She was tested by the speech language pathologist and psychiatrist and was diagnosed with her speech delays. The funny thing is if they went by just her score alone, she would not qualify. The
"average" child scores 100 on the standardized test. She scored 119. On words and grammar and sentence structure she actually ranked at a 4 year 11 month level-so basically her speech is as good as a 5 year old. Amazing! The problem came in that while her speech is great, she never learned basic grammar or speech rules. She hasn't met a lot of milestones she should have met language wise at age 1 or 2. So she has lots of words, speaks clearly and in sentences, but can't do basic grammar, tenses, pronouns, or answer any "wh" question (like where, what, when etc) and can't answer yes/no questions correctly. Plus she has the echolalia where if she doesn't know the answer she just repeats the question back to you
Based on that, the SLP (speech therapist) determined that she needed speech therapy and she worded her findings to ensure Evelyn got in. We are SO happy. We know she needs speech therapy but couldn't afford it. Now the school will provide it. The best part? She is going to be evaluated by the School's OT (occupational therapist) in the coming months. If she qualifies through him, the school will also provide the OT. Our prayers have been answered! That will save us almost $300 a week (what we pay for private OT now)
After the meeting, Patrick and I went out to breakfast to talk about everything. We had always planned to send Evelyn to a private school as we wanted her to have the religious education as well. However, with her potentially having to go to our local school twice weekly for therapy next year, it made little sense to send her every day to a private school, then pick her up and drive her to the public school and then pick her up again. All that with potentially two other children. If she went to the public school she would be able to get her therapy while she was there
We never intended to send her to 4K but out here Kindergarten is all day and we couldn't imagine sending her from nothing to all day school. So we decided to go ahead with 4K. So we have decided to send her to the public school at least for 4K and go from there. We can always start at the private school for kindergarten which is what we originally planned anyways. The therapist seems to think Evelyn will be caught up by kindergarten which would be timed great. She can go there for 4K, get caught up, and then change over to our private school. It also will be good as we don't know how Evie will do in school. I'm nervous about that. If she can't handle it at St. John's, we'll have to take her out. They have no special education or help there. If she is in the public school and is having a hard time adjusting, they can remove her and give her the services she needs to learn how to act in a school setting. Another plus for at least a year in public schools.
I'm nervous about her being such a big girl already. I would have had to drive her to the private school but she will go on a bus with the public school. My baby on a bus!?!?!! and no car seat? I'm sweating just thinking about it :)
I hope and pray they are right and she will be caught up by 5K and can switch to St. Johns. I think the year at the public school with the therapists there for us and us not running around to therapy at nap time will do everyone good.
Other than that, we still have to decide if we want to go ahead and go to Children's again to the child development center. They are the ones who would officially diagnosis her with a "learning delay" or whatever they find. Almost everyone we've seen and she's been tested by feels she has Aspergers which is a mild form of Autism. We've never gotten her officially tested or diagnosed since the treatment for Aspergers is exactly what we are already doing. We didn't feel having a "label" would be helpful. We still need to think on that as having an official diagnosis would help in our fight to get her the therapies she needs, the help she needs in school, and things paid for.
Other than that, life is busy as usual. I had my freak tooth removed yesterday :) For some reason, I have more than 4 wisdom teeth. I had 4 removed as a teenager, yet a month ago magically started teething and a 5th came through. I went to the dentist yesterday to get referred to an oral surgeon but she decided to just yank it then and there. So I wasn't planning on having it done. I'm in a good amount of pain but it's better today than yesterday. The kids are going to "grandma Jackies" this weekend so I'm kinda bummed that I don't feel great.
Other than that, we are hoping we soon will be blessed with an addition to our family. As most of you know, we lost our 3rd child on Dec. 19 of this year. It was heartbreaking and sad but we also feel strongly that we will be blessed again. We have left it in God's hands and hope he will bless us again(soon!).....with another little miracle. We realize now how precious life is. I will never take a pregnancy for granted again. I know how quickly a child can be taken from you. This next child will be our little miracle child. In case you didn't know, we did name the baby. We figured by when we conceived that she was a girl. She was named Grace Marea Chenery. Please always remember baby Grace in your prayers :) I will never forget her, but while she was not able to be here for very long, she accomplished a lot in her short time. She has made us stronger and able to withstand something we never thought we could withstand. And we are better people because of that. We will miss her, especially next August 18th when she would have been born. But we know she was put here for a reason, and taken for a reason. Even if we don't know what that reason is. We just ask for your prayers for a safe and healthy pregnancy when that time comes again as we once again try to add to our family :)
Take care!
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