Friday, May 2, 2008

You Must Be Out of Your Freakin' Mind

We had Big Man's evaluation for speech therapy last week. Actually, they evaluate you for all development - motor skills, speech, emotion, cognitive, etc. The ladies who came to do it were great, and it was fascinating finding out what they read into my son's actions. Basically they played with him for 45- 1hour and then wrote up some basic findings. When they were done they went through them with me. At one point one of the ladies was playing catch with Sam. Then Sam turned and threw the ball to the other lady. They were happy to say this demonstrated "initiative play". Okey dokey. He scored at or above age level for all the motor skills and cognitive skills, emotional, relationship, etc. Basically, he just doesn't seem to want to speak English. So he qualifies for once a week speech therapy. Yay! Now I am working with insurance and the like to work out all the pay-fors.

But the funniest thing that came out of the session was when one of the women asked if I had started him on potty training. I started laughing and pointed out that we don't even let him in the bathroom because he drinks from the toilet. She did not laugh and said she thinks he is ready (based on WHAT??) and we should start working on that. She even put it in the formal written report.

Is she high? Seriously. He is 21 months (ok, 22 now). I easily potty-trained each of my girls at 2 1/2. You expect me to start earlier for my caveman-like son? It still cracks me up every time I think about it.

7 comments:

Kristen said...

I'm laughing too. My son potty trained way after my daughter. Very interested in playing in the water too!

It's nice to meet you. Btw, thanks for visiting me this weekend while I've been in bed recovering. Your comments cheered me up!

Anonymous said...

My son had the exact same evaluation at 24 months-

the conclusion was the same too- he just needed speech therapy...
so we started speech therapy once a week - it was great, he took to it right away and at the end of the year his speech therapist said 'you know, some kids just don't talk until they really have something to say'

He is a great talker and I can't shut him up :)

Also- seriously- look into Hanen; I took a class in it ("it takes two to talk") and there is a book-
IT REALLY HELPS. I'll look up the exact title, etc. if you are interested - send me an email :)

Julie said...

That is pretty funny. Emily is 2 1/2 and has ZERO interest in potty training but her teachers keep asking me when I'm going to start. I'm like are you tired of changing diapers? I know I'm tired of buying them but unless she's willing to try I'm not interested now.

Laura said...

Ha...can you say "POO POO TO YOU, MISS TESTER LADY"????

Seriously, speach testing and toilet training do not really go hand in hand...My best friend's son is almost 3 and is in intensive speach therapy and they have advised her to NOT potty train...too much stress...

Do what feels right for you and the Little Cave Man!

I went to speach therapy for years and it really, really helped me. Wishing you all the success there is to have!

Beth Cotell said...

2 1/2 is when I potty trained both of my kids. We went straight from diapers to underwear skipping the pull up step. They were both trained in less than a week.

They must think that physically he is ready but that doesn't mean that mentally he is or that mentally you are. It's easier as a mom to just change diapers instead of having to drop everything and find a potty when you are out and about!

Senior Mom said...

Dim memory says kids seem to know when they are ready to deal with potty training. Start too soon and the only people who get "trained" are the parents. The little guys are far more interested in what they can toss into the toilet and flush away...like an alarm clock, or the pet fish that only seems to swim upside down

Mommy Mo said...

I'm not sure how I got to your blog, but I have a Sam is 26 months old and oh my goodness, I wish he would start talking more. He does say a few words- Mama, dada, Bye bye, choo choo, ball, blue, basic words and the like. But it has been such slow going making any progress with him. How do you know if your child should be tested for speech therapy? Just wondering. TIA, Lisa