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!

Speech Therapy Week 2

Annabelle was not quite herself for speech therapy this morning because she was still recovering from a busy and fun filled weekend with Nonnie. She was even in bed by 8:00 p.m., but the 12 hours of sleep still didn't seem to help. But, she still cooperated very well. She was just a little less talkative.

Miss Andrea focused on the "SH" sound today. Her focus was mainly on the "initial SH words" meaning that the "SH" is at the beginning of the word.

Miss Andrea and Annabelle started speech therapy by playing the "Dora the Explorer ABC Game." There were cards dealt out face up on the table with all of the upper case letters listed on each one. Annabelle was to start with the letter A and find the corresponding card. Then, she was to tell Miss Andrea what was pictured on the card. She moved from A to B to C and so on through the entire alphabet. For some of the letters, here are some of the things I noted or some of the things she said after she saw the picture on the card.

S - Strawberry - I noted that she has trouble saying "straw" in the word strawberry. I have noticed this, and we have a hard time understanding her when she asks for a straw. I cannot remember what we typically think she says as I just asked her to say straw, and she said it correctly!

K - "Uncle Ken's name."

K - Kite - "What happens to it when em eating dare food?" Miss Andrea had told Annabelle that Dora was having a picnic, and these were some of the things that Dora needed on her picnic.

O - Oranges - This is another word that Annabelle has trouble saying.

P - Pineapple - "Pineapple, my favorite!" Oddly enough, pineapple is not Annabelle's favorite fruit. She has just recently starting liking it, but sometimes she can take it or leave it. Watermelon is definitely still one of her favorites.

After the Dora the Explorer game, Miss Andrea asked Annabelle, "I forget. I know you told me, but is she smaller than you?" Annabelle had just said something about Sophia. "Bigger," Annabelle replied. Really? She's bigger? I'm not sure where that comment came from, but it was quite funny.

Next on the agenda was a matching (memory) game on the computer. As Annabelle found the matches of the words with the initial SH sound, she was to repeat the word to Miss Andrea. Following are the words pictured on the game.

shamrock, sheep, shower, shoes, shelf, shovel, chef, shake, shot, she

When asked to say "she," Annabelle responded, "I can only say girl. I cannot say she."

Randomly, Annabelle piped in and said, "One time I bideoed [videoed] someding Ganmama said, and she said stop bideoing [videoing] me." She was referring to last week when she learned to use her new digital camera to video.

After the memory game, Andrea drew the letters S and SH on a piece of paper. She asked Annabelle to draw a dot on the paper next to either the S or the SH depending on the sound she heard in the word stated. Annabelle followed Andrea's directions very well, and I think she completed the exercise accurately.

Connect Four was the next game on the agenda. Andrea asked if Annabelle had ever played Connect Four before. Annabelle told her that she has not and that is when I realized I really need to buy Annabelle some more advanced games. Candyland and Hi Ho Cheerio just don't cut it with this girl! They have always been boring to her. Hi Ho Cheerio holds her interest a whole lot better than Candyland does though.

During the Connect Four game, Andrea held up cards from the Webster-Articulation game. All of the pictures on the cards included the "SH" sound. Annabelle had to say the word with the "SH" sound before she dropped a token into the Connect Four game.

While playing, Annabelle blocked Andrea immediately and apparently grinned. Miss Andrea said, "You have played this before!" because she thought that Annabelle had blocked her on purpose. I think she realized later that it was simply just a coincidence.

