Update on our Sweet Man

Life at the Crabtree Casa is swell. Nothing too exciting is happening other than the fact that Brent had his evaluation with the school district. I have been a NERVOUS wreck about this. I knew that this evaluation will officially start his "file" with the school district and follow him to kindergarten.

Luckily everything went well. The speech pathologist fell in love with Brent (but then again, who doesn't?!) He will start going to group speech therapy with three other kids his age, twice a week, for 30 minutes. So he will go Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:30 to 10:00. My biggest fear in all of this was that he would be "labeled" as having problems OTHER than speech and they would try and put him in a "special" preschool class. As his mother, I KNOW that cognitively, he is 100% fine, so I had no desire for him to be put in a special class with kids who were not up to par with him cognitively. He does have some behavioral issues, but they all stem from the speech issue.

Anyway, the speech pathologist for the school district has been working for over 20 years and is well respected. We had a nice talk and she eased my mind. She said they had ZERO concerns with Brent other than his speech. And what shocked me even further is that she said his speech delay IS NOT THAT BAD. She said, in her opinion, he DOES NOT HAVE SPEECH APRAXIA (which is what he was diagnosed with at a previous clinic).

Apprently kids with TRUE apraxia of speech make very little progress. And the progress that they make is S L O W. Brent, on the other hand, has made MAJOR leaps and bounds. He is now talking in 6 to 7 word phrases. The speech therapist said she has had a girl with TRUE speech apraxia, and in TWO YEARS, she has only started to put 2 words together and those 2 words are still unintelligable. She just said he is a "boy" with a phonological disorder who needs some help with correct pronounciation and he just has a typical speech delay.

Brent is knocking our socks off everyday by the things he says. He is quickly catching up to his "normally developing" peers in the area of speech. He also is telling us his FEELINGS, which is HUGE. He will fold his arms, sigh really dramatically, and look at me and say "Mom, this is NO FUN." Or if we are at the park, he will go down the slide and yell "Mom, this is fun!" He'll also walk up to me and said "I'm sad." or "I'm tired." This is HUGE HUGE HUGE. He'll also come up to me and say "What doing mom?" He was never very inquisitive before because he didn't have the words to ask anything. It's all so exciting to watch his progress, but has taken TONS of work on his part (and ours).

This morning he was holding a toy car and we were leaving to go to the gym. He said "Mom, wanna take car bye bye to gym." And to top it all off, Scott and I were AHEM having a heated adult conversation (it's not arguing, right?) and Brent walked right up to us and said "Mom, Dad stop it. Dad go sit time out." We immediately started cracking up and took it as a strong reminder that we need to save our "heated adult conversations" for when little ears aren't around! :)

And as far as social situations, it is night and day. He LOVES going to the gym day care everyday and LOVES going to nursery at church. He is the oldest kid in nursery (and the only boy) yet I think the girls boss him around. Everyone loves him to pieces and he is just a little gentle giant- the most cuddly, sweet, sensitive little boy. We just love him.

He will start speech with the school district after his 3rd birthday which will be in April. She is guessing he might be OUT of speech before he starts kindergarten, but it's all up to Brent (how much he works for it!).

Here are some pictures of him with, YOU GUESSED IT, ANOTHER BABY DOLL. I know my brother in law, Bob, is having a hernia looking at these pictures. And just for the record, Scott doesn't like it either! I don't see what the big deal is and am happy he is into "imaginary play". Who cares if it's with a doll?! His latest thing is telling me the baby is "sick" and he proceeds to take its temperature.