Happy New Year

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone

I trust you all had a great holiday. Now that I am back at work I

find time to write! On the first day of the holidays I received the

feedback from the university with the results of the tests I

requested for . She has written " His speech productions and

oral motor skills are characteristic of dyspraxia of speech with the

possible involvemnt of dysarthria of speech. At present the

inconsistencies in production of many simple words would indicate

that dyspraxia should be addressed with additional observations and

assessments for the possibility of dyspraxia and dysarthria. " When I

get these indepth reports I go on a depressed tangent and find myself

not knowing what to do. I know you all have been there but it really

gets to me seeing it all in writing. As you can see no one really

says yes it is dyspraxia but all the specialists agree that it looks

that way! It makes me so made for goodness sake he is seven in April

and only 20% understandable and has 20 minutes speech therapy a week

and none over the summer holidays. Anyway the end of the report was

a warm fuzzy " 's character and sense of humor shine through his

significant speech and language difficulties. "

AND his school report said participates in classroom drama

activities confidently and enjoys the opportunity to amuse others!

Great aren't these the kids who in high school the amusement turns to

is disruptive in class!! Well I don't care he has a wicked sense of

humor. Also the report talks of feeding difficulties which he had

when he was younger he only ate custards yoghurts banana etc but now

eats everything but he used to take a drink and chew it! Anyone

else have this it was funny to watch him chew his drink. Anyway I

will follow all this through change his speech therapist and

hopefully see some progress. He has been on EFA Recovery which seem

to have improved his language and he can be understood by my dad who

always has problems understanding him. Also had his first bout of

therpay today which the physio was reluctant to do as he gets help

through SES big deal twice in a ten week term. So she gave me a big

lecture and said intense therapy through January twice a week and

then a chat to SES. Once she got started I think she realised how

behind he is so did I another thing I am trying not to beat myself up

about, I should know I should have noticed after all I am an Early

Childhood teacher! 15 years!! But I can't see how far behind he is

I can really I just can't get the help I know he needs. She put him

on a big ball and sitting and he balanced well. She lay him on his

stomach and he freaked out. He really panics. Walked along a line

on the floor great, put him on a bean maybe one foot of the floor and

he paniced wouldn't walk it without holding on to her. He walks up

stairs well but down stairs panics. Anyone else have this problem.

Not always he has just started walking up stairs with alternate feet

and does it most of the time down sometimes but often will stop dead

in his tracks and say " up duddle " " up cuddle " which means pick me

up. So we do or he just refuses to come and seems quite scared. I'd

really like to know if anyone else has this problem and what to do

about it.

Take care all

Michele (N.Z)