another update - DS4 had a speech evaluation done yesterday at the place where he gets OT and PT. The lady who did it is the main ST there (and one of the co-owners) and she came to the conclusion that he's not really having any speech issues (I was worried about him not processing verbal info correctly as a lot of times it's like talking to a Martian ... you give him a question and he answers something completely different ... and I don't even attempt to have a conversation with him as it turns into a long monologue from him) ... I always say he looks like his brain just can't stop and is always spinning ... and she basically supported my view on it. Said it's not that he doesn't understand the question ... but for him the simple "correct" answer isn't enough and he has a need to tell us a lot more. ... like ... she showed him pictures and asked "which boy is wet" ... and he showed the picture and added "this boy is wet because he got caught in the rain and didn't have an umbrella and now is standing there in a puddle!" (this is the kind of sentences he uses ... they just never end) ... she went on showing him other pictures and doing other problems with him and then said there's no need to test further. That he knows well beyond his age level and the one big problem she sees with him will come when he's in a group of more kids and he'll need to be quiet and let other talk
... SO, he's starting their small group Speech/Occupational therapy next week. I think we'll cut down or completely cut out his PT as he doesn't really need it at this point and just keep his OT every other week and add this group session instead. Whether he does end up going to the special-ed preschool or not, I really want to give this group approach a try since it will give us a better idea of how he'll do following directions while with other kids! (on a side note ... DS2 ... the one who can't stand other kids in a radius of 6-10 feet will be starting a group OT as well ... they just last week created one for his age group! I'm so excited!!!)
But, back to DS4 ... he was a riot during the testing! lol ... She'd show him another set of pics with kids standing, holding balloons and ask "which boy has the MOST balloons?" ... and he'd first point to the one with none and say "he doesn't have any" ... next one "this boy has one" ... next "this one has three balloons" ... and then pointed to the correct picture and say "this is ME! I have the most balloons!" ... the speech therapist ended the session just telling me that DS must be a lot of fun to be around (yea, try that 24/7 though!!! lol) and that she wouldn't worry about speech and speech processing itself but really only about how to get him to follow directions and be in a group rather than do his own thing.
So, I guess this is all good news!
