Assessment

Sam was assessed today!

So between filing the initial paperwork and having the assessment Sam learned: yes (nodding only, though he did say it once), no, ing-ing (for Ingrid in AZ), deedee (for kitty), boat, bone (pointed to a dog bone in an illustration in one of his books and said "bone"), plane, mo (more) ... maybe there are even more words. If I were to be making the decision today about whether to make the request for the assessment, I'm not sure I would. I know he is still technically behind in his speaking, but at the rate he's picking things up, I'm less worried now than I was a month or so ago.

Anyway, we followed through with the assessment. Two women came out -- I can't remember if one specialized in one thing and the other another. At first they seemed cold. They pulled up in separate cars and were each on their cell phones. I warned them about the dogs, we started to go inside and of course the dogs were barking. I asked them if they wanted/were able to do the assessment outside and they said yes, so that's what we did. Much nicer!!

They were impressed with how bright Sam was and he seemed to be able to do all the tasks they were looking for. He played nicely with them and was very quick to pick up new games. In the end, both women were really quite friendly. I asked what would happen next. They will submit the paperwork and the intake person I spoke with before will get back in touch with me. There is a speech delay, and they believe he will most likely qualify for therapy. But they also indicated that that doesn't mean I have to do it. They couldn't tell for sure if he wasn't speaking because he COULDN'T or because he didn't WANT to. Most likely it's just that he doesn't want to/doesn't have to. Usually if there is a muscle problem or physical problem keeping him from speaking, we would see problems in eating (and we certainly don't have that!). They didn't see any other sign that there was anything wrong -- just that he isn't talking at the rate that most kids are at his age.

So annoying that I really don't have any more information yet. It is not likely that there is a problem with his development, but he's not talking. We could do speech therapy. We don't have to. We could wait another three months and see. I should probably try to encourage him to speak more. And I should probably get him socializing with other kids more. Ugh. So far I haven't been able to get myself to do the play group thing. Guess I should try more!