Speech Therapist Evaluation

Yesterday the boys had their evaluation with a speech therapist. The evaluation was much different than I had expected.

The therapist started with asking the boys to identify objects on a page. First my naming an object & asking them to pint to it, then by asking them to name some objects. Garren did fairly well with this, he is our little people pleaser though & was very interested in what she was doing. Caden & Kellan were both very shy & also more interested in the spiral binding that held her book together than what was on the actual page.

Next she pulled out a small teddy bear, a spoon, a plastic cup & a small cloth. She said "the bear is thirsty, can you give the bear a drink?" Then, "the bear is hungry, can you feed the bear?" And lastly, "the bear is sleepy, can you put the bear to bed?" Garren also did well with this task as he plays with stuffed animals usually & prevents to feed them & give them drinks & put them to bed. Kellan & Caden have no interest in stuffed animals so really didn't cooperate with the bear. Caden did offer the therapist her cup when she said the bear was thirsty & Kellan gave himself a bite with the spoon when she said the bear was hungry, lol...

She then had them identify their articles of clothing, shirt, shoes, socks & so on. Thanks to Baby Signing Time they all did well with this exercise. Not only could they identify them they could sign them :)

The last exercise she had them do was with some blocks & boxes. She would ask them to put the block in the box, then to take it out. She lined up 3 blocks, told them which block was theirs & which one was hers & then asked them which block was theirs & then hers? They all did well with the first part of the exercise but not the last part.

After she finished her exercises she asked me some questions pertaining to their speech. She asked if they ask questions, Garren is the only one that does & its only a couple, "where's the kitty cat?" & "what's that?" She asked if they use nouns & adjectives together, since they don't string words together for the most part the answer was no. Lastly she asked if they claim possession, using words like me, mine, yours. They do not. 

Scores over 85 are considered to be in the normal range. Garren scored right at 85 & therefore does not qualify for therapy. Caden & Kellan scored in the high 70's, 76 & 78 I think, so they will be receiving speech therapy.

I felt like a bad mom in some ways, like I should have taught them the things they missed. I know it is not my fault & really, I'm not beating myself up over it. I just think it's probably normal to blame yourself as a mother when your kids aren't doing something they should be. We really cannot complain though, aside from the flat spots on their heads, this is the first issue any of them have had & considering their prematurity I'd say we are pretty lucky.