Caleb's Evaluation

Here's what we found out in Caleb's evaluation. Since I'm quite tired, I'm falling into bullet form. It's the only way I can keep things straight right now...

1. He does not have autism, sensory integration disorder, etc. There was no official evaluation for just those problems, but from what the diagnostician and the speech pathologist were able to observe, they were fairly certain that those issue do not exist. We knew that anyway.

2. Caleb will be having vision and hearing to rule any problems out with those. He had extensive hearing test done back when the ENT tried to force us into tubes for him, about 1.5 years ago. He passed those tests and had no hearing loss then, but to rule out problems with his hearing we're going to test him again. It is a normal screening that is done for all kids that are being evaluated to any program within the school district, so we're going to jump on that one. One less copay!

3. The speech pathologist said that his verbal skills are good but he may have some articulation issues that we need to work on. We set up an formal evaluation for that in January, after the holidays, to have that done to further investigate if this is even an issue. Some of this may be tied to the issues that Caleb had with swallowing as all of those movement are somewhat tied in together. If he has to have some speech therapy, fine. If not, we'll continue to work with him at home.

4. Both the diagnostician and the speech pathologist said that Caleb has very good problem solving skills and was able articulate his answers well. He is not behind, but ahead somewhat in his verbal capacity, so we're not worried with that. Again, the official evaluation in January will tell us more.

5. Both the diagnostician and the speech pathologist will go to Caleb's school and do a 3rd party evaluation of his day there. This is the part of all this that makes me the most happy since the teachers can never give me detailed information on what is precipitating or causing the behavior that they have seen. I have wanted someone to go observe since this whole thing started, but I know that Caleb would not act the way he is now if I were in the class. This is going to answer a bunch of questions for us that we have been having lately, not just related to behavior.
Some of our concern is that Caleb is just really bored with what they are trying to teach the kids. He knows and has known his letters and numbers for nearly 2 years now and is actually starting to read and trying to write (of course with help). Therefore, circle time where they are teaching letters and numbers is so below his ability. We are discussing a school change in the possible future or just pulling him out all together and start doing school at home now.

6. We have a mountain of paperwork to fill out and will be working on that together for a little while. The teachers also have to fill out some paperwork on what they see him doing and not doing, skill wise. I'm not sure how accurate that will be with 12 kids, some of them difficult, in the class, but at least it will give a little insight into what they see or don't see.

7. Today, while it didn't give us any real concrete answers, did provide a measure of relief in knowing that our instincts were correct. Mostly, the diagnostician and speech pathologist think that Caleb is reacting to the major changes that have occured in his little world since Piper's arrival. He went from being the center of our world and having everything revolve around him to not and he is just not dealing with it well. We are really trying to anticipate the behaviors and head them off at the pass, but sometimes it sneaks up on us and he just loses it.

8. Lastly, they were all pretty astounded at how smart our little stinker is. There were particularly impressed that Caleb procured my cell phone and navigated through the menus to find a game that he wanted to play and did it with ease. We have never taught him to do any of this, so that was surprising to them. Caleb can also log onto the internet, type in the site he wants to pull up and navigate that as well. So, at least someone else sees how bright he is and the trouble we will probably be in for in the future!

The observation at school will probably happen right after Thanksgiving, so I'll be able to give more information and hopefully, insight then about what goes on when he is there. We'll be eagerly anticipating that information! Thanks for all your support, well wishes and love!