Alright, already. I am officially waving the white flag. I will practice PECS at home with Jude.
I have been resisting it, I admit. Because what I want is not a child who can communicate using pictures, but a child who can communicate using words. I'm like a spoiled little brat who is staging a small, silent protest against this unwanted intruder into our home, this PECS notebook. I haven't wanted to face the fact that Jude can't communicate well by any means at the moment: speech, sign language, or pictures. On the verge of his sixth birthday, he can do each...poorly.
The idea with the PECS is that it is a stepping stone either to speech or to a more involved communication device later on down the road. Jude's speech therapist at school said to me this morning that she doesn't believe speech is ever going to be Jude's avenue of communication.
Ouch.
Based on what, I am not sure. I don't know how one could possibly know that at his age. Are any of the rest of us at age 6 what we are to be for the rest of our lives? However, she does have a point in that it is not good for now, and that we can't ignore that. We need to be offering him alternatives. It's not good enough for him to only practice PECS once a week for 45 minutes at therapy. We have to be consistent with him at home on this or it's destined to fail for sure.
I am going to have to get my head out of my ass, I mean the sand and start doing what needs to be done around here. It hurts to accept the truth, but Jude isn't going to just start magically being conversational tomorrow just because I want it so much.
2 comments:
when Nick was 5, closer to 6, his teacher was pushing for an assistive communication device, the speech therapist said she didn't think he'd need one. or it was the other way around. Anyway, it took several months for the evaluation to happen and several more months to get the report. Came back that they evaluator didn't think he needed one. He still wasn't talking a lot by then more but mostly one syllable word approximations. At 8 he talks quite a bit. He's not always that understandable to those outside the family. But, he's getting there.
But, I know what you mean, I'm still having a really hard time with Nick back in self-contained, it's the right thing for him, but not what I want. I need to get over it.
All irony aside - I love the idea of a new princess - (instead of that Duchess Camilla!) anyhoo moving along
I'm giving you a virtual hug re speech - it is such a significant issue - more so than the intellectual disability - speech is how we communicate - it is how we live our lives, how we make friends etc... I know what you mean. Between DS and dyspraxia - Hannah's sux - and Kit's is superb.
It is however getting better - all the time. in unfamiliar settings she tends to rely on one word reasonably clearly annunciate. At home - a string of words that may or may not be understood.
All I can say - is that much as I'd LOVE speech to continue - and it is improving... pecs and sign are just part of our daily lives.
I have a deaf sister - and I look back on my family life and wish like anything that we'd used sign language to converse in at the dinner table.
I think Jude and his siblings and friends will thank you in the end...
Post a Comment