Well, there’s nothing wrong with my kid! Not that I thought there was anything wrong exactly. But I did think he needed a little help with speech. We met with a speech therapist and a child psychologist last week. They said Ryder is incredibly bright for his age and has no developmental or speech delays. What seems to be a delay in speech is due to “choice speech.” Most kids learn single words to get what they want like milk, food, juice, etc. Ryder has learned to say “I want this” or “I want that” and to point to the specific item. So he just says one of those phrases instead of the word. They said with just a little work, his words will come in. We just have to try to get him to say the word rather than say the word for him. If he says “I want that” and points to goldfish, the goal is for him to say goldfish. So we are to ask “what is that” or “what’s the word for that.”
The speech pathologist said, although they aren’t saying he needs speech therapy, working with a speech therapist could help push him along to get additional words quicker. They even have a speech therapist that will come to our home and work together with Ryder and I if we decide we want to do it!
I’ll be honest, it’s a big relief to know Ryder has no developmental delays. Not that it’s a bad thing. I know speech delays are incredibly common. But it’s just one less thing to worry about. I hate the idea of him struggling with anything.
My oldest is needing to start speech therapy. He doesn’t have as many words as other kids his age and sometimes struggles to form words. So the doctor recommended speech therapy to help us along.
We took him to a facility in Dallas and were super excited the day of. I was so positive and felt like ok here we go, we are going to get answers and some help.
I pulled up to the building and thought, no way this can be the facility. Walking in to the building I should have just turned back around and got in the car. The building looked sketchy. It was an old office building with no relation to anything medical. The waiting room was tiny and had only a few toys. It looked like someone brought some of their kids old stuff and just stuck it in the corner as a last minute thought. Not what I would have expected at a facility for kids. But I kept brushing it aside and telling myself not to judge the place because the therapist could be awesome. (Continue reading on my blog. Link in my about me)
We met the therapist and she brought us back to a tiny, hot room. We tried to ignore the temperature and just focus on Ryder. We were originally told to expect to be there an hour and a half to two hours for testing. That was not the case this time. We were there only 40 minutes. The therapist didn’t really interact with Ryder. She read us questions off a piece of paper. She literally had to reread a few questions to herself as if she didn’t understand the question! She kept leaving the room and coming back with more paperwork. It was completely disorganized and my stress level started to heighten. I was feeling zero comfort in that place.
She gave me a “score” for Ryder’s verbal comprehension and actual spoken words. The verbal comprehension score didn’t make sense or seem accurate. She hadn’t interacted with my son so there was no real way to give a score. Taking a score based off questions she asked us is not accurate.
I asked next steps and what we were to do from here. Expecting her to have a game plan or a step by step process as well as things to do at home. Her exact words were “I don’t know why he isn’t talking. We can run him through tests and see if we can figure it out.” I’m sorry but “I don’t know” isn’t any answer a doctor or anyone should ever give you! There are other ways to say you are unsure. And the fact that “running some tests” is your game plan shows you are disorganized. There should be exact next steps you take (a protocol of some sort.) I assume Ryder isn’t their first case of delayed speech. But it must be for them to not have an organized plan of next steps.
I left the facility feeling terrible and thinking to myself “I can just do this on my own.” Ive never felt so let down in my life. This is not the outcome I was hoping for. I was at least hoping for some sort of plan. Or maybe some sort of an answer. But I got nothing outside of an “I don’t know.”
Thank god for my gym. Lol I get a great workout, I feel at home there and there’s other mothers I talk to regularly. One of which who ran her daughter through similar testing but used the state of Texas’ services. She explained what they did step by step and how they worked with her and her daughter on the first visit. It was significantly different than my visit and way more of a positive one. I feel a glimmer of hope after talking to her.
I’ve reached out to the facility she used and was beyond impressed! They were so detailed in their step by step process! I had a 15 minute conversation with the woman on the phone just discussing Ryders needs and what the plan was for the first visit and everything after. This was SO different from the first place. I am really excited to get in there this week and see how they can help our little guy!!
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