Another first - - Plus A quick note to Mrs. Glasgens

Just a quick post to notate a big deal in this household.  Yesterday I was off with a friend enjoying some mommy alone time when I received a text from my husband.  It stated "Will just said I like Uncle John".  Okay well this may not seem like a big deal, but IT IS.  Will has never expressed a like unprompted before.  Oh you can ask him if he likes something and 99% of the time he'll say yes.....even if he hates it.  So to volunteer with language he likes something is a very BIG deal.  I foresee big things to come.....

Mrs. Glasgens,

Just sending you a quick note congratulating you for getting assigned my son Will for your kindergarten class this year. You must feel so blessed to be able to be such a big influence on Will and he you.  You see if you allow it, Will can challenge you to be the best teacher you ever thought you could be.  If you simply can open your eyes, heart and mind you will be delighted on how much he knows and how willing he is to learn from you.  You may have to use some unconvential teaching methods, but I promise you that by doing this not only will Will benefit, but so will others who undoubtedly come after him.

You lucky teacher you.  Enjoy the year.

Sincerly,
Will's Lucky Mother

A Little School Freak Out - I feel entitled.

Soooooo its now Aug 10th.  School starts for Will September 8th.  It was about 2 days ago that I started to really think about Will going to school.  I've been watching him all summer going to "speech school".  This is a class of 5 kids all with speech/language issues that meets 2x/week for 1.5 hours.  He has the same teacher he had this last school year.  In the beginning of summer I was really impressed with Will.  He answered most questions asked of him and tried to answer for others.  He seems to attend fairly well.  Cut to the end of summer and he seems to be checking out a bit, acting out a bit too. 

I know I am suppose to have the happy optimistic outlook for how schools going to go this year, but right now I'm panicking.  The good news is that since he is repeating K next year whenever I hear he's not where his peers are I can say this is why we are giving him another year to master these skills.

So what have I decided to do to help ease this time for Will???.......I went shopping.  Because the truth is there isn't too much I can do to determine how successful Will is this school year, but by golly that kid will have new scuff free shoes to wear.  Of course I plan to be in his teacher's/OT/ST ear all year long and volunteer in the school as much as they'll let me (yes - do know how fortunate I am that I can stay at home and do this.  I am VERY thankful.)  But in truth Will's success will in large part fall on him.  Seems like a lot to ask of a 4 year old - don't you think? 

One more month to enjoy.....and worry. Oy.

Perspective - it's a strange thing

Just a quick note on perspective.  As I've written in the past Will has a Mixed Expressive Receptive Language Disorder (MERLD- for short).  He got this diagnosis at 3.5 and again at 4.5 from the Camarata's.  This past year we took Will for a follow-up to see how much progress he had made.

Unfortunately Mary couldn't get though all of the language testing on that day (she had forgotten about our appointment and we started an hour late.)  I told her Will's teacher was testing his language as well and Mary requested I send along these test results to help her finish and round out her report.

Well I finally got around to sending her the information she needed yesterday (we went for the visit in February and I had Will's test results in May).  I know slacker, but in truth I was dreading a bit sending the results, and I wanted to just concentrate on how well Will is doing right now in the real world and not on some test.

The teacher's results said Will was in the 5th percentile for Receptive Language and .3 percentile for Expressive Language.

Let's be honest when you read a report that states numbers like these it's a bit depressing, which is another reason I just put off sending the results off to Mary.

About 12 hours after I sent that email I got a reply from Mary that follows;

"Great. I will get the report right off.  I am also happy to hear about how the summer is going language-wise...and fun-wise for Will. It is nice to see the gains in Receptive Language as per the CELF-PRE. Nice! Gains in receptive language most often precede expressive gains. This bodes well. I will get the report to you. Good to hear from you. Mary Camarata."

I guess I need to leave interpreting test results to the experts. After reading this I realized Mary was right already as this test was given back in April/May and Will has shown some bigger gains expressively this summer.

Just one more reason I feel blessed to have found wonderful doctors for Will.

Perspective - it's a strange thing.