A Long Road Ahead

I took Keegan this morning for his speech and language assessment. Although he does pronounce individual words quite well, it is when he speaks in sentences that he becomes difficult to understand. This is due to his delay in receptive language, or how he understands language. For example, he does not understand some simple concepts such as in, on, under, in front, behind etc., so he fills in with "jargon" (da da da) to complete his sentences. So instead of saying, "The toy is under the chair", he may say "the toy da da da the chair".

In terms of how extensive his delay is, it has been classified as severe. A child his age usually falls in the 40-60 percentile. Keegan is in the 1st percentile. Yeah, I know. We have a tough row to hoe, as they say. He also has difficulty with negatives, such as "not". So if I tell him, "We're NOT going to Grandpa's house today," he'll go get his coat and shoes on. He just "hears" the part about going to his Grandpa's. Makes sense now that when I say, "Poo does NOT go in your underwear", that we still have toileting issues.

So what next? Well, Mark and I have to go to 2 two-hour parenting workshops to help us learn strategies to help Keegan at home. Once we have completed the workshops, we will have a follow-up appointment with the language therapist.

Once he begins to understand the concepts of in, on, under, over, behind, in front and so on, he will start to use them in his sentences, and thus will become much more coherent in his language. So if you are speaking with Keegan, and have a hard time understanding him, please be patient, and know that he is working hard to gain these important skills.

Speaking of the devil, I am being summoned, so I'll chat later. And if there are any readers out there with similiar circumstances, I would love to hear from you!