Speech Therapy, Here We Come!

At Brennan's 18-month check-up, his pediatrician expressed some concern in regard to Brennan's speech, so we were referred to Early Intervention. Thanks to the government, the intake and speech evaluation are free, so we were totally on board. John and Brennan did the assessment this morning with a speech therapist and physical therapist (they always evaluate in pairs).

Overall, the assessment went well. His motor skills are right where they need to be, with a little work to be done in the fine motor skills area. The big area of concern is, of course, his speech. At nearly 19 1/2 months, he really only says "Dada," "uh-oh," and "down." He has said other things, but only once or twice and then has never really repeated them. And the therapists agreed that this is definitely an area of concern. His expressive communication is really only at about the 12-14 month range, which is enough to qualify him for speech therapy.

At the initial intake, we received the good news that we qualify for a government program that will pay for his speech therapy. We were incredibly thankful to hear that news and are now relieved that Brennan will get the services he needs without us having to stress about how we would be able to afford it.

Speech therapy will start in the next few weeks with a therapist coming to our house twice a month to work with Brennan. We also came away from the assessment results today with some more things that we can do to help Brennan on his road to talking.

I did have a moment earlier today where I wondered if we did or didn't do something that would result in Brennan needing speech therapy (i.e. do we not talk to him enough? read to him enough? is not around other kids enough?). When I mentioned this to John, he reassured me with what he was told by the therapists after he expressed a similar concern during the assessment. He was told that there is no correlation between his lack of speaking and his environment. The therapists assured John that they see kids who are in full-time daycare come in with speech delays on a regular basis, so we didn't need to worry that we had done something to cause a speech delay.

We are grateful to have the assessment done and glad that Brennan will start receiving the services that he needs to help him start talking. And we are so grateful that God provided a way to make it financially possible for us to have this happen. We'll keep you all posted on the road to vocalization!