Missing Links

This has been a banner week for us in learning best how to help our kidlets.

First, Jen, shared with me information that helps understand why FG is helping with our child on the spectrum. I will write more about that later. I suppose it didn't "matter" a whole lot - but it matters to ME to be able to say WHY this is working when folks are insinuating that this is "all in mom's mind". LOL

Second, I believe we've finally discovered the missing speech link for Nolan. I WISH we didn't have to move and change therapists so often because they DO seem to want to begin at the beginning and make their OWN observations, rather than build from the notes of the previous therapist. That is what it is, but we've finally progressed past the "if you faithfully practice these oral motor exercises it will all get better" stage. We've been working on oral exercises and such with Nolan. He CAN make all the sounds...and his speech CAN be clear...but it can be strange too. I knew there was something more but faithfully continued to work on the exercises at home. I've also been working on issues in math and life skills (get your shoes on and brush your teeth - overload two instructions at once...LOL).

Yesterday the therapist came to talk to me. She's young. She was obviously nervous to say what she wanted to say. She said that he can make all sounds but "r" so she doesn't think his problems are solely oral strength. In other words, we're progressing. Go NOLAN!!! However, he still messes things up when talking fast and he messes up multiple-syllable words consistently. For instance, "ther-mom-e- ter becomes ther-ter-e mom". We've been working on multiple-syllable words all year. She hemmed and hawed and finally said, "I think there is something in his little brain that makes it hard for him to process information. He says all the right syllables but they are in the wrong order."

I think she expected me to freak out at the mention of "brain" but after Zander's journey, this is easy. ::snort:: I mean Nolan interacts with us, isn't chewing himself, or hitting his head on walls...really it's speech and we all want improvement....brain connection/labels don't faze me any longer. I asked her if we were talking about sequencing, as I'm working on this in math, phonics, spelling, and life skills, and seeing problems. She said YES. She is going to start working more on that in class and we're going to focus on it here at home. She said that he seems to have trouble processing sequence. I'm not sure if this will improve or what...but I think it's the missing puzzle piece.

Mike said it sounded like a form of dyslexia - which we've dealt with in our family. My father, Dad, and 2nd daughter, all have dyslexia. I've never seen it affect speech like this, but I should do some more reading. I suspect that eventually, she's going to broach the subject of testing to see if there is some label for his trouble with processing. It does sound like the dyslexic symptoms we experienced with Krista (now 19) but it didn't affect her speech. I wonder....Whatever - we just want to help him get his marvelous thoughts out of his brain. We'd also like to reduce the amount of teasing he receives when other children can't understand him.