Following are the words Annabelle had to say based on the pictures on the Webster-Articulation cards: eyelashes, parachute, leash, squash, radish, pin cushion, paintbrush, dishes

fish = "fis" came out

yellow fishing poles = "jello" fishing poles came out

toothbrush = "toothbrus" came out


For homework this week, Miss Andrea wants Annabelle to focus on her:

(a) initial SH words (i.e. shoe, shapes, sheep, ship, shirt)

(b) final SH words (i.e. brush, cash, dish, fish, leash, push, splash)

(c) initial Y words (i.e. youngest, yo-yo, yummy, yogurt, yellow jacket)


After the therapy was complete, Miss Andrea asked if I had any questions. I asked if Miss Andrea felt comfortable with Annabelle's use of the medial N words. She felt like she was doing fine with those. I also voiced my concern that Annabelle typically gets irritated with me asking her to repeat the words over and over for homework. She'll often tell me, "I don't want to. I am tired of saying dat." Miss Andrea said that Annabelle was very smart, and she was probably just getting bored with the exercises. Miss Andrea suggested giving her stickers on a sticker board with a bigger sticker if she completes all of the homework I have planned. She doesn't know Annabelle, does she? Annabelle requires a "prize" from the Dollar Store for her bigger prize, and after awhile, even the stickers don't motivate her.

I mentioned to Miss Andrea that I was considering purchasing one of the games off of the http://www.superduper.com/ website she recommended where Annabelle has to string together several different words with the same sounds in the game. She said that they didn't have a game like that, and it sounded like a great game for Annabelle since it seems that Annabelle has more articulation issues when she is stringing her words together to form a sentence. She also mentioned that it is fairly common that children aged 2.5 - 3 years will string together very long sentences because they are so smart and have a lot they want to say, but it is hard to understand them because they haven't quite mastered the sounds for certain words yet. She gave me the impression that this is common with very smart children who are able to string together many words to form a sentence. Maybe I was reading into it because we all want our child to be smart, but I got the impression from Miss Andrea that speech therapy was common for these types of children. That goes against the typical stereotype and belief that children in need of speech therapy are not smart. No one can say that I didn't talk to Annabelle as a young child! How else would she be able to string together these very long sentences? Even her doctor at her three year old wellness checkup mentioned that was a four year old milestone.

Speech Therapy Week 1

I am writing this entry in hopes that I will continue to provide an entry after every speech therapy session so that if I ever need to refer back to a session in the future I will have them handy.

One of my good friends is absolutely awesome about blogging on any major event, including all of her daughter's weekly speech therapy sessions. She is definitely an inspiration as a blogger, but especially as a mom! I don't know how she pulls everything together, but she is the mom that never forgets birthdays, always writes very nice thank you notes timely and always responds to e-mails almost immediately. I just wish I could say the same for myself! She loves her little girl more than anything, and it definitely shows as her little girl, Audrey, is one smart cookie. So, here is hoping that I can motivate myself to blog after every speech therapy session as she has done.

Annabelle had her very first speech therapy session with Ms. Andrea this morning. It has worked out well (coincidentally) that Annabelle's speech therapy will be held at a location near my parent's house, so I was able to drop Sophia off with my parents while Annabelle and I went to her speech therapy session.

We had to locate the correct building this morning, so we were running a little later than I would have liked. I was only 5 minutes early according to their clock, and yet again (for the 3rd time), I had to complete paperwork. The same paperwork I have completed at the other two locations for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. So, Annabelle's speech therapy actually started 5 minutes late. Ms. Andrea ended the session at the end of the hour, so we were shorted a few minutes, but I won't complain this time around. Of course, I don't like paying 10% of $300 and being shorted 5-10 minutes, but we'll deal with that later.

Ms. Andrea led Annabelle and me to the "playroom," and Ms. Andrea told me I could observe from the room next door. The room had a one-way window, and the sound from their room was projected into my room. It was actually quite fun watching her interact from another room.

You never know who you are going to get with any kind of therapy, but so far, I have been pleasantly surprised with Ms. Andrea. Annabelle opened up to her immediately, and she was willing and ready to play with Ms. Andrea from the start. My little girl no longer has fear of me leaving her. My have things changed quite a bit in a very short year. She was reluctant for us to leave her in Sunday School last August, but now she doesn't even blink when we leave her somewhere. That is definitely a step in the right direction towards independence, but it makes me realize that my little girl is growing up way too fast!

