Where in southcentral VA or Raleigh area...go for eval???

[Guest guest]

I'm reading different posts and really feeling more and more like I

don't know what is wrong with my kids and that I have been wasting

three years on speech (receptive and expressive) and OT (sensory).

My 8yo is immature, impulsive, uses high pitch talk with his

brother, and can't seem to form his thoughts to make sentences.

Plus his communication skills are lacking when talking with his

friends. Really he doesn't have any friends because no one wants to

talk to him because he gets off topic and can't follow conversations.

My 6yo does some of the same things as the 8yo but doesn't seem to

have problems with immaturity and impulsiveness. He also seems to

studder/repeat the same word six times before he gets his thoughts

together to say what he wants. Sometimes he forgets what he is

trying to say because of the repeating and then starts over.

Does anyone know a good place to take them for a " real " evaulation

when someone can get down to a diagnose in south or central VA or

Durham/Raleigh NC area?

Thanks and blessings.

[Guest guest]

What age did your 8YO child start kindergarten and what type of placement

is he in today? How much ST and OT does he get and what is the exact

diagnosis? Is it that he doesn't have the thoughts to make a

sentence or is it that he doesn't have the ability to express his

thoughts? Does your 6 year old forget what he wants to say or is he

stuttering? Stuttering is a speech condition that can be either

temporary -developmental or an impairment. Could be either but

there's a huge difference!

You really want to get a diagnosis for both boys because as you are

already seeing with your 8 year old -socially there is an issue if

self esteem is low and everyone assumes you don't have the ability to

make a thought when you (perhaps) just can't say what you feel. As

the mom you will be the best advocate but you don't want to waste any

more time. As I always say don't give therapy more than 3 months

without progress without questioning the therapy, therapist or

diagnosis. But no time like the present and while the earlier the

better it's never too late to get started.

http://www.verbaldyspraxia.com/ This is the best website resource

for you if you are anywhere near Carnel who is a moderator

in this group and her son 's story was in The Late Talker book

http://www.verbaldyspraxia.com/.htm . Her son was originally

diagnosed as PDD apraxic but he's normal today! I know will

help you with boy your boys.

This is who highly recommends in the Carolinas so I'd say it's

worth a drive to get to her but I believe this therapist is in the

Raleigh area.

We provide affordable treatment even if your insurance does not cover

therapy. Our environment is very child friendly while at the same

time employing advanced treatment technologies.

Helen L. Kaye, M.Ed., CCC/SLP, Director

Telephone: (919) 460-0113 Fax: (919) 467-1712

Address: 875 Walnut St., Suite 252, Cary, NC 27511

http://www.caryspeech.com/

is now 10 and with appropriate therapy through the years (and

of course EFAs) here's the most recent messages from . Perhaps

she'll see this and add an update!

Re: Old-time here!!

Hey!!

I'm not (I'm ) - but my 10 1/2 year old has great

articulation now. In fact, his brother (almost 9) is very southern

and people wonder why is not. He is very articulate in his

speech so there is no accent! Weird huh??? What he does struggle

with sometimes is his sentence structure. THat is why writing is

hard for him. He still gets words stuck in his head, although now

he just hits his head and says " it's stuck, it's stuck! " So then we

all try to help him come up with synanyms for the words - or end

the sentence for him with funny words. Instead of getting mad about

it he ends up laughting.

Just my 2 cents.....

Carnell

Hello group!!

Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:53 pm

@...

I am an " old-timer " who used to be on this list ALL the time. ( -

I did get your message - we have been out of town for spring break,

and since we just got home I haven't had the chance to call yet - but

I will!!)

My son and I have many archives on this list if you would like to know

our story - or just ask and I will share!! (Search Carnell or

Carnell.)

