Goodbye E.I.

Almost exactly a year ago Colin had an evaluation and qualified for Early Intervention services for speech therapy. Although he wasn’t extremely behind, his articulation was terrible and I knew that he was behind his peers.

It has been a long year of speech therapy. Every week his Speech Therapist Judy has come to our house and worked with Colin on his speech. She has become one of his favorite people (and one of mine). She immediately zeroed in on his oral-motor delay and gave us so many ways to deal with it. At her encouragement I spent time each day working with him. We transitioned him to straw cups, worked with blowing horns and used vibrating tools to stimulate his mouth muscles. We changed the food he ate and found sour foods and chewy textures to help waken his oral senses. It was at Judy’s urging that I decided to take the plunge and enroll Colin in preschool, a decision that has been fantastic for his social development.

The past few months Judy’s time with Colin has changed from work/play to mostly play. They sit at his train table and create conversations with his animals. She works with his vocabulary and helps him with some sounds that are still emerging. But on the whole, her work is pretty much done. He is doing just great.

Today we had his exit evaluation with Early Intervention. Unlike last year, he sailed through all the testing like it was second nature. He strung beads, chatted with the evaluator, did peg puzzles, sorted colors and wowed her. He is no longer delayed. He’s ahead of the game.

Here are his scores:
Communication: Receptive 35 mo, Expressive >41 months
Cognitive: Attention/Memory 36 mo, Perceptive/Concepts >41 mo
Gross Motor: 30 mo
Fine Motor: 31 mo; Perceptive Motor 37 mo.
Social Emotional: 35-41 mo.
Adaptive/Self-Help: 36 mo.

The strengths she wrote were: "Colin is extremely verbal and loves to play. He is very motivated by animals but transitions are improving. Colin performed very well on today's exit evaluation. He interacted appropriately with the evaluator and completed all tasks with minimal redirection."

It is bittersweet that his time with Early Intervention is almost over. I’m so incredibly proud of him and am just floored that an entire year has gone by. He was a baby when he started this journey and now he is a boy. It’s incredible.