Ms. Andrea started off the session by playing the Cranium game, Cariboo, with her. They used a key to open slots based on the card that was drawn. For example, if the card had a color on it, Annabelle had to find a picture that had the same color. Or, if the card had a letter on it, Annabelle had to find a picture with that same letter. Ms. Andrea used the colors and pictures as an opportunity to get Annabelle to speak to her.

While playing Cariboo, I noticed that Ms. Andrea focused on the "L" sound with Annabelle. Ms. Andrea pronounced "yellow" as follows with a strong emphasis on the sounds. She also made it very clear to Annabelle with her tongue movement where her tongue should be placed when she said "low." I think Annabelle got it just by watching her.

yellow = yeah low

Here are some funny things Annabelle said to Ms. Andrea while playing Cariboo and after they picked out some new games together.

"I just learned balloon." - I'm not sure Ms. Andrea knew what she meant by that phrase, but Annabelle was trying to tell her that she just learned to say balloon correctly since we've been focusing on certain words that she pronounces incorrectly.

"I have the party game that Nonnie gave us. Nonnie gave it to me at Molly's house for her birfday." - Again, Ms. Andrea has no clue what the "party game" is, but Annabelle was all too excited about telling Ms. Andrea about the party game. The "party game" is very similar to Candyland except everyone is supposed to win. Of course, Mommy and Daddy have altered that game a bit as that is a little too correct (according to today's standards) for us. In our opinion, there is only one winner.

"Maybe when I get rid of not really loving it." She was telling Ms. Andrea about a puzzle she has that is geared more to younger children (18 months +). It has a fishing pole, and you go fishing for the puzzle pieces. She told her, "I have a fishing puzzle that I wheely wheely love." Then she told her that maybe we could get rid of it later and put it in the attic for Sophia. But only when she got "rid of not really loving it." Ms. Andrea laughed at that one!

After Cariboo, they played the Disney Pretty Pretty Princess game. That was a hit, and she is still talking about it! Ms. Andrea told her they could play that one for a little while, but after that she wanted her to play a specific game. I could tell that Ms. Andrea wanted to focus more on the speech games, but she also wanted to give Annabelle an opportunity to make a decision.

While playing Pretty Pretty Princess, Ms. Andrea focused on the "L" sound, but mostly on the "ng" sound. She emphasized riNG quite a bit. While they were playing, Annabelle's game piece had to pass Ms. Andrea's game piece. Annabelle politely said, "Scuse me." Of course, Ms. Andrea thought that was funny too.

Ms. Andrea pulled out some speech flash cards with pictures on them intermittently while they played Pretty Pretty Princess. She focused on the "ng" in the following words.

writing, playing, walking, eating, drinking, cooking, baking, poking, riding, honking, barking, packing, napping, falling

It is no wonder she doesn't say these words properly. You know, living in the south and all. "What are you doing?" "Nothin." We southerners always leave off the "g" in those words!

Then Ms. Andrea focused on the "Sh" sounds while playing Pretty Pretty Princess. She again used the speech flash cards. She told Annabelle to say, "Shhhh." Then she led into each word.

"Shhhoe," "Shhhy."

"People always say I'm shy or bashful," Annabelle responded after Ms. Andrea said shy. Again, Ms. Andrea got a kick out of that. I think the word "bashful" threw her for a loop. She responded and said, "Well, I don't think you're shy or bashful. Are you shy when you meet new people." Of course Ms. Andrea didn't think she was shy! Annabelle was talking her ear off! Following are the "sh" words that Ms. Andrea had Annabelle repeat.

shopping, share, shine, shore, shoot, shampoo, shadow, shapes, ship, shoulder, sharp

After repeating "shadow," Annabelle had to tell Ms. Andrea all about Shadow and Jezebel and how Jezebel wasn't very nice and Shadow was nice some of the time.

The last game played was a speech therapy game titled Artic Chipper Chat. Ms. Andrea had Annabelle line up clear game pieces on the game board. It was quite fun to watch Annabelle from a distance as she was quite anal, as I suspected. Ms. Andrea watched her, and I am sure she picked up on how anal Annabelle is. She lined those pieces up perfectly!

