Thursday, February 7, 2008

As I Was Just Saying...

... in my last post how cute Prince Caspian's language development has become. Really, I had no idea that he may be truly delayed. Ouch.

Today, ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) was here to do therapy with Little Boy Blue. Due to Prince Caspian's 'neediness' he often participates in the therapy, too. Lucky Little Boy Blue. The therapist/LPC has subtly asked me questions for a few weeks about Prince Caspian's speech and lack of pronunciation. I did not pick up on any of the subleties. In my mind, he is perfect and Einstein, too, in case you were wondering.

Yesterday, my Mom asked me about his speech and I poo-pooed it and got out my 'What to Expect the Toddler Years' book and read about how individualized speech development is, etc.

Back to today... after Little Boy Blue's therapy, I asked the therapist outright what he thought about Prince Caspian's speech. He laughed and said he thought he needed a referral for ECI. He said he had wanted to say something more direct to us for several weeks, but did not want to overstep his boundaries and make us upset.

We are in no way upset. To the contrary. We understand (on some level) that this child has been exposed to toxic substances, has been moved 3 times in the foster care system and may have some issues as he grows. We are his champions and will 'go to the mat' to get him the services and resources that he needs to thrive and develop properly. All we need is information and we are off.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you. He's blessed to have you as his parents.

Christy is involved with ECI type work on a part-time basis, so she understands all about this stuff.

We have hosted a couple of therapy sessions for Hope Giver (even though your blog is protected, I still hesitate to use her real name) when they have been scheduled for times she's with us. It's fascinating for me, and helps me understand more about what Christy does in her work.

SeƱora Smith said...

Laura,

I wish I could show you video of Jirafa & Paco when they were little bitty, going through ECI. The moving around and the exposure did have an effect, but the years of consistency after getting settled make a world of difference. We had years of stuttering w/Jirafa that one day just disappeared. And years of almost silence (well, not silence; there was plenty of crying, whining, screaming - just not so many words) from Paco that one day turned into words. After ECI we moved into private therapy, and now they are both very articulate. Well, not so much right now because their mouths are full of expanders & braces & guards - oh my! But you get the point. If you find the cure for whining, please share ;o)

sra

Holly (me.) said...

All three of our kiddies needed early intervention of one sort or another--- and all three had speech. We loved ECI, and both the girls are thriving socially and academically. I credit early intervention with the dramatic variance we see between our eldest and youngest kids who have extremely similar issues between mood disorders and pervasive developmental delays.