Paula, I have a question

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-26-2005
Paula, I have a question
2
Mon, 10-10-2005 - 11:40pm
Hi Paula,
Hope your back is feeling better. Don't feel too bad about the Poison Control thing, my sisters wee one who is NT has eaten a half bottle of kids vitamins, a full tube of lipstick(gross),chocolate liquors(we Irish like to start young LOL)and various other things.I have told my sister it's very possible it's a sensory thing but I don't think she gets it.But anyhow, I did have a question about Ella, did you ever notice your daughter mix up similar sounding words? Ella does this all the time and I'm noticing her fanning pages more often.Right now her speech is really concerning me because she has many clear words but she substitutes a lot of letters like dad sounds like gag. She has alot of sensory stuff going on for example, she loves to put blankets on her head as if she's playing peek-a-boo but I can tell it's the feel of the blanket she likes. She puts things around her neck all the time.I don't notice her obsessing on any one toy like Jake did. Sorry to bother you with this I know you have enough on your plate but I can't seem to shake the feeling that she's the same as Jake but less obvious. What was your daughter diagnosed with, just sensory stuff? Thanks in advance.
Teresa
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Tue, 10-11-2005 - 9:45am

Hey Teresa,

My back is a little better today, Thanks. Last night was a bad 'un.

Siobhan does and did mix up words and sounds. I think with her, it is indicitive of auditory processing issues. She has a "leappad" and doesn't seem to 'hear' it too well, she often substitutes similar sounding letters: "b" for "d" "m"/"n" etc, although I know she knows her letters.

She still misprounounces some words; "meed" instead of "need". She just recently started to say "fine" -it used to be "pine" (hilarious: when thwarted, she would scream "That's just PINE" and flounce off in a huff). There are a bunch more, but I can't think of them right now.

We first noticed the sensory issues at about 22/23 months. I tried to put her into a dress after a winter of pants and snowsuits. She took a step in the dress, then fell down on the floor like she had been shot. Tried again, same thing. This time she refused to get up. It was a sensory thing -not sure exactly what. She didn't wear a dress for about two years after that. Actually I didn't pick up on that. It wasn't until she transitioned to the school district when coming on for three, that the SD lady (who is brilliant), said "It's just her speech, right?". I explained about the dress thing (I thought it was behavioural), and SHE suggested having Siobhan evaluated for sensory issues. The evaluating OT spotted them right off the bat.

Siobhan used to put things around her neck a lot, too. And she put rocks in her backpack.

Of course her not sleeping through the night was a sensory thing all along, but I didn't know that at the time.

If you think Ella has sensory issues you can request a full OT evaluation through EI. The same for speech. It can't do any harm.

Good luck.

-Paula

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Tue, 10-11-2005 - 5:13pm

Forgot to answer the diagnosis part, Sorry.

Siobhan was evaluated at 23 months by EI, and they found a speech delay, but not enough to warrant services.

I never went the whole neuopsych route or any of that with her, because by the time she came into the district, I had been dealing with the SD for two years with Peter and had a LOT more cop-on than I had had in the beginning.

At 3yo she was classified as a preechooler with a disability and given speech and OT 2x each week at home. That was good

She is a very sweet girl with no behaviour problems, but I was sure there was *something* else going on which was being missed. The next year rolled around (4yo), and I pushed the district for more services. I got the ST and the OT to both say there was *something* more going on there, but we weren't sure what.

So we got a SpecEd evaluation. The teacher (bless her) evaluated her in preschool, and said the same thing that everyone else was saying: she looked good overall, but there was *something* going on. I pushed for a psych eval through the school district (and nearly fell over when I got it!)

Well the Dr evaluated her at home, in ideal circumstances, sitting at her chair in the dining room, with no noise, no distractions. He did some quick tests, which she aced. He looked like he was going to call it a day, when I mentioned Peter's DX and a lot of the things I saw with Siobhan: echolalia, limited interest in peers, etc. He sat her down for another test. He saw *something*, but not enough for a DX. So he wrote that she is "at risk for Asperger's Syndrome" and we went with that. It got us a bunch more services, so I didn't complain.

She is in K now, and mainstreamed with an IEP, which gives her ST, an aide, and learning center time.

HTH

-Paula

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com