Graduate

Annabelle has officially graduated from speech therapy!

I need to catch up on the previous speech therapy sessions before I completely forget everything, and I hope to do so soon. That means I have great intentions, but it probably will never happen!

Monday's session was pretty blah. Last week as Miss Andrea was escorting us out the door, I asked her, "Do you think she really needs this? If you think she needs this, then that is fine, but I just want to get an idea because it is pretty costly for us. We've met our deductible this year with the birth of our second child, so the cost isn't so much an issue this year, but I just want to have an idea of where we stand going forward."

In all honesty, I was beginning to think that this speech therapy was a complete waste of our money. Granted, as hubby said, I do think it has helped Annabelle get excited about pronouncing words correctly, but the last few sessions have been pretty repetitious. Everything Miss Andrea does with her, I have done with her at home in conversation. And I did that before Miss Andrea intervened.

So as we walked back to the "play" room and observation room, Miss Andrea told me that after we left last week, she gave a lot of thought to whether or not Annabelle needed to continue with therapy and she felt that today would probably be Annabelle's last day. She also mentioned that most of articulation therapy is done by the parents at home anyway, and they've been working on more advanced sounds for her age anyway.

I did mention to her that Annabelle really struggled with the "th" sound. Miss Andrea said that sound is a really hard one to get, and it is an eight year old sound. She said that Annabelle would get it when she was ready to get it, and Miss Andrea seemed to think she would have that sound down pat pretty soon. In hopes that Miss Andrea would practice it with her today, I told her that Annabelle always seems to get the sound after she works with her on it, but I can do the same thing with her, and she just won't get it. Miss Andrea did practice the "th" sound with her once. And would you believe that she is actually starting to get the "th" sound now!

Most of Monday's session was more observation by Miss Andrea. Annabelle and Miss Andrea played Granny's Candies game, Artic Chipper Chat (using the L sound), and Blue's Clues Big Easy Game.

Here is one funny comment made by Annabelle during the speech therapy session. She nodded her head yes and smiled as she made this comment.

"Stool. That's how I used to say sss-kool."

Miss Andrea actually wrapped the speech therapy session up 7-10 minutes early. I know we'll get billed for the full hour though which irks me. Since I charge for my own time when I prepare tax returns, etc., I am a stickler when it comes to charging time. Of course, the paperwork you sign with them does state they can bill you the full 15 minute increment if you go over into the next 15 minutes, but if I'm paying for an hour, then give me that full hour! When I enter my time to charge my clients, I will literally bill down to the 5 minutes instead of rounding up to 15 minutes. In my opinion, my rate (that my company billed me out) was just too high to charge my clients the full 15 minutes. And, with the many 5 minute phone calls I got daily, it was too costly for me to write off all of those 5 minute phone calls.

Miss Andrea did tell Annabelle during the speech therapy session that it would be her last day since she was doing so great with her sounds. Annabelle seemed completely fine with that. She got to choose a prize from the prize box. She chose a pink money change purse just like her Daddy's change purse! Okay, not just like it because his is orange, but she made sure that she told me that she got a change holder "to hold my pennies just like Daddy's!"

As we were leaving Miss Andrea said, "Annabelle is doing great, and I am not worried about her at all." She also mentioned that when Annabelle first started speech therapy, she didn't understand why Annabelle had been recommended at such an early age (I guess meaning an early age for those sounds). She said that the speech therapist that recommended her was probably on the fence as to whether Annabelle needed therapy or not and that they typically tend to err on the cautious side.

I am going to pretend that we didn't waste our money, but I'm not sure it was completely necessary either. If I had taken her for speech therapy back in January when Dr. Calk originally recommended it, it probably would have been necessary, but she's made so much progress on her own since January that it probably wasn't necessary by the time I finally got around to her speech evaluation.

I wondered why Miss Andrea didn't mention then that she didn't think Annabelle needed it, but I guess she didn't want to second guess another therapist. And, I also wonder if parents tend to push it that their child needs therapy. I suspect she was trying to please me, and she may have thought I was one of those pushy parents until I asked her if Annabelle really needed it.

So, we are done for now! Miss Andrea mentioned that I could e-mail her and they could reevaluate her if I felt like she was regressing in any way.

As a side note, Miss Andrea said, "I would love to give her a language test! She would blow that one out of the water." After I inquired further, I learned that a lot of children have problems following directions, and a lot of speech therapy is done for this. Interesting!

Annabelle doesn't have a problem following directions when she wants to!

I am very proud of my little graduate! She has come a long way since January!