according to the professionals

At our pediatrician's suggestion, after Matthew's 12-month well check-up, I called Early Intervention to see if he needed physical therapy to get him up on two feet. Of course, a few days after I did, he finally began pulling himself to a stand. I mentioned this to the doctor when I saw him again in passing, to which he replied, "Isn't that they way it always works?" He then suggested that, since all it required of me was time, I might as well continue to move forward with things, just in case. He had a point, so instead of calling our case worker to cancel the whole thing, I went ahead with the evaluation.

The physical therapist came last week to take a look at Matthew. She examined him pretty thoroughly, the results of which determined that there is nothing physically wrong with him; he is just taking his sweet time (a fact I attribute to his mellow personality). He was slow enough, though, to almost qualify for services. If he'd been two or three weeks more behind, he would have been eligible. But I'm actually very relieved that he's not. My child is, as I suspected from the beginning, growing just fine, albeit at his own tortoise-like pace. Before she left, the therapist taught me some things I could do with Matthew to encourage him to step it up a bit, which have proved very helpful.

Meanwhile, when the same pediatrician suggested that I get Caleb in to see a neurologist for his unintelligible speech, I rolled my eyes (when he wasn't looking, of course). A few days after that appointment, I was able to get in touch with the school district to schedule his evaluation, which took place in two separate visits over the course of the last two weeks. At our first meeting, I discussed his medical and social history with the coordinator while the psychologist checked to see if his cognitive skills were up to speed. Then the speech therapist came in to do her evaluation. Shortly after she started, though, Caleb lost steam and it was unanimously decided that she continue with him on another day. When we went back, he was more than cooperative (meaning, he got violently angry when she had to ask him several times to repeat what he had said, which did much to cement his case).

In the end, she said that, while he is an incredibly sharp, bright little boy, his speech issues, the main problem of which is correct sound production, are moderate to severe. She still has to present his case to the committee, but she told me that it was very likely that things would be quickly squared away for him to begin receiving speech therapy this fall. In the meantime, he'll be given a hearing test to rule out any speech problems there, as well as an occupational therapy evaluation, since the psychologist, in the course of her own evaluation, thought that his fine motor skills were lacking.

So there you go -- the professionals have spoken. And I couldn't agree more with their verdicts.