Catching Up, part 3 -- Paxton goes to College

Say wha?? My two year old is going to college? Well, yeah. He kind of is. After setting up an assessment for Paxton at the Maryjane Rees Language Speech and Hearing Center at Sac State and receiving his report, he's ready to start speech therapy.

This is such a huge win for me, as a mom. I feel like I'm doing something for him that I couldn't have done for Phoenix. I know that I am. While Phoenix had all sorts of early intervention, it was all from the school district, mostly Portland Public School, and was based on integrating him into a "normal" classroom. His teachers and I didn't fully understand the limitations Phoenix had and couldn't fully address his needs. I think it was because we didn't do the kind of evaluations they do at CSUS. Phoenix has grown so much in the last year and I feel like most of that progress is because of his time in the clinic at CSUS.

Looking at Paxton's report, I see a much different child, with very different problems. Mainly, he barely has any. He scored at the highest level and is emerging at age-level in all areas of testing but is still a few months behind his peers. The clinician also recommends looking at the possibility that Paxton could have CAS, Childhood Apraxia of Speech. It's something I researched when I was trying to figure out why Phoenix wasn't making much progress and it kind of fits with Paxton.

Overall, he seems to be in a much better place than Phoenix ever was and I'm hopeful that getting him into the clinic will help him get up to age-level before he starts school. He's not even three yet and won't be starting preschool until next Fall so we've got plenty of time if we work hard enough. I've already noticed an improvement by simply implementing some of the tools, tips and tricks suggested by the assessor. Slowing down my speech. Enunciating the words. Using shorter, easier to copy sentences.

He's very good at copying most of the sounds he hears and speaks in sentences and paragraphs but most of what he says is beyond my abilities to translate. He asks lots of questions and "But why?" has to be his favorite. It comes out more like 'Gah why' but you can understand it. He also loves to ask what things mean. 'What left mean?' 'What up mean?' and he definitely understands things better; he's always throwing out 'No Fair!', usually when he's getting screwed out of something or getting left behind.

All in all, I'm confident his issues are much smaller and easier to resolve than Phoenix are/were. He'll start Speech 1 next Tuesday and then we'll see how fast this kid can fly. This is one chapter I am eager to start and watch unfold.