A little update...

First, Happy Mother's Day! To my Mom, to Mike's mom Rita, to my auntie Bulee, to Auntie Sally, and to my grandma in heaven: for all of you who have been a mother to me and have taken care of me. I love you!

So, I'm not sure if i told anyone yet, but at Makenna's last doctor's appointment, I requested that she be evaluated for speech therapy. I know Mike has always been hesitant about it- She is a very smart girl in a lot of ways, and she has been getting better and better at her speech. But...I have always felt she has been behind in communicating things to us, and just felt better about it to have it checked out, especially since she will be starting school soon.

Anyways, I am SO glad we went! The speech therapist we saw was amazing. Mike and I both liked her a lot. I told her my concerns about Makenna usually repeating things instead of answering a lot of our questions, and her confusing her pronouns. Makenna did great also! I was worried that she would be clingy and stubborn and not want to do any of the testing, but she went to the therapist willingly and was not scared at all! That made me so happy. Anyways, the therapist evaluated her and said she was excellent and above average in some areas, but she is behind in logic and communication. So, they will be working on her with that.

Mike and I had talked about when we should start Makenna on Preschool. Since her birthday is after the Sept. 1 cutoff date, if we started her this year, she would be in pre-k 3 and then do pre-k 4 next year ( basically 2 years of preschool). So we had decided to wait and start her with pre-k 4. We were thinking about putting her in the Catholic preschool too (Since both of us went to Catholic schools, we want this for our kids too).

Since her speech therapy evaluation though, we think its best to start her with preschool this year, to help her out more. But instead of starting her out with the Catholic preschool, our speech therapist said they are opening a school in August. It is a Montessori based school and will be perfect for Makenna! Here's a little more about communication disorder and the Montessori method:

Semantic Pragmatic Disorder (SPD) is a communication disorder:

• semantic = the relationship between words or sentences and their meanings;
• pragmatic = making language work in context.

SPD children are unable to process all the given information from certain circumstances.

A child with SPD may exhibit some (but not all) of the following features at an early age:

• A fluent speaker, but on the child's terms;
• Sounds very grown up in his or her speech;
• Doesn't exchange eye contact or facial gestures appropriately;
• Problems with abstract concepts (such as time, next week, guess);
• Doesn't ask teacher to help or children to play;
• Can appear rude, gauche, arrogant and embarrass others;
• Late or early reader, but little understanding;
• Bad at team events and games;
• Bad at social events (school breaks, parties);
• Motor skills problems (writing, drawing, bike riding, dressing, football).

SPD children respond well in Montessori learning environments

Children with SPD thrive in prepared Montessori learning environments. They learn well from practical hands-on tasks and in the quiet, orderly working environment with plenty of visual clues. The predictability of the daily routines reduces their anxieties; turn taking and changes in routines are clearly signalled.

Especially helpful Montessori ideas include:

• Small work groups, good role models, special small communication group activities (command cards etc.);
• Simple instructions spoken slowly: say, for example, please put the toys in the box' not please tidy up';
• Time to reply when asked a question, but replying for an SPD child (modelling) can help understanding;
• Help with socialising, specific games;
• Clear and consistently applied rules on how to behave using concrete language the child can understand;
• Constant positive reminders supported by visual/written information;
• Everything written down: e.g. timetable, instructions, message for parents;
• Daily diary between home and school with regular information about topic work this allows for shared information and pre-tutoring;
• Teach the meaning of playground language and common idiomatic expressions;
• Respond to the child's intentions and not to what is actually said (which may not make sense);
• Always allow him or her to watch other children first;
• Double check the child understands what is expected of him or her;
• Constant encouragement and praise.

Well, I guess that turned out to be more than a little update!!

Jennah