They never really played the Artic Chipper Chat game, but once again Ms. Andrea focused on the "sh" sound.

shark, fish, squash, sheep, ship

While playing Pretty Pretty Princess, Annabelle asked to leave on her jewelry that she collected to show Mommy. She was so excited to show me. And, like I said, she has not stopped talking about Pretty Pretty Princess. I am quite afraid that I am going to have to buy her that game. My how boring it looks!

After Annabelle's session, Ms. Andrea told me that today she spent more time just getting to know Annabelle. Obviously, she wanted to understand the articulation errors she was making. Ms. Andrea told me that the sounds they (from the initial evaluation) recommended the speech therapist focus on (the medial N, L and ng) were not typical sounds that are typically recommended for a child her age. And, she also mentioned that it seemed that Annabelle already had the medial N down when she asked Annabelle to repeat words with the medial N in them. She mentioned that it may just have been the word they used to evaluate her or she may have already made a lot of progress since her initial evaluation. I suspect it was a little of both. The word they used to evaluate her was "banana." That is a hard word to say since it sort of has two medial "N's." But, she has learned to say banana since her initial evaluation.

Ms. Andrea gave us homework on "Medial N Words" with two or more syllables that we are to practice between now and next weeks session. Ms. Andrea said that next week she wants to focus on the "sh" sound. I was actually pleasantly surprised since the "sh" sound is actually not supposed to be mastered until age 7. So, I was glad that she wasn't going to only focus on the 3 and 4 year old sounds.

Annabelle really enjoyed herself at school. We told her she was going to school today. She was so excited to go, but she told me later that she was expecting a room full of other kids. She didn't seem disappointed, and she was happy with my explanation that she got one on one time with Ms. Andrea without any other kids around.

And, after today's session, she's been really open to practicing the sounds in each word with me. She used to tell me, "I don't want to do that any more." But, as of this evening, it was still fun to her! I hope I am able to find a happy median so that she doesn't get discouraged as she has in the past when I try and get her to sound out the words.

Also, I asked Ms. Andrea if I should consider purchasing some of the speech games she used with Annabelle today. I mentioned that I was afraid to purchase the same ones because I don't want Annabelle to get bored with her if we have the same games at home. She gave me the website where I can find these games, and she told me to check it out and bring a list of any of the games I am considering, and she will make sure they don't have it before I purchase it. The name of the website is www.superduperinc.com. And as Ms. Andrea mentioned, the games listed on this website are fairly expensive, so we may have to make our own!

Speech Evaluation

Annabelle had her speech evaluation today with Mrs. Crystal at the North Druid Hills outpatient center of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Mrs. Crystal diagnosed Annabelle with a mild articulation delay, and she is recommending speech therapy for an hour a week until Annabelle is able to master the sounds she is using incorrectly that should be mastered by age 3 (n) and by age 4 (ng and y). Annabelle also has problems with l, ch, sh, j, r, z, s, v, and th, but these sounds are not expected to be mastered until a child is 6 (for the l) and 7 (for the remaining sounds).

I guess at this point I am past the denial stage as the diagnosis came as more of a relief (i.e. Thank goodness she actually is recommending speech therapy so that I'll have some assistance to help Annabelle correct these errors) versus an insult (i.e. My child needing speech therapy? How can that be?).

As Annabelle's primary caregiver, I have completely blamed myself for her speech delay, and I'll probably never feel differently no matter what anyone tells me. I honestly feel that if I didn't talk so fast that Annabelle would speak more clearly herself. I think she has a hard time understanding me (which is definitely warranted), so I think she is only speaking what she hears.
I cannot even begin to explain the embarrassment and frustration I have felt as a result of her speech delay. Up until probably March of this year, I have had to reiterate almost everything that Annabelle would say to anyone. I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been for her as well. If I am recalling correctly, it wasn't until December 2009 that she finally mastered saying her own name. She used to refer to herself as "Dannabelle." This is a word that she has heard every day of her life, but she couldn't even say that correctly. That was heart wrenching to say the least. Oddly enough, she has a friend named Annalee, and she's been able to say Annalee correctly since they became friends in March 2009, but she continued to struggle saying her own name.

