Friday, February 16, 2007

Something to work with

Scooter had his speech-language assessment today. And while it hasn't made me think, "This will just go away on its own," I am now of the "we can handle this" mindset. Oh, and of the "the other kids in his classroom are freakishly vocal" conviction. Scooter's numbers range from just below low-average to spot-on average. And this is mostly using incomplete raw scores, because he simply refused to do the last few questions on at least 2 of the 4 sets. So at least he gave a demonstration the stubborn streak we mentioned, the trait that keeps us from figuring out sometimes whether he doesn't understand or simply chooses not to respond.

Interestingly, the first focus of his speech therapy will be on his pitch and pronunciation. He has a tendency to pitch his voice very high, even more so when excited. And apparently he makes most of his vowel sounds with his jaw in the "e" position. This doesn't seem to be a result of any muscular weakness, though he may have developed a bit of a "lazy" jaw from habit. It will be interesting to see if he becomes a more confident and able speaker once his pronunciation improves.

So over at the Nest household, we'll be modelling clear speech and encouraging Scooter to use his "big boy voice."

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Headed to the States this weekend to spend some time with the in-laws again. The laptop will be making the journey with me, but travel could cut into my online presence. I'm excited because temperatures will be above freezing (not anywhere close to beach-warm, but noticeably above freezing) and we should get an extra hour of sunshine a day!

2 comments:

moplans said...

Great news about the speech assessment.
Hope you had a great weekend. Zero degrees - balmy.

Mad said...

What good news. I am pleased that Scooter is doing ok with all this.