End of Speech

Today was my final IEP meeting with Piper's SLP, the Assistant Principal, and the special education teacher at our elementary school.  I could have done the meeting on the phone like I did last year but since this was the final meeting and I absolutely adore Patty, the SLP, I wanted to make an appearance.  Plus, with work winding down due to the semester ending and preparing for our winter break it didn't matter if I came in late. Patty went over how thrilled she is with Piper's progress and outlined that in many ways she's now above level and she is age appropriate for all other areas.  Quite a turnaround from 2 years ago when she could barely say much of anything.

And while I had no stress anticipating this meeting since it was really just a wrap up, I was not expecting to have a few moments of tears.  But I did and it was all because of how wonderful the teachers at the school have been to my children and how bittersweet it us for us to be leaving in a few months.  While I'm thrilled at Piper's progress in regards to speech, I am sad she won't be seeing Patty anymore and Patty told me how much she is going to miss her.  And since we won't be at the school for much longer it means we won't run into her regularly.  Patty told the AP, Ms. T, about our impending move and when she did, the tears came out.  I just told her how highly we value the faculty and staff of the school and how impressed we've been with them.  Ms. T seemed touched and thanked me for sharing such kind words.  I expressed a little disappointment that Piper won't get to follow in her siblings footsteps and have the same kindergarten and first grade teachers - both of whom were hoping to get her.

I've actually already friended both their former kindergarten teacher and Caroline's former second grade teacher on Facebook since neither of my children have them as teachers any longer and there's no weirdness with the teacher/parent relationship.  They are both such wonderful people that I wanted to stay in touch with them.  I could even see becoming (IRL) friends with Caroline's 2nd grade teacher since she's around our age, she lives near our new house, and has kids of similar ages.

I'm sure that when the time comes to actually transfer them to our new school I will shed a few more tears.  I'm very happy about the elementary school we'll be sending them to (one of best in the county!) but a little sad to be leaving behind friendly, familiar faces.

Thank goodness Ms. T, Patty, and the special ed teacher are so compassionate and didn't mind my tears at all.  I'm sure they've had tears in that room for other reasons in the past but it was nice to laugh and talk about my kids since they know (and like) all three of them.  I guess when it comes to your children, your emotions lie pretty close to the surface.  I don't consider myself a true crier but when it comes to the kids, I can cry at the least little thing.

Piper Sunshine

I posted this on FB the other day but wanted to post it here too.  Piper has recently started singing entire songs!  I know this might not seem like a big deal to most parents of (almost) 4 year olds but to Piper this is a big deal.  While she quickly has overcome her expression issues and her articulation continues to improve each day, singing songs has been delayed.  Caroline was singing the alphabet before she turned 2 years old!  I've been singing to Piper since she was a baby but figured I'd sing the same songs to her over and over to give her some repetition and hope she would catch on.  Well, it's finally paid off.  In the past few weeks she's started actually singing entire songs.  This one though is my favorite - You Are My Sunshine:

I don't know what it was about her speech issues that caused her not to be able to sing songs.  She would kind of hum along and say the occasional word while I sang before but now it's like everything is coming together.  She's such an expressive little singer now which comes as no surprise since she's been watching Caroline perform her entire life.

The 3rd Child's Speech

Piper has been going to speech sessions with the SLP at Caroline and Bryce's school 3 times a month since school started.  She has decided that she really likes Ms. Patty as opposed to how she felt about the SLP, Ms. Kate, that came to our house last year.  (I didn't see any problem with Ms. Kate but Piper just didn't like her for some reason - I think maybe because she forced a few issues with Piper and Piper did NOT take that well.)

Piper loves that she gets to go to school at C and B's school and enjoys all the games and toys that Ms. Patty has in her office.  She's doing really well.  So well, in fact, I keep waiting to hear that she's "graduated" speech.  All of a sudden, Piper is starting to be able to say "S" and "F" words.  Just a few weeks ago, she called our friend Sophia, "O-eeya" and now she can say it correctly.  And when you ask her to concentrate on one word, she can say it correctly with 70% accuracy (that's the SLP's statistic, not mine - I am not micromanaging like that!).  However, she still has trouble when she's stringing words together to a sentence and that is when it can still be hard to understand her. 

The other thing I've noticed is that some of Piper's grammar isn't as good as I would expect it to be and I think it's because she has gotten into bad habits when she couldn't say certain words and then compensated by leaving out words and putting them in an odd order.

For example, last night she came into the kitchen and asked "What have dinner?"  instead of asking "What are we having for dinner?"  I know that eventually she will catch up as we obviously don't speak like cavemen in our house, but it's kind of funny how I don't even notice it half the time.  She also sometimes speaks like Yoda.  Instead of saying "Maybe we'll go for a walk" she'll say, "We'll go for a walk......maybe."  She'll do the same thing with putting yes or no at the end of a sentence like that too.  Personally, I think this is one of the cutest things she does and don't want to completely break that habit just yet! 

