As some of you probably remember, my three year old grandson started preschool in early August. He was identified as needing speech therapy. I recently posted about some problems he has been having at school--mainly aggression, noncompliance with instructions, and not wanting to sit with the group. Well today my daughter-in-law had a meeting at school about him, and they have decided to do a full evaluation on him. In addition to the problems I have already mentioned, his teacher says that his attention span is extremely short. I'm not sure what I think about his attention span because he is after all just three years old and one of the younger ones in the class. I do think, however, that a full evaluation is definitely the thing to do at this point. By the way, the speech therapist does not think that he is that far behind in his speech. He really has made a lot of progress in his speech over the course of the past three months or so.

By Pamt on Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - 10:58 pm:

Great to hear about the progress with speech! Hope you guys get some answers after the eval.

By Feona on Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - 07:00 am:

Sounds like 1 in 10 of the kids in nursery school. I hope the evaluation goes well. They really expect alot from these kids don't they? And he is the youngest in the group?

By Kaye on Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - 08:25 am:

An eval is a great step to take. With three kids so close it was easy for me to see some differences in my son, but after his eval I was amazed at how much I missed. In a school setting like he is in, they really are looking for differences from others. Yes some kids do things odd, but they are picking up trends. Also they may find things and fix them, it happens alot. My son had a trunk/body strength issue, this cause a lot of issues for him, not sitting still, etc. But with exercisies he is all better in that regards. Good luck and keep us posted. Also note that a full eval means they will have an OT/PT look at him, also they will probably do an IQ and achievment test. They will tell you academically how he is stacking up and where they can help. They cannot give a medical diagnosis. For example they can say his pervasisve development is low and they will do a b and c to help with that. What this means is he may or may not have a Pervasive Development Disorder (autism). So very likely this is just your first step in a long line of testing

By Audreyj on Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - 09:14 am:

It may be a first step but finding out early can make such a difference!

I have a relative who adopted a special needs child. It was a foster parent situation. The child had been severely abused (locked in closets, malnourished) and came to my family member's house. She eventually adopted him, he is my cousin. She had him evaluated early, found out what his issues were and worked hard with him.

Today, he is a grown man, has his own apartment, works at a grocery store and is very involved in his church. He has a low IQ and the horror of it is that all the evaluators believe he was born "typical" and the 2-3 years of abuse when he was young is the root of his problems but he is doing very well today. All because they found him early and started turning things around for him.

I just wanted to encourage you that timing can make such a difference and you and your family are doing the right thing to have him evaluated now. :-) AJ

By Palmbchprincess on Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - 01:15 pm:

I'll certainly keep all of you in my thoughts... let us know how it goes!!!

By Lauram on Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - 03:20 pm:

Sounds great! Let us know how it goes!