After exactly a month of playing phone tag and forgetting to call and such…I finally got a hold of the coordinator for Help Me Grow (the most difficult person in the world to get a hold of!). She was very nice. Her job (as it concerns us) is to take the information and place us with someone who does the screenings and such (seriously can’t remember what that person’s called…the one that comes and does the screening…and it’s driving me nuts…it’s on the tip of my tongue!…I hate that.)
Anyway…I felt pretty stupid on the phone, I have to admit. She caught me off guard with the kind of questions she asked. I thought she’d ask questions about the present…but she went back 2 years ago…if I’d known she was going to do that…I would have asked for the questions ahead of time…written the answers out and gotten back to her…haha.
She asked me lots of questions…”was Iain premature”…yes…4 weeks…”did he have any complications”…yes…but no major ones (because to me…looking back…they weren’t major…at the time…they seemed like the end of the world!!)…”how long was he in the hospital”…about a week…”why”…apnea (took me a bit to remember that one!…I couldn’t remember why he had to stay there…that’s pretty bad!!)…”did he have any breathing problems”…yeah…he had apnea…meaning he’d stop breathing…”oh yeah”…”what hospital was he born in”…ummmmm…hmmmmm…oh yeah…Vassar Brothers Medical…”what??!!”…Vassar Brothers…it’s in NY…”oh…I was wondering why I didn’t recognize it”…blah blah blah. She asked if I was just concerned about Iain’s “speech”…and I gave a resounding “YES!”…haha…there’s no way I’m concerned about his motor skills OR his social skills…haha…that’s just silly to even think about. And she asked why we’re “concerned” with his speech…”what’s going on with it”. It was actually a tough question…because he does talk…and he knows what he’s saying (that was another question…does he just say “what’s this?” or does he know what it means…he only says things he knows the meaning of…he never talks without purpose)…he just doesn’t speak CONSISTENTLY. Yay…through talking to the coordinator…I figured out how to say what we’re “concerned” about…he doesn’t speak consistently. Awesome. Because I’m not concerned that he doesn’t speak at all…some days he’ll speak in sentences…and other days he doesn’t speak any English at all…and sometimes he comes out with sentences and phrases and you have no idea where he learned them (odd for me since I’m with him 24-7!) and I never know what to expect day to day…even hour to hour. To me…it’s odd but…she knew exactly what I was talking about so…can’t be too odd. And he won’t mimic anything except weird noises (animal sounds…”wow”…”ouch”…”oooooo”. Silly things…no words.) I didn’t tell her that…couldn’t remember everything and…she’s not the one we’ll be “working” with anyway…I’ll be sure to be more specific when necessary.
Anyway…first contact has been made and I should hear from the other person tomorrow or Wednesday to set up an appt. A few more great things about HMG…they come to your house and it’s free 🙂 I hope that…even if there’s nothing “wrong”…they have some suggestions about how we can help him speak more consistently.
I like that we have to clarify and say “Speak clear English.” Because like you say he does talk all the time, we just don’t know what he’s saying or if he knows what he’s saying!
Haha…I know! The only reason I know Iain knows what he’s saying is because if we get the answer wrong when he says “what’s this?”…(sometimes it’s difficult to tell what he’s pointing at)…he’ll say “no…what’s this?” but if we get it right (if it’s really obvious…haha)…he’ll move on to something else. And his other phrases…well…you just know he knows what he’s saying…”goes like this” and such…he only says them at appropriate times. We always say…”Can you speak English?” Haha…we joke that he’s going to go around saying that to people……