I just realized that I've forgotten to update you all on the speech eval--sorry about that! :)
Dima had his speech eval on Friday. It was a long 2 hours of focusing on words, and he did a really great job. It was also painfully clear (to me) that he really needs some speech and language help. They also did a hearing test and once again he passed that (his last one was done in January) so I think we're confident that he doesn't have any hearing loss. The summary at the end of the session was "we think he needs speech therapy." Yeah, me too. They have to score all of the tests and then Mark and I will go in and get their complete breakdown of which specific areas Dima needs to work on.
Observations from the eval: We used a center through a local university, and while the testing went fine I don't think we'll be doing therapy there. They use graduate students for the testing and therapy (all supervised by licensed therapists, of course) which was okay for the tests but Dima is really going to need someone with a lot of experience because of the extent of his delays. If we just needed to work on a couple of sounds it would be one thing, but this is going to need to be some pretty comprehensive language therapy. It was really hard for me to sit and watch this, and realize how delayed Dima's language is. Yes, I know he's only been hearing English for 11 months, but some of the tests he should have been able to do without English--they were picture association tests that test comprehension. Those tests were towards the end, so he may have just been tired by that point, but it didn't go well.
It is discouraging to me to know how far behind he is, but it just means I'll rejoice even more in the small steps of progress!
Monday, November 10, 2008
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6 comments:
((Hugs)) to you! For once I can honestly say I know the heartache your going through. It is so hard to watch your children struggle so much with something that comes so easy for others.
Thankfully there is no hearing loss. That is GREAT! What a blessing that will be as he starts working on his speech.
I want to encourage you...although it may not sound like an encouragement. ALL FOUR of my children are in speech and language right now. Alek has been in it since second grade, Anya and Nick since preschool and of course Maddie.
Alek, after three years of help, is almost ready to test out...and Anya should be as well, by the end of the year.
Just because Dima is in speech now, doesn't mean it will be a lifetime struggle. His pronounciation just needs to be retrained...and his vocabulary strengthened.
There is SO much joy in hearing your struggling child pronounce words clearly for the first time!
Alek battled with his Rs an Ls. He can say both of them absolutely clearly now. Anya's struggle was mostly with her S's. She is now self-correcting and there is no noticable lisp at all.
Jack and Maddie both have a long way to go.
I have a theory. I think children who are brought home through international adoption, and who are more kinesthetic than verbal, have a higher chance of developing speech abnormalities. Just my theory...but its one I would really like to test out.
Think of it. The kids who are incredibly verbal, tend to do better with this kind of stuff anyway...and if you introduce a whole new language with different speech patterns to a child who is kinesthetic, there are bound to be issues.
Hang in there. This time next year I bet you'll see a huge difference in his speech...and language.
Thanks, Tami! :) :)
I think Dima will be in speech for a long time, moreso because it's not really the sounds that he struggles with. The only sound that he has a hard time with is "th" (which isn't in Russian) and he's actually getting close to getting that one. His problems relate more to the language processing itself. If you ask him to repeat a sentence after you he gets the words all mixed up--often if you ask him to repeat a multisyllable word he gets the syllables mixed up too. The SLPs don't seem to think it's an auditory-processing problem (I agree based on a lot of reading), so...?
It makes me really happy though, that God chose to put Dima in a family that is very pro-therapy so that he can get the help he needs! :)
Oh, and you'll love this--Dima started teaching his Sunday school class sign language!! His teachers had to ask me what he was trying to teach them (the sign for music--they were singing in class). LOL
There are a lot of sounds the US education system doesn't find necessary for kids to correctly pronounce until they are 9 yrs old! Glad you got some documentation to back up your concerns, and a plan! It is a long road and difficult, but you both are up to the challenge! Hugs sent your way!
Well, I doubt this will be helpful to you at all because I was going to say.... sounds like auditory processing!! LOL.
My son does the exact same thing in repeating back a sentence..or being unable to repeat it. Initially, we were told he had a poor "short term auditory memory"; he couldn't repeat back more than 2 or 3 numbers in a string (the therapist told me that a 6yr old should be able to repeat back 6 numbers...yeah right!).
Now (4 yrs later) he has been diagnosed with an expressive language disorder and anomia (trouble finding words). It took us a REALLY, REALLY long time to find the right therapist, but he is making great progress now.
I really wish I had followed my instincts and persued testing more aggressively when we first got home; the teachers/therapists blamed everything on language acquisition and thought he was still "translating in his head" 2 yrs after being home.
So good for you for getting a handle on Dima's issues now - the sooner the better! And for what it's worth, my son's language deficits have not really held him back academically; he's pretty much a B student and has been at grade level for over 3 years now.
Huh... I'm just thinking out loud here... I wonder if his speech was poor with Russian.
You know what? Lyra's speech didn't really take off until she had been home almost two years. Last year at this time, she was talking like your average 15 month old. Granted, Dima is older, but you may see that his speech improves by leaps and bounds by this time next year. I almost think that Lyra's brain re-wired itself or something. Her birth mom was NOT careful during Lyra's gestation and I think some damage was done to the speech part of her brain. She still speaks haltingly, but her sentences, diction and word choices have had a recent explosion in a good way.
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