And my frustration would escalate even more when anyone besides hubby or me would try to help her sound out words. It was as if they were saying, "Hey mom, if you sound things out, she'll learn to speak correctly. Don't you realize that mom? Let me show you how to teach your child to speak correctly." Actually, that still irritates me as that is my job as her mom and teacher.

And, one could probably see steam coming out of my ears when other people would repeat the words back to her just as she said them because they thought she sounded cute with her mispronunciations. I was working hard to help her sound them out correctly, and then someone would say the word incorrectly. Oddly enough, she would often respond with, "No. I said blah, blah, blah." She did this because she knew they were saying it wrong even though she didn't seem to realize that she was saying it wrong herself. This happened more out in public with random people that we had never met before. I know people mean well, but when a child already is struggling with speech, there is no need to point it out even more to the child and the mom.

But, overall, I think we tend to blame ourselves for anything our child is possibly behind on. Because we should have done this or that differently. Oddly enough, several of my friends have children receiving speech therapy, and the thought has never crossed my mind that they did anything wrong as they are wonderful and very attentive moms. So, why should I blame myself? Human nature, I guess. Or maybe because I can truly notice a difference in Annabelle's speech when I, myself, slow down with my talking.

So, I'll get off my soapbox and on with more detail of the speech therapy.

Mrs. Crystal first asked if we had any specific concerns regarding Annabelle's speech. I had been listing out words that Annabelle says incorrectly, so I identified those for Mrs. Crystal. These are the words I identified with Annabelle's mispronunciation of the word.

crunch = cunch

blue = boo

play = pay

Christmas = kissmas

Kroger = koger

them = em

driving = diving

school = duel

three = free

stool = duel

squirrel = turl

Mrs. Crystal then mentioned that these specific sounds are called "blends," and they often aren't mastered until ages 6 or 7.

Then, Mrs. Crystal started by asking Annabelle to sound out several different sounds including "puh" for P, "tuh" for T, and "cuh" for C. Annabelle seemed to do fine with these.

Then Mrs. Crystal did some tongue exercises with Annabelle. She would stick her tongue out and ask Annabelle to do the same. She also moved her tongue all around in her mouth (from one cheek to the other, from the top of the mouth to the bottom of the mouth), and she asked Annabelle to do the same. Annabelle got tired of this exercise very quickly. "I can't do it," she would say. She was clearly frustrated.

Mrs. Crystal asked Annabelle to say "buttercup." Annabelle repeated her. Then Mrs. Crystal asked Annabelle to say "buttercup" over and over again 10 times. Annabelle told her, "I don't want to until I get home." I asked if she'd do it for Mommy, and she finally agreed and looked at me and repeated "buttercup" over and over.

The last portion of Mrs. Crystal's evaluation included the "Goldman Fristoe 2 - Test of Articulation." She showed Annabelle pictures and asked Annabelle to tell her what she saw on the picture. Mrs. Crystal was specifically focusing on certain words to identify any articulation issues. It was quite interesting because some of the words she wanted her to say were words I knew that Annabelle struggles with on a daily basis. Following are some examples:

banana = bana

yellow = jello

plane = pane

blue = bwu

flowers = fowers

frog = fog

slide = swide

stars = jars

For stars, I thought Annabelle always said "tars," but according to the test results according to Mrs. Crystal, Annabelle is saying "jars."

Mrs. Crystal listened to Annabelle's articulation of 53 different words. They focus on the initial, medial and final sounds in each word. She made me a copy of the test results which report the spelling of the word, the correct sound of the word and for any that Annabelle mispronounced, she crossed out the correct sound and wrote down the sound that Annabelle actually uses.

