Wednesday, December 03, 2008

My Ears Are Tired...

They really are! With good reason too, Ivan graduated from Speech Therapy yesterday!!

Ivan has been working with Miss Cindy for three semesters and is now "well within normal ranges" for his speech and language. In truth, she said he is above average now and is just doing phenominal. J and I are so proud of him.

We returned to our twice a week therapy appointments in September and immediately Miss Cindy noticed an improvement in Ivan's speech patterns and most especially in his spontaneous language. Meaning, he was talking her ears off without prompting! J and I had noticed this beginning in the Spring of this year, but Ivan would not just ramble on for anyone. So they began to work on some of the cluster sounds "sp", "st" etc. Miss Cindy was predicting a drop to once a week for the remainder of the school year with a successful graduation from the program at that time as well. About 7 or 8 weeks ago though, it all clicked for Ivan. He started using his cluster sounds without prompting and he stopped leaving off consenants. Everything just gelled...at last.

Miss Cindy started preparing me that Ivan may be ready to graduate at the end of this semester. After a classroom visit at Ivan's preschool she said to me "Oh, we are so done." She informed me that he was completely age appropriate and frankly a lot more clear than most of his classmates.

Yesterday Ivan and I said goodbye to Miss Cindy. We will both miss her so much. Ivan will miss the fun that they had together - she made therapy so enjoyable that Ivan never complained about going and was in tears when he learned that they would have to part ways. I will miss the professional validation that I was blessed enough to receive frequently. She really liked Ivan and was always quick to tell me how smart, kind, gentle and sweet he is. What parent wouldn't want to hear that and from a professional too?

All in all it is a great thing that tomorrow morning we will not be heading to Miss Cindy's at 9 AM. As we left yesterday I started thinking back to three years ago when Ivan would hardly make any sound beyond "DAH". In this short time he has gone from almost no english to wearing my ears out on a daily basis. He is the love of my life and I thank God for him everyday.