Speech

Rylan started back with his preschool speech program on August 20th.  He is going twice a week again for 30 minutes per session.  This year he is going to Crockett Elementary at 2:30 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays.  That means he has to leave preschool a few minutes early on Wednesdays, but at least it's only once a week this year!  And I only have to get him instead of both boys so I can let him stay at school a few extra minutes.  And after Rylan's session we have plenty of time to head to Carter's school to pick him up (we usually have only about 10 minutes to kill once we get to our neighborhood).

Rylan has the main teacher as last year (Ms. Rholanda) on Mondays and the assistant (Ms. Susan) on Wednesdays.  Ms. Susan is new to the county program this year but she seems to have plenty of experience.

Rylan has another student with him during both sessions but it's the same little girl and the teachers have said they work well together.  They seem to be about the same age too.

I had big plans to practice with Rylan a bunch over the summer but we rarely got to it - we were having too much fun playing all summer! :)  However, both Ms. Rholanda and Ms. Susan mentioned that Rylan's final sounds were much improved.  For example, he almost over emphasizes the "t" sound at the end of the word "hat".

The year is starting off a little slow because Rylan didn't have a session last Monday because of Labor Day and then this past Monday Ms. Rholanda had to cancel because she had to take her son to the doctor (however, we did get to make up that session yesterday).  So far Rylan's been mostly working on s-blends in the initial position.  I'm already hearing a little bit of a difference in the "sp" words we've been practicing!

Carter is also doing speech, but now it's at his elementary school.  Ms. Rholanda transferred all of Carter's speech records at the end of last school year so he is able to start back up with where he left off.  Now Carter is seeing Mrs. Elrod once a week for 30 minutes right before his lunch time.  I've only had one phone conversation with Mrs. Elrod a few weeks ago so I'm less involved with what's going on but Carter is getting worksheets sent home each week so I'm getting to see what they are working on (and practice some more with him).  Mrs. Elrod is new to Clovercroft this year.  She is young so she seems to have enthusiasm but also has a Master's degree and seven years of experience.

Carter's 3-year IEP is up for review in November.  The boys get new IEPs annually and we have a meeting with the speech teacher then, but every three years I believe additional testing to remain in the program may be required.  I do think Carter would benefit from continued assistance but I'm not 100% sure he'll still qualify.