, syntax, and mean length of utterance. He is doing well in all areas, exploring appropriate grammatical structures, improving his use of subject-verb-object word orders, as well as the use of pronouns. Most impressively, Christian's Mean Length of Utterance of 3.71, which corresponds to children approximately 40 months of age (which is 9 months above his chronological age).