today went really well!! sweet bray is a little charmer with his winning smile and "please" and "thank-you's." he had never had his hearing screened, so they did that first and passed with flying colors; no problems hearing! darn! i was actually secretly hoping that maybe of his speech issues were connected to hearing. oh well. he then worked with a physical therapist and had a great time with her. what 3 year old boy doesn't like to move, jump, and throw balls! he scored above average to average in pt. then the ot came in and she worked with him primarily with his fine motor skills. he seemed to do well in some areas and not so well in others, but no big deal, just gave us a few tips to help him sharpen those skills at home. he liked her too bc he likes to draw and do things with his hands. then came speech...and this was the moment we were waiting for. it is (to me) the irony of ironies bc while bray is beginning to read, can spell from memory a list of sight words, including his own name, mom, dad, and neely, he struggles to process what someone else is saying. this is textbook hyperlexia (IF in fact he has that!) bc of the obsession with letters and abnormal ability to read at an early age, BUT the inability to understand the spoken word. while he scored average or above average on both pt and ot, his scores in speech were a mixed review (high in one category and low in another). he is highly verbal, has a huge vocabulary, and likes to show off all that he knows, but is clearly struggling with the auditory processing component... meaning, he is in his own world of information and has a hard time answering direct questions, following instructions and transferring information to a different context. when the speech path asked him out of 3 pictures shown, which boy was dry, he said "a towel." and when she asked him to point to the animals that matched, he was more interested in labeling the animals, saying what letter it started with, and counting them. it was hard to sit and hear him do good work, but just not answer the question!! for now, he's def been rec for speech therapy, but they would like to have a better overall picture of what's going on bc of the gap between the 2 speech scores. again we were told that he probably has a very high IQ, so that is next on the docket. we will return on monday for round 3 to complete an IQ test, a sensory profile, and an asperger's questionnaire.
i felt like today's exam was as thorough as an initial exam/screening could be and i am just grateful that the county offers these services for FREE and am hopeful that with the right tools, we will see some marked improvement!! but i also left feeling sad, a little discouraged, and confused. it's so strange to me that a child could be so bright, could be reading of all things, and yet there seems to be a block when i am speaking to him. at the same time though, i am so glad they saw today exactly what we see at home bc it can be maddening on a daily basis. there are moments when i honestly feel like i am beating my head against a wall. i want to scream, "LISTEN!!", but i can tell that somehow he's just not getting it. he gets a thought in his head and cannot process that he may have to "wait a minute" or "go downstairs" or whatever the case may be, and often throws a fit if your plan doesn't align with his. now i know some of that is toddler, but there is something different about it...you can see in his face that it's not translating. i'm honestly shocked that we got him potty trained. that is clearly the Lord...o thank you sweet Jesus for that gift!!!
as for school, i can see how this type of behavior or interaction would be a disruption and be upsetting for a teacher in a classroom environment; however, the solution was not to hold him back in the 2's again. he's beyond that! in the meantime, i am trusting that he's where he is supposed to be and will have a good experience. i need to make a follow-up appt with the neuro since he's now had 7, oh yes, 7 febrile seizures!!! they say there's no permanent or long-term damage to the brain, but we saw a marked regression in bray after his last seizure in june. won't it be nice when we go HOME?
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