Thursday, April 9, 2009

Expression

Last night Elijah was evaluated by a speech therapist from our city's birth to three program (where he already receives PT/OT from). We figured it wouldn't hurt to have him in speech therapy twice a week, at two different places. After the evaluation, she told Dan and me that she has never seen a child with such a wide gap between comprehension and expression. In other words, she has never seen a child who can talk or sign as little as Elijah can, yet who understands so much. For the comprehension portion of the test, she showed Elijah pictures and asked him to point out different objects and verbs. He did extremely well (he pointed out jungle..??). Some of the things he was answering (pointing to) correctly were things that 4- and 5-year-olds are typically tested on. Whoa! She said, "He's ready for kindergarten!" :)

So, Elijah has the true definition of Expressive Language Disorder. He was only able to say three of the words she asked him to say last night, so I'm positive that he will be approved for therapy. This is good. The more help we can get him, the better.

Next update will be about orthotics molds! Exciting stuff here on Elijah's blog.

9 comments:

Tina:0) said...

Yay for being so far ahead on the comprehension!! AS for the expression part... he'll catch up:0) He's such a smart guy, I'm sure he's just holding out on you! Elijah will be talking your leg off & you'll find yourself longing for those quiet days! (believe me... I'd like one! - LoL)

Give that little man hugs from us!

Cecilia said...

Wow, so proud of your Elijah, a little man with wisdom. He will soon catch up with his speech.

Hugs to you and your little man.

Have a nice day and a Happy Easter!

my life: said...

I LOVE this!!! Early intervention works :0)

Tracy said...

Great that you got the evaluation done so you know where he's at. He's a smart little cookie!

Unknown said...

That is so great he can understand and point. If he can do that then he will catch up and that is a plus.
He is so smart....:)

mina said...

Elijah's got the comprehension part nailed, so he's halfway there! I'm sure speech therapy will get him up to par. We already know he's super smart. How many kids his age know all their letters already? Not mine!

Kathy said...

i think i need to move. Isaac still doesn't make any sounds, babbles, doesn't point, or understand...and he only gets speech therapy once a quarter!

and...we've been telling you that he's a genius. Girl...when he starts talking...he's going to soar!

Mami Adame said...

Definitely hope he gets approved. It's wonderful that his comprehension is so good.
I worry about Angelina's frustration level (not too bad right now) because she does understand a lot, but is not able to communicate too much. She babbles and goes on and on- but sadly I can't understand a lot of it. Unless I know what the topic is to begin with, all her sounds are very similar. Luckily we have a wonderful speech therapist who she sees twice a week.
Take care!

Samantha said...

Sounds like Elijah is JUST like Noah. Noah was exactly like that...he could understand everything, the most complex adult things, but ask him to say one word, and it was all done. I am glad that they have figured more out about his speech, because I KNOW that lots and lots of speech therapy does help. Noah still is in speech and probably will be for much more time, but he has improved so much!

Now...I have to catch up on the rest :)

Love ya!
Samantha