It is tough being a mom nowadays, but it is tougher when all you do is drive your kids around to therapist after therapist, before school or after school throughout the week. And thinking back, if I should have done anything differently or things I should or shouldn't have eaten during pregnancy. All these things start churning in my head. And crying sometimes is the best thing to let it all out of my system.
Two things I learn along the way are never give up and there is always hope.
My son was diagnosis with speech delay when he was 3. I never put much thought to his speech delay until I enrolled him to toddler class at age 2.5 and compared him to other boys in his class. My son was practically not talking.
He started at Bright Horizons in June of 2008. And I voiced my concern to the school director. She said to wait a little to see how he gets along and the talking will start.
We all waited to see if he will bloom in six months, but because he is not communicating like he should compared to an average 3 year old who could string at least 3 words together (eg: I want water), his behavior became a problem from his frustration to make his peers understand him. Instead of words, actions like pushing and hitting became his words to get others attention to let them know that he wants to play with them.
And the other children were afraid of him or afraid that they would get hit.
We even had a child therapist look at him to see if he shows sign of autism because sometimes I feel that he was withdrawn. We also had his hearing checked even though he passed the hearing test when he was a newborn. And everything was ruled out to focus on speech therapy.
My daughter was recently diagnosis with sensory processing disorder. She was also working with a speech therapist after an initial meeting with a child therapist. The teachers came to me first, in regards to her language understanding, I told them she speaks and understands, but understanding not necessary means follow directions. My girl has her own agendas. She spoke early and learn to speak Cantonese and English and French from my husband. She figured out to speak to me in Cantonese or English, my husband in English or French.
When she first started toddlers class I was concern about her behavior. She is not the typical calm child, she is adventurous and she couldn't really sit still for story time and she would run around when we go to a restaurants.
After several sessions of speech therapy, the therapist recommended that she see an occupational therapist. I had no idea what that meant at the time.
My boy and my girl are the opposite of the spectrum. I am also having my son diagnosis next week for SPD relating to his fine motor skill in holding a pencil correctly (he is left handed) I hope occupational therapy will help him to transition into kindergarten when he should be able to write his name.
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