Great Job Buddy!

This week has been one of "those" weeks. Lily has been sick and up and down the past couple of nights, the weather is gross, and I'm running around like an absolute nut trying to squeeze everything in that I can in the limited amount of time that I actually have. I almost lost it yesterday picking up Christian early from school and then shuttling him all the way back to our neighborhood for an appointment with our county school SLP. I had to wake sweet Lily up from her nap (again), traffic was HORRIBLE (as always) and I didn't make it the gym (not good). I was grumpy, and certain that what was left of the day was shot.

When I picked Christian up an hour earlier, my mood instantly changed. His teacher reported that they "Had the BEST session EVER" that he did awesome in some background noise situations, that he ROCKED identifying different speakers in NOISY situations, and that he was a superstar in isolating the /f/ and /v/ sound. She even joked "He doesn't need me, seriously".

Of course I was elated and forgot about all the crabbiness of the day. High-fives were given, chocolate milk was toasted when we got home, and I snuck in some big squeezes to my little guy. I'm so proud of him. Honestly, this child works harder than any kid I know. While we technically really don't need speech services any more, the tasks that his teacher is working on with him are almost like drills to prepare him for the "REAL" world when we leave his school and he goes into the public school in our neighborhood with 27 kids a class. He WILL have to work hard to listen in a noisy classroom. He WILL have to work at identifying different speakers in NOISY situations. I'm glad that he's working on all these skills now. I know he'll be ready when the time comes.

Speech and Language Evaluation--Calling all Been There/Done That Mommas! I have a question for you!

Ok, so we just got Christian's narrative report back from him his school. We're very pleased with his scores:

PLS-4 Total Language Score is 110, functioning in the 75th percentile rank. Age equivalent of 2 years, 6 months
Expressive One-Word Vocab Test-Raw Score is 24, Standard is 101, 53rd Percentile Rank, Age equivalent of 2 years, 2 months
Receptive One-Word Vocab Test-Raw Score is 24, Standard is 101, 53rd Percentile Rank, Age equivalent of 2 years, 2 months
Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation-Raw Score is 41, Standard is 100, 60th Percentile Rank, Age Equivalent of 2 years, 4 months

And I quote from the Speech and Language Diagnosis:

"Christian presents a severe bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. At the present time, his speech and language skills were found to be within normal limits".

I knew that, but I love to see it in writing. I love knowing that in all of these tests, my Deaf kid is STILL testing at and above age level.

His Expressive and Receptive One Word Vocab Test scores worry me. I know our big challenge areas use of objects, pronouns, and sometimes negation. Our BIG challenge is the repetition of "Wh" questions.

So, for all of you amazing Moms out there who have been through this, help me figure out how to help him with these areas. What do you do at home? The SLPs at his school are going to give me homework, but I know from experience that there are some pretty innovative readers of my blog, and I want to tap into my resources here :)

Language Update

Today we had our first official appointment with Christian's new SLP. This SLP works at Christian's school that he'll be attending this fall. It just so happens that she will be the SLP that will be in the classroom, helping him out. We haven't been in the school since the tour we took a couple of months ago, and things are changing. They are getting ready for the new school year with many new renovations. I also did the dry run of driving him down there...in rush hour traffic. It actually wasn't that bad! I can't wait for him to go there. I just know he is going to thrive there!

Christian LOVED his new teacher. At several points in the hour long session, he even asked her to hold him or for him to sit on her lap. We heard two new phrases today at the appointment today too. While pointing to a light blinking, Christian learned to say "Bink Bink". And after hearing his teacher say "I see that", he caught on and said "I ee dat". HOORAY CHRISTIAN!

We got a gold star from the SLP on our work here at home, and she gave me some homework for the next week. We're going to continue to work on the concept of Mine and Yours. And we'll work on Your Turn, My Turn. She was so happy with Christian's progress so far. It helps to get a pat on the back from a teacher who specializes in little ones with CIs!