With her speech improving, she's finally gotten over the hump of counting.  I couldn't figure how why she didn't know how to count to ten and then it dawned on me - because she can't say the words.  There are a bunch of S and F numbers!  Last night she counted to 12 as fast as lightning!  Where did that come from?  And she's also finally singing her version of the alphabet; yet another thing that has been hampered by her speech difficulties.  

The (Almost) 3 Year Old's Speech

It was determined yesterday that Piper still qualifies for speech therapy solely based on her articulation issues.  YAY!  I was given the choice between an IFSP (continuing with in-home services from the Infants/Toddlers program) or an IEP (going to our elementary school for services from the SLP on staff).  I wasn't 100% on the decision to make but I was leaning in the IEP direction because I think Piper will do better in that setting.  In addition, I have already met the SLP at the school and have heard such glowing things about her that I just know this is the best option for her.

Then in the afternoon, I emailed Piper's current SLP, Ms. Kate to discuss setting up the sessions at our house through when Piper turns 3 and I told her what we decided to do.  She said that she is one of the few SLPs that is an elementary SLP and works for Infant/Toddlers so she knows both sides well and that while she couldn't give me any advice on making the decision (unless I'd asked), she said that she would have recommended exactly what we decided!  I felt so validated.  How often in life do we hope we are making the right decision for our children and then agonize over it once it's made?  And while she won't start sessions until the fall, it's just so nice to get the "expert" opinion agreeing with mine.

Piper seems excited about it too because she thinks she's going "to school" and to her, it will be like going to school, even if it's only one day a week for an hour.  It's hard to believe that pre-school is only a year away.  Kind of scares me actually that I'm so close to having all 3 kids in "real" school.  I think because Piper will be one of the youngest kids in her class as opposed to Caroline and Bryce being some of the oldest, it just feels like she's just so little.  But knowing Piper, she will be READY to go to school when the time comes.  She's been watching her siblings go to school her whole life and I think she's ready to join in.

Smarty Piper Pants

Now that Piper is 2 1/2 and still in the Infants/Toddlers program for speech therapy, we have to begin the process of having her reassessed because when they turn 3 years old in this program, it has to be determined if they are still eligible for services.   At age 3, if still eligible, she would continue speech therapy but it would either continue to be in the home or it would be at our local elementary school with the SLP there.  And, if does continue to qualify, it would be my decision where we would continue the sessions.  (I really hope she does continue to qualify for speech services because I believe she still needs help - if she doesn't it would be a very borderline thing and I'd be worried about her not having any more speech therapy before starting pre-school in 2012.)

Anyhow, her SLP has been starting the assessment with her at their regular sessions but in addition to the speech assessment, they have to reassess for all other kinds of possible learning issues.  So yesterday a special education teacher from the Infants/Toddlers program came to do her assessment of Piper.  When Piper was initially assessed last year, she was developmentally 'normal' on everything except expressive speech and there haven't been anything that has come up to make me think otherwise.

Since it was a last minute planned meeting because our service coordinator was able to get a special education teacher into see us, it ended up being when my mom had Piper.  Apparently the teacher, Ms. Patty, is a retired special ed teacher and my mom said she was very nice.  Piper kept talking about "Patty" the rest of the day, so I guess she liked her.  She did a bunch of fun little tests with her and Piper breezed through them.  In fact, my mom said there were a few she wasn't so sure of how Piper would do and she did great!  On many levels she was testing at 36 months!  One thing the teacher did notice was that she's not really counting which most kids at 2 1/2 are doing, but we're attributing that to her speech delay.  I count with her often and she's got 1 and 2 down but has a hard time saying the other numbers.  (It's the same reason I know she's just starting to sing recognizable songs - speech.)  As Patty finished up, she assured my mom that her son had the exact same issues as a toddler - expressive speech - and he worked through it and he's now in medical school. 

I think it's just a matter of time with us continuing to work with Piper before her speech is cleared up.  We understand her most of the time but we've also got trained ears to her words.  Sometimes though, she'll say something and you can't understand her and it completely breaks my heart.  She'll say something with such conviction like you should know what she's saying but you don't have any context to figure it out and you stand there and look at her cute little face and just want to cry because you can't figure out what she's saying.  She's doing so much better with trying to talk now and getting a lot more words correct.  She's even saying her name fairly consistently now and we don't hear Per-pie as often.  Her pronunciation of Bryce is improving but she's still having a hard time with Caroline and she reverts to "Ga-Ga" most of the time.  The other day though, I jokingly asked her what my name was and without hesitating said, "Eh-ka!"  I couldn't believe it - she really does pick up on things I hadn't expected. 

