Speech I

So we  are sitting at P's 2 year check up. I am trying to make him stop playing with the stir- up and to stop pushing the power button to God knows what and the nurse is tallying up his test. 

You know the test. "Can your child bend down, pick something up and then stand up again?" "Does your child say pronouns?" "Can your child jump on one leg, while patting his head, while mooing like a cow?"

I finally got him to sit on my lap when my favorite nurse slides a pamphlet to me and tells me to give them a call. 

I look down and "Birth to Three" glares at me. 

I am confused..."Um, did he fail something?"

She looks surprised, "Oh, yes. His communication. He isn't saying enough words to pass this test. You should contact Birth to Three to get him evaluated."

I just nodded, numb. 

She left and we were left to wait for P's doctor. 

Still numb.

The doctor came in, we talked a bit, and then she brought up his speech. 

I cried.

We knew P was not where he should be with speech.  We knew he wasn't talking enough, not as much as other 2 year olds.  I knew doing Birth to Three for speech is by far the best thing we could be doing Birth to Three for, but still.

Hearing your child needs those service is very unsettling. 

I'd say its damn near devastating..but like I said. Not the end of the world. I was being dramatic. 

The next day I called them. Of course, we had just moved into not Dane County so we had to be refereed to our county's program. 

The first step to the process was finishing some paperwork. We couldn't do anything until we filled it out and sent it back. 

Ya, that paperwork sat on our kitchen table for almost 2 weeks. I didn't realize it, but I was in denial. I didn't want my son to have a speech problem and if I didn't fill out that paperwork then we couldn't have the evaluation and we couldn't be told he needed services. 

Then one night he stood in the living room talking to me. Trying SO hard to talk to me and all I could get out of it was a slur of sounds. Not one of the sounds made sense. 

I got up and filled out all the paperwork, crying, and sent it in the next day.

It may be upsetting to think that he needs services, but damnit. If he needed them...I'd get them.