My was diagnosed with possible autistic spectrum disorder (he

had 8 of the 10 characteristics), severe verbal dyspraxia. oral

apraxia, oral hypotonia, GERD (reflux), high anxiety, sensory issues

(and probably more that my " old timer " mind can't remember )when he

was 2 1/2 year old. He was originally diagnosed at Duke Medical

center where they told me he probably would never talk and might not

even be able to " bag groceries. " Needless to say, I don't like Duke

very much!!

is now 10 1/2 years old and in the 5th grade. He is in a

regular class (always has been) and has made straight a's all year on

his report card. He is very bright, very articulate, very talkative,

and an all around great - normal - kid with lots of friends. He is

awesome at all sports and especially likes snow boarding! He still

struggles at writing stories (He HATES to write stories) - but writing

is an extension of language so of course it is hard for him!! He just

knows he has to work harder than everyone else, so he does.

has done so well because of LOTS of therapies, LOTS of tears,

LOTS of struggles, LOTS of patience, LOTS of faith, and LOTS of help

from people on this listserve.

There has been many, many times when I thought things could not get

any worse (he was asked to leave preschool when he was 3 because he

couldn't talk - they wanted to put him on prozac when he was 3

1/2....) just to name a couple......But there have been many miracles

too (finding Helen Kaye, our angel and his old speech therapist -

teaching him sign language - finding fish oil.)

I have been where most of you are, and I can promise you there is a

light at the end of this long, dark, scary tunnel. You have to have

FAITH. Faith in yourself, and faith in your child. Most importantly -

allow yourself to FREAK-OUT every now and then. Mine would always

consist of a bottle of wine and lots and lots of tears. Cry, scream,

say the why me's and get all your anxiety and frustration out. BUT -

when you get up the next morning, be ready to fight and love even

harder than before. You will feel refreshed and ready to go!!!!

I promise to stay on the list and post when I can. If there is any

way I can help please ask. The " old-timers " who were around when I

was beginning this journey were HUGE inspirations to me.....I hope I

can follow in their footsteps.

Carnell

North Carolina

=====

[Guest guest]

I have no evaluation help for you but the 'high' pitched talking and the lack of

guaging his sounds just 'screams' of auditory tonal processing. We used The

Listening Program by Advanced Brain Technologies to correct this.

The inability to form coherent thoughts to make sentences sounds to me like an

auditory short term memory issue. We used Simply Smarter/Brain Builder and

Digit Spans to correct this. Short term memory issues are often overlooked and

are extremely important for our kids. When I took my son to NACD for the first

time, he had the auditory short term memory of a 5 year old at the age of 11/12.

It took 8 months of digit spans to normalize this and now he can tell stories

with a beginning, a middle and an ending! If you ask your son to perform

multiple tasks, ie. go to your room and grab a pair of socks, your red t-shirt

and a set of underwear...... will you find him wandering in circles trying to

figure out what he's supposed to do? The inability to follow multi-step verbal

instructions is a definate 'ear' problem. Sometimes when an injury happens to

the neural connections, things cease to grow and develop. With focussed

exercises, we can turn those connections back on again and bring them up to

speed. A child who has auditory short term memory processing issues is often

diagnosed as ADD and has a real difficult time in keeping up with the classroom

activities as all of the instructions are verbal. Because they are so behind in

their memory, they get easily frustrated, feel misunderstood and seem much

younger then their peer group.

Mark used to take 'runs' at sentences as well. " I want to go, I want to go, I

want to go..... to the store and get some.... get some ice-cream. His memory

was failing him mid-stride and he couldn't keep all of the 'bits' of thought in

his short term memory long enough to spit it out. This was NOT a stutter issue

but a short term memory issue.

Hope this gives you a little direction. I recognize this because we've been

there..... done that! Like I said.... outside of some tummy troubles and some

lingering articulation issues, we are now beautifully and blessedly 'normal'.

The key is to focus on the sense that is not working and then to target the heck

out of it with very specific exercises to get that neural pathway working as it

should.

Good luck and take care,

Janice

Mother of Mark, 13