Yesterday, I began sharing Our Story of diagnoses and therapy. If you missed yesterday’s post, I encourage you to read it first to understand the full story.
Kindergarten was a big change. First, I drove into town at least once a day and Bubs was not at home seven hours out of the day. I was amazed at how the breaks each day allowed me to have more patience
and love for him in the evenings which also meant more energy for the whole family. He had an excellent teacher who loved on him and kept me informed of his progress. In the third quarter, he was deemed the “Math Master” and to this day continues to thrive in mathematics.
First grade followed closely on the heals and we found the content more difficult. Bubs held up to his Math Master name and continued to excel. But while other children moved ahead in reading, Bubs was stuck. It didn’t matter that we were spending up to two hours every night co-schooling on flashcards, sight words, and reading. Although he was at grade level at the points that counted, he wasn’t grasping the concepts. His reading was filled with errors and assumptions.
Thinking the one-on-one time over the summer would catch him up, we spend the summer months working to fill the holes. Daily we read, did comprehension activities as well as computer games to help with phonics and auditory processing. But as summer came to a close, I realized he was getting nowhere fast.
A month before school started, we headed back to our amazing therapists for retesting. In OT, Bubs scored at or above age level in almost every area. For a child who was once severely delayed in several areas, we praise God for the scores. But, while we were thrilled to see that he either maintained or improved, this didn’t answer the issues that he was having with reading. Our OT suggested we retest with speech.
Bingo! And it was in speech testing that we found severe delays in three areas (phonological awareness, pragmatics, language processing).
I blogged about my feelings concerning our new diagnosis of Auditory Processing Disorder in the post – It Rears Its Ugly Head Yet Again. In this blog I wrote, “As I type, I wonder what God is doing. I want to scream at Him, ‘Don’t you think we have enough on our plate?'”
Seriously, how much more can I handle? I mean, Bubs is not an only child. He has three siblings who also need my attention, one of which is high needs – in a spirited way. Little Man is rough and continues to keep me chasing butterflies or my tail, depending on the day.
But God wasn’t done with our plate. He had more to give us.
Tomorrow: Our latest diagnoses…
Does God seem to be placing more and more on your plate?
Your story sounds so similar to ours. My almost 8 year old also has APD. We almost missed it because he has amazing compensatory skills. New diagnoses are always difficult but I try to picture it as fitting in new pieces to the puzzle that is my little man.
Lea – I think if we realized just how much our kiddos compensate it would blow us away!