Does she hate her name?

Piper's speech therapy continues to go well.  She had another appointment this morning and we're continuing to see progress.  This week we were working on some action words and the word "mine."  She's also started saying "no no" this week (along with a very stern finger wagging to go along with it).  And of course, we continue to work on "Piper."  She won't say it.  Nope.  No way.  She won't even say the two syllables separately.  (We have little papers on 2 bathroom mirrors and by her changing table to encourage her to say "pie" and "purr.")  She's not budging.  Sometimes she'll tell you her name is baby.  Other times, "me" but mostly, nothing.  Grrr.  Does she hate her name or just not want to say it? 

I remember it took a while to get Caroline and Bryce to say their own names though - their names were far from their first few words.  Maybe it's a psychology thing that they won't say their name.  Someone suggested that we name one of Piper's dolls "Piper" and maybe that would bring her around. 

17 months

That's the level Piper was assessed at for her Infants/Toddlers screening today for expressive speech and articulation.  17 months is key because in order to qualify for services with the state of Maryland, you have to have a 25% delay - which is pretty much exactly what Piper is at.  (She tested right on target for all the other assessment areas including areas of social, cognitive, physical development, etc.)  So while no mom wants their child to experience any kind of difficulty in development, I'm a little relieved that she qualifies now so we can start speech therapy.  (A neighbor had her daughter tested and she tested one month "too advanced" to qualify so while a small delay, it's not enough for services.)

The 2 women that came to the house (a special educator and speech-language pathologist) were wonderful!  Piper certainly liked them and entertained them.  It was also a relief to hear that my concerns about her speech were valid and not just me being overly concerned.

Now we'll wait to meet with the coordinator and develop our plan for Piper's therapy.  The SLP told me she thinks Piper just needs a little jump to help her get going because right now she's not stringing any words together  which is indicative of the fact that she doesn't have many words and that stringing words together typically happens after you have about 35 words in your vocabulary.  Who knew? I'm sure once they get her speaking more, the next issue will become about actual articulation since I already kind of think maybe she will have some issues with that based on the way she says certain words already.

So all in all, it was a really good session and I'm looking forward to helping Piper get on track with talking!

Speech Update

So we finally have Piper's assessment dates set up.  The woman who will do the assessment will come to our house next week to do all the paper work in early June and then will revisit us for the actual assessment in late June.  I'm planning on sending the two older kids up to my IL's the night before so that it's just Piper and me at the house that morning.  Nothing like 2 curious siblings to foul things up.  And if she's deemed eligible for services, she'll receive therapy at our house.  I believe that up until age 3 they do it at our house and after that they "farm" it out to the local school systems (which is what our neighbor did) where they have a speech pathologist on staff. 

Piper has been working very had to say a few new words - she makes a real effort to actually say the word "more" now and while we praise her every time she uses it, it's pretty obvious she has to concentrate to get it out.  As much as I love the way she says it, it kind of makes me a little sad that it's such an effort to say such a simple word.  She's also been mimicking words a little better lately too - last night I got her to say her version of "socks." 

Oh and Katie, Piper says shoes the same way Lucy did - "ish."  I wonder why that is?????

Speech Assessment

Piper will officially be 22 months old tomorrow and given the fact that she only has about 10-15 "words," I decided to have her evaluated for a speech delay.  I have all the wonderful Speech-Language Pathology graduate assistants in my office to thank as well for all their advice and knowledge on the topic.  Baltimore County offers free assessment through their Infants/Toddlers program and knowing what I know about language development, the earlier we get her into a program, the better. 

Thankfully, I know that speech seems to be her only delay as she's ahead of the curve when it comes to physical development, fine motor development, and cognitive development.  I'm amazed at how steady her little hand is when it comes to stacking things and how easily she climbs pretty much anything she wants.

I think because she's not talking that much, it makes her seem even younger than she is.  (And of course, she's my baby!)  She is using a lot of signs and has a way of making it known what she actually wants.  The looks she gives me sometimes are just priceless and I know I've gotten pretty good at reading her expressions. 

I'm supposed to get a call in the next 2 weeks to have someone come to our house to do the actual assessment which should be interesting considering how interested Caroline and Bryce are in new people coming to the house.  A few weeks ago one of the School Psychology graduate assistants came to my house to conduct an intelligence test on Piper for a class project and the older kids thought it was the coolest thing to have a new person in the house and just wanted her to play with them.  Caroline even drew her a picture and told her how much she liked her after only knowing her for about an hour.  Depending on when the assessment is, we might have to see about getting the older 2 kids out of the house for a bit.