Evaluating Haddon

For a while I felt bad that I wasn't getting Haddon into speech therapy immediately after moving to Oregon, but now I'm glad that I did. I mean, I would rather he hadn't any interruption in the speech so that he could be further than he is now, but I think the process would have been overwhelming to me.

But now we are getting him into it, and since he had his third birthday, he needs evaluating.

There have been concerns with Haddon, especially figuring out what he understands and what he doesn't. If he doesn't understand a command or a standard that he has to be held to, then he can't be expected to obey it until he does. Does that make sense? Nonetheless, there have been times in which we have needed to require certain behavior, and he seems to get overwhelmed. An average three-year-old would understand, but we were finding it seemed more difficult for Haddon. Above that, he just isn't communicating as he should- yet.

So, after an initial screening, it was determined that he would have to do an extensive evaluation, and it would take about 2 hours. Well, the appointment was yesterday, and it was intimidating but good. I was intimidated because these days children are, unfortunately, labeled very quickly and easily. I didn't want our son labeled as something that he may not be just so that the powers at be could proceed with some sort of plan that may or may not meet his individual needs. I was nervous that they would not see our son's gifts or understand how far he has come.

What was good was that no labeling with any disorder or anything was done. They simply did tests to see what Haddon was understanding was. He did better in a couple areas that I didn't expect- namely understanding the words "in", "out", "on", and "off". I haven't been sure if he understood those concepts, but he showed that he did. But for the most part, everything confirmed what we already knew about our son, and actually helped pinpoint some things that helps me understand where Haddon has room to grow.

He understands simple nouns like "ball", "baby", and "dog", but has a harder time either understanding or expressing that he knows what "running, "drinking" and "playing"- action words. We could tell because when he saw a picture of a dog, he would point and say, "doggy!" but looking at a page of children doing things and asked to identify the actions, he got overwhelmed and didn't want to answer- possibly that he couldn't.

So, he will have a plan set up to help him with cognitive understanding as well as verbal communication. Within a few weeks someone will call to set up a time when we can sit down and establish an education plan. If Haddon follows suit with what how he has responded in the past, I believe that he will catch up. He's a smart kiddo. I think that he processes things differently, and as parents and his first teachers, we need to identify how to best educate him and help him understand. I'm glad that we will be learning how to do that, and hopefully, be able to communicate that to grandparents, and other important people in his life.

Please be in prayer as we seek to do the best that we can for our son. I personally am so proud to be his mommy, and he is such a special and precious part of our family. I would not change one thing about him! Pray that we will be wise advocates on behalf of our son, able to help give a clear picture of where he is and what we see in him. And please be in prayer that the professionals working with our son will be the right person(s) to work with him with patience and love and understanding.