I am glad that we have finally gotten some answers to Brandons speech problems. He went through over two hours of testing today and we were able to get the results already. We were told that he does have a central auditory processing disorder that is causing his speech and other delays.

We now have to wait for the therapist to write up the report and send it to our speech so that we can do a new IEP for him. From what I saw and was told his main problem is surrounding noise and not being able to put sounds together. He will need special accomadations next year to assist him in learning but there is hope that this can be completely corrected. I was really pleased because we have an answer and now can move on.


Melanie.

Wow Melanie! Congratulations on getting a diagnosis! You must be absolutely thrilled to be able to move on and to get the necessary supports for Brandon in school next year. What grade will he be in in September?

I don't see Evan having trouble with surrounding sounds (I'll have to take a closer look now though), but as you already know, we're having difficulty getting him to put sounds together to form two-syllable words.

Wow, that's great news, to actually have a diagnosis that can be worked on and corrected is so exciting for you guys! Congrats!

Isn't bizarre how getting a positive diagnosis can actually be a good thing sometimes...???

That's true, Roni. It's nice to finally start working on something....

Great news,Melanie! I am glad that it can be hopefully corrected!


Shannon

I do so agree that getting a diagnosis is so much easier to handel than hearing the words that we dont know what is wrong or how to fix it. I would like to thank you all for your support and good thoughts.

Melanie.

I am happy for you and your positive attitude towards everything. It sounds like you will move ahead in leaps and bounds!

We are in the process of having the IPRC done for my 5 year old and should have an IEP in place for next year. We do not know what has caused his major speech and language delay, but we are moving to get him the help he needs to succeed in school despite being told repeatedly that he was too young for it.

Leigh

Leigh,
I wish we would have started my son before he was 3yrs old in speech but I listend to my ped when he told us to wait. Now for us our speech told us they could have tested him when he was over a year old. I think that it is great that you are getting your son help and I dont think that it is to early. I do wish you luck.

Melanie.

Melanie, I wish that I had of fought harder for help for him earlier. I listened to my ped and went for 2 hearing tests (normal), an eye test (what does that have to do with speech??!), and was repeatedly told that boys develop speech slower than girls and since he was so gifted with throwing a basketball his speech skills were suffering. I did not buy it then and I do not buy it now. I think that they try and make you wait until it becomes a crisis. School is very difficult for Walker as children can be cruel and since Walker is very social he wants to make friends but lacks the verbal skills. Next year should be better.

As far as testing him at a year, there are programs here called "First Words" and they will do assessments on babies at that age and it is the program that caught Walker when we went to a clinic. I wish we had of known about it a year prior!

What sort of symptoms does Brandon show? I am wondering how they determined central processing disorder. I know that Walker has a problem that has not been determined yet.

Kudos to you for getting some answers!

Leigh

Leigh,
Brandon's speech therapist is the one who brought of the disorder to us. She felt that there was more there than just normal speech delay. Brandons speech is so poor that she felt he needed further testing to determine why he is so bad at arrticulation. Penn State University is where he was tested,they offer it there and is the only place in the area. We are very lucky our speech therapist is really great and knows her stuff.

As for symptoms Brandon main one is his speaking. He is very hard to understand when speaking in sentences or more than one word phrases. His vocabulary is above age as is his understanding and meaning of words. He also has a hard time following more than one step directions,because they are lost in translation. We didnt realize this becasue he also has a diagnosis of adhd so we thought is was due to this. We are still waiting for the final report so that we can adjust his IEP for next year.


Melanie.