The end of Speech Therapy!

Today was Antonio's last speech therapy session and it was so bittersweet. The gal that would come over ever other Monday morning, Ann Marie, was great! Antonio was in a birth to 3 private program through Providence. After he turned 3, if needed, he would go through the school district. They, Providence and Ann Marie, focused on helping the parents learn/model how to help their child develop a vocabulary.

At the end of May Antonio went through some testing with Ann Marie to see if he would qualify for the continued therapy through the school district. At the time he did qualify but barely, with focus on his articulation. So we made an appointment to meet with the school districts Speech Language pathologist, Special Education Teacher and school Psychologist, they meant business! ;) They would briefly test him themselves and if he qualified he wouldn't start that until September! But if he did he would go the the school for a 45m session with other kids with speech delays. Antonio did some testing with the speech pathologist and special ed teacher. He LOVED being at school and in a classroom, which happened to be a preschool room. They were all so nice and he was such a good boy for them! We arranged to go back the following morning to get the "results".

The next morning Antonio was even more excited to be back at school! He ran up to the front door, trying to open it, and once inside, ran down the hall, around the corner right in to the classroom! He knew right where to go. Watching this made me partly hope he WOULD qualify so he could "go to school" in the Fall because he seemed so excited. We sat down with the speech pathologist where she read through her evaluation on how she/they did not think he qualified for it! I was so torn at that moment. : /  Especially after seeing him excited to be there again. On the other hand I am/was so proud of him; he HAS come a long way from just last October! As far as his testing scores, average being 100. His auditory comprehesion was: 111, expressive comprehension was: 95 and his auditory was: 99. Which in turn makes his total language score 104. So in a sense he is on the low end of average BUT I was so proud of him!

I am so glad we did this program for Antonio. I was so unsure if he needed it; I knew he did but so many people said he would talk soon enough and not to worry. Well I am glad we did! A part of me thinks he would benefit from more therapy but I also know he has come so far and will continue to improve. Ann Marie mentioned that a lot of times she see's kids with hardly any progress after the year(s) she will spend with them. She seemed sincerely happy for Antonio and how hard he has worked at it. She said that he seems to be improving faster than he is getting older, which in turn means he is closing that gap! I had learned so much about speech and how to encourage it thanks to her. We will miss her and I will always be grateful for her help!

I just have to remember that Antonio is a "quiet, sweet and curious boy" (as quoted by the Special Ed. teacher) and also a "sweet young toddler who is social but reserved" (as quoted by the speech pathologist). So when he doesn't say much in unfamiliar situations or to people he isn't familiar with it doesn't mean anything bad it is just who he is!