After she finished testing Annabelle, she took her to select a few toys to play with while she left to "score" the test. Besides Annabelle's hearing tests (at birth and yesterday) and seeing tests (at 3 years of age), this was one of Annabelle's first "tests." And, it was her first test that had to be "scored." She scored slightly below average. That is tough for any perfectionist to handle! I will have to teach her how to shoot for the stars and make straight A's one day and graduate summa cum laude. Because that is really important stuff!


Dear Annabelle,

If you are reading this one day when you are older and in high school or college, I hope you know that I never expect you to make straight A's. In all honesty, I hope you'll live a little and not take life so seriously. It is alright if you don't make a 100% on everything! If you continue to apply yourself and live your life with the highest integrity, you'll still get that high-paying job you think you want. Straight A's is not a requirement! But, life is too short, so live a little! But, please, please, please, stay away from the drugs, alcohol and boys, most definitely the boys!

Love,

Mommy


Anyhow, Annabelle received a standard score of 82. According to Mrs. Crystal, they want them to fall within a range of 85-115 at her age. She scored in the 16th percentile. Mother, do I need to explain the percentile thing to you again? And, her test-age equivalent was 2.3 years. Again, heart wrenching!

I meant to ask Mrs. Crystal what the 2.3 year test-age equivalent meant. She did say to call if I had any questions, so perhaps I'll call. But, I have theorized that this is based on articulation alone since the "Sounds-in-Words Score Summary" detailing this information was within the "Goldman Fristoe 2 Test of Articulation." Mrs. Crystal asked other questions when we began regarding Annabelle's listening skills, etc., so I don't think she was testing for any other issues besides articulation. I personally have a hard time believing she's behind regarding her knowledge and intelligence. Instead, I think she falls into the 16th percentile for articulation because she is being compared with other children her age who have already mastered the 6 and 7 year sounds at an earlier age, so that brings her average down because it counts as an articulation error.

They cannot focus on everything, right? She just learned to throw a Frisbee a few weeks ago at her age. Doesn't that count for something?

According to Mrs. Crystal, Annabelle has problems with intentional tongue movements and that we need to focus on strengthening her tongue. She was not able to put her tongue all the way to the side of her cheek, and according to Mrs. Crystal, this is often a sign of articulation issues. Of course, maybe I'm missing something, but I asked Annabelle to put her tongue to her cheeks at home, and she didn't seem to have a problem then.

Mrs. Crystal recommended that we focus on increasing her awareness of her tongue movement by encouraging her to lick an ice cream or put peanut butter or milk at the corner of her lips and encourage her to lick it off. She also said it is a good exercise to have her move a Cheerio from one cheek to the other cheek. Or we can encourage her to clear out food from her cheek with her tongue.

These are all exercises she recommends between now and when speech therapy will begin. And, now that it has been determined that Annabelle needs a little speech therapy, we may have to wait 5-6 months before we can even start speech therapy! Of course, Mrs. Crystal is going to check with other Children's Healthcare of Atlanta locations to see if they have a shorter wait period. I told her I didn't mind driving to the Medical Office Building of Scottish Rite or the Duluth location.

It is definitely in our best interest to get Annabelle in as soon as possible because our current insurance plan will cover 30 visits. But, the deductible must be met first! We've already met the deductible with Sophia's birth, so this year is our best year to pack in any and all necessary medical expenses.

In a nutshell, Annabelle may break the piggy bank before she's even 5 years old!

P.S. I did ask Mrs. Crystal if there was anything I have done wrong or could have done differently (so I don't make the same mistake with the next one). She told me, "No, some kids just don't pick up on some sounds because they do what is easy." Of course, I felt her eyes said something different, but maybe I was reading into it too much. But I replied, "And I've responded and answered her when she's said the word incorrectly." She just nodded.

Audiological Evaluation

Annabelle had her hearing evaluation today. For obvious reasons, the hearing evaluation was required before any speech evaluation. I had actually received the prescription from Dr. Calk at Annabelle's 3 year wellness visit in January, but I waited to schedule anything because I didn't think I could manage anything else into my schedule during the first few months of this year.

