“Oh, the fun we have!”

Tad’s evaluation went pretty well – if you consider “pretty well” to mean that he flunked out big time in the verbal skills area, and therefore qualifies for state services. He is perfectly normal in every other way for his age – they assessed for self-help, motor skills and other things, and he totally bombed in communication.

Since I have a degree in communications, this is clearly not my fault. I think I will blame his father. Just kidding.

The bottom line is that since he qualifies, as soon as the official reports are written up and submitted, Tad will get to have a speech therapy appointment once a week – at home. Yes, we are going to have in-home visits, because they “want to see him in his normal environment.” It kind of makes him sound like a rare monkey that they’re going to teach to communicate via sign language, doesn’t it? But on the up side, the therapist (whoever it is) will get to meet Ane right off the bat and discover exactly what our family dynamics are, so I won’t be talking myself blue in the face trying to explain how one child talks non-stop and how the other can never get a word in edgewise – if he cared.

Ane also learned the power of words today – for example, if you say to your preschool teacher, “I don’t feel well,” you most likely will get sent home from school.

I got a call on my cell in the middle of Tad’s evaluation – and when I saw that it was Ane’s school, my heart sank. I excused myself and took the call, thinking that Ane was in major trouble. No, they just wanted her out of there in case she really was sick, because her teacher thought she was running a fever.

Since Grandma was scheduled to pick her up, I hastily called my mother, who went and got her. They had tried to take Ane’s temperature and hadn’t gotten a good reading (she wasn’t keeping the disposable thermometer under her tongue, they said), but my mother gave her one good kiss on the forehead and knew she didn’t have a fever. Still, Ane does have a sniffly nose and a wet cough, so Grandma took her – as the rest of her class went to recess. Ane cried when she realized that she wasn’t going to go with her class, but was placated by Grandma’s offer to let her help cook Gichan’s breakfast – which I am told she enjoyed greatly.

And my mother told me that when Ane heard my key in the lock after Tad’s appointment, she heard Ane sigh and say, “Oh, great.” Then when Tad and I actually walked in, she put on a smile and said, “Hi, Mommy!”

It’s nice to be loved.

The title of this post is a Monty Python quote – really! Which sketch is it from?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 1:29 am and is filed under Children, School Days, Speech Therapy Saga.
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