developmental update

Alex graduated from individual speech therapy on October 24th. (I’m a bit behind)  Alex had a language explosion over the course of just a few weeks.  It was amazing to watch our little man gain confidence almost overnight.  We were at an individual speech session and Alex was playing with a train and said to the speech therapist, “The train went over the bridge.” and the speech therapist looked at me and went, “Yep.  I think we are done here.”  It was a great moment.  I’ve never been more proud of my little boy.  The boys are still enrolled in preschool through our state program 4 days a week.  We recently had a large meeting at school with all the school therapists (speech, occupational, physical) and with their teachers and both boys got simply AMAZING reports.  We cannot begin to thank the school for all the hard work this school has put in to getting our boys on track developmentally and at no cost to ourselves.  Both boys can now repeat their ABCs, they know their basic colors, and they can both count to 12.  They also have the puzzle skills of 5 year olds.  I would have never imagined just 6 months ago that they boys would be on track developmentally.  The school is still working on some minor sensory issues with Alex but we don’t expect the boys to need services once they reach the age of 3.  It’s bittersweet.  We absolutely adore the school and all the teachers who work tirelessly to educate these little minds.  I’ve never seen a group of people with more belief in the abilities of every child no matter what challenges a child might face on a daily basis.  We have a meeting scheduled in January to begin the transition process from the program.  A representative from our local school district will officially evaluate the boys to determine if they will continue to qualify for services offered by our school district.  We would be shocked if they did qualify.  So then the teachers will help us to determine the best course of action for the boys.  We absolutely want them in a multi-day preschool program next year.  We will do whatever it takes to make this happen.  We might actually enroll the boys as “peers” at the same school they go to now.  We would have to pay but the cost is very, very reasonable.  They are comfortable at the school and Kara and I love the structure of the school.  Plus there is something to be said for all they are learning in terms of interacting with peers their age that have a wide range of developmental abilities.  We think this will help them when it comes time to start kindergarten.  But in terms of speech development both boys can now repeat anything that you say to them.  They talk in 6 – 8 word sentences on a regular basis and can fully communicate their needs to us using verbal language (though both boys regularly still use sign language too).  We will keep an eye on any pronunciation issues that might start to appear as the boys age closer to the typical preschool age.  We would not hesitate to go back to individual speech therapy should the boys have any pronunciation issues.  So that is a quick (much overdue) update.  I promise to be back soon with an even better update.  There are some many things I need to get down on paper so that the memories don’t vanish from my brain.  
Mary