last day with lina

According to the academic calendar, the summer is just about over, which means that Garrett has aged out of the Early Intervention extension he qualified for because of his June birthday. As such, yesterday morning he had his last session of speech therapy with his beloved therapist, Lina.

We are sure going to miss her. He's been working with her in half-hour sessions, three times a week, since the middle of April, and in that time he has made tremendous progress. According to the progress report Lina completed, Garrett's speech delay has improved by almost half. He still struggles with pronouncing word endings and speaking intelligibly in sentences longer than two words, but individual words are clearer and his receptive language is a lot better. He's gained the confidence he needs to try harder to use words instead of whines and grunts to communicate, which has made life with him a lot more pleasant. And, thanks to Lina's charming Brooklyn accent, he's starting to talk like he belongs in this city!

He'll continue speech therapy, with a new therapist, once preschool starts in September. The hope is that, in addition to the formal therapy, a school setting will help close the gap of his speech delay as well as improve his social language skills. I think he will love school. It will be an adjustment at first for his obsessive-compulsive little self, but once he learns the routine, I think he will thrive.

It will also take some adjusting to get used to not having Lina around anymore. Our summer schedule has revolved around those speech therapy sessions, and it will be strange to not have them to look forward to anymore. But more than that, we'll miss Lina herself. She is a talented, hard-working, well-educated, and incredibly patient speech therapist. Garrett was devoted to her and so was I. So, thanks for everything, Lina. You've given us much, and we will forever be grateful for that.