Annabelle's speech has improved greatly since then, so right now, I don't feel that it was a mistake. I now believe that others can probably understand 90% of what Annabelle says. Both Dr. Calk and Dr. Colton have told me that other people should understand 90% of what she says at this age, so hopefully, she is now on target with her speech.

I would never wish that another one of my children will struggle with speech as Annabelle has, but I will say that this has definitely been an interesting learning experience. I really enjoyed watching Annabelle as Miss Laura tested her hearing this morning. It was a learning experience for me, and it is always fun to watch other people work to learn new things.

Miss Laura first used an ear scope in both ears. The ear scope sent a message to her computer which drew a little "mountain" as she called it. She used the ear scope to test for the following:

1. Fluid in the ears

2. Reflex to the muscle

Then, Miss Laura sent Annabelle into a sound proof room to play with a board of colored pegs. She placed tubes into Annabelle's ears. She asked Annabelle if she wanted Mommy in the room with her or outside with Miss Laura. "Out there with you," she responded with absolutely no hesitation. I couldn't believe it! She was comfortable with Miss Laura as soon as she met her. So, she apparently trusted that Miss Laura wouldn't close her in that room forever because if I were three years old, that room would have looked pretty scary to me!

She had a blast with the peg game! Miss Laura told her to place one of the colored pegs on the board whenever she heard a sound. Per Annabelle (later in the day), she was hearing beeps and baby, Mommy and Daddy birds chirping. Miss Laura mentioned beeps and birds, so she obviously didn't make that one up.

It was hilarious to watch her. Miss Laura told me, "you've got a talkative one here mama." Oh yes! We definitely have a talkative one! She never shuts up! Miss Laura seemed quite impressed with how well Annabelle followed instructions. She said that most kids just stare at her, so it seemed that Annabelle brought a lot of laughter into her day.

Here are just a few of the conversations between Annabelle and Miss Laura.

Miss Laura: What is your favorite color?

Annabelle: I like orange! Aaannnd, I like yellowwww, and boo, and red.

Miss Laura: What color do you want to use next?

Annabelle: I think I want to use red. I have two reds left.

Annabelle: I hear Sophia crying!

Miss Laura: Uh huh, now listen. Listen for the baby birds. Focus, Annabelle, focus.

I cannot tell you how many times Miss Laura would tell her to listen since Annabelle was talking her ear off. Miss Laura was always very polite when she told her to listen though.

Annabelle's expressions were hilarious too! It was funny to watch her facial and body expressions whenever she heard a beep or a bird chirping. "Mmmm?!?!," she would say as she jumped to place another peg on the board.

Miss Laura and Annabelle also played a game of "copy cat." Miss Laura would say a word and Annabelle was to repeat her when she heard her. I wonder if Miss Laura uses the same word at the same decibel every time for her evaluations because whenever Miss Laura said "birthday," Annabelle never responded. I asked her why Annabelle could never hear her say "birthday," and she said it was because it was at a very, very low decibel.

Here is another conversation between Annabelle and Miss Laura during the copy cat game.

Miss Laura: Cupcake.

Annabelle: Cupcake! Dat is Strawberry Shortcake's puppy dog.

I think "pupcake" is actually Strawberry Shortcake's puppy dog, so maybe the conversation went a little differently or maybe Annabelle thought Miss Laura said "pupcake."

For the last test, we went into another room, and Miss Laura hooked Annabelle's ears up to another machine. Annabelle just had to sit there for that test. Annabelle would hear beeps, and this machine tested her inner ear for echos. The echos were automatically logged on the screen by the machine. This inner ear testing is related to the hair cells in her inner ear.

It looks like she's hearing a beep in this next picture or just listening intently waiting for another one.

All pretty interesting stuff if you ask me. I just wish I knew more about how our ears work, but it was still definitely a learning experience. The audiological evaluation took approximately 30-45 minutes. They had allotted an hour for the testing.