Speech Evaluation!!

We had Trent's speech evaluation yesterday.  It was a fantastic experience!  The place we went had a neat facility, courteous/patient staff, and the person we worked with today was super helpful and great with Trent.  We were just evaluating Trent's speech today, but Ms. Megan talked through all my concerns which was so helpful.  She was wonderful with Trent.  I cannot say enough great things about her interactions with him.  He instantly warmed up to her and did everything she asked.  I think he charmed her a bit too. {grin}


Essentially for the speech evaluation, he looked at pictures and would say what was in the picture or answer questions about the picture while Ms. Megan rated his pronunciation.  She quickly assessed that his language skills would not be part of the problem.  I do have quite the talker!  When that part was over, she graded his results and said he was in the 'normal' range, however his 's' is an obvious problem.  The difficulty is that 's' is a sound that isn't typically considered mastered until 5 and combining that with his normal test scores, she worried insurance wouldn't cover treatment (as it could be considered proactive).  However, after discussing some items related to his open bite (he still has a tendency to drool some and has difficulties chewing certain food) and food aversions that may or may not be related to his bite, she thinks coupling all that together will get us covered.  Great news!


I was also able to talk to her about his impulse control/anger issues and his difficulties calming down when upset and at bedtime.  She recommended we have an occupational therapy evaluation.


After that, Ms. Megan showed us around the facility.  They have a lot of individual therapy rooms as well as 2 indoor gyms and an outdoor playground to cover numerous needs.  Trent played for awhile in one of the gyms and was not ready to leave when our time was up.  In a nutshell, Ms. Megan got to witness one of his tantrums.  As a mother, I was embarrassed (as I typically am), but given where we were, I was very happy one of the therapists could see what I meant.  Megan said I handled the situation perfectly {pats self on back and breathes sigh of relief}, but she reiterated she thinks Trent will benefit greatly from occupational therapy!!


So...long story summary?  We will begin speech/occupational therapy soon to focus on the 's' issue and the food/texture/swallowing issues, and we have our occupational evaluation set for August 15.  Insurance covers 30 visits per calendar year with just a co-pay.  I am so thankful for that!


I've received several emails/texts/phone calls offering words of encouragement, and I am so thankful to have great support from friends and family and to have so many people who love Trent and are rooting for him on this journey.  We are so excited to begin this course of treatment, and I can't wait to see where it leads!!