Kaiden's Speech Evaluation

Today was Kaiden's speech evaluation. I walked in and immediately felt bad for poor Kaiden. He hates being the center of attention and today he was greeted with 4 of the speech workers all saying "Hi Kaiden!" in a super friendly, little-kid like tone. He knows what that means and it's usually "mom's dropping me off at sunday school" or "mom's taking me to the doctor" and he doesn't like either. He sat on my lap and they kept presenting him with toy after toy, trying to get him to calm down. Kaiden finally warmed up to them somewhat (but had to stay by my side the entire time) and while he played I answered about a 100 questions. At first I didn't mind it, but I was bothered that they were all yes/no questions. "Does your son listen to you when you tell him to stop?" Yes. 
"Does your son play 'peek-a-boo' or 'patty-cake' with you?" Yes on peek-a-boo, no on patty cake. 
"Does your son respond to your voice with happy expressions when you converse with him?" Um, yes? If I'm telling him happy things...but if I'm telling him "Don't do that!" than obviously no. 
"Does your son point to his eyes or his nose?" His eyes, no. His nose, yes.  By the end of the questions I started to feel discouraged. All my answer's were "No...he doesn't speak in full sentences." "No, he doesn't join in me and my husband's conversations." No. No. No. I could feel my face blushing and I could tell my eyes swelling, ready to water all the frustration and overwhelming feelings I've slowly collected all week. "What kind of songs do you sing to your son? Does he sing back?" I don't sing him songs...why don't I sing him songs?!? I started to feel like a bad mom. I stay at home with him everyday and yet I've never thought to try and get him to sing.

The next portion they wanted to observe how we played and how we interacted. But it wasn't just him and I. There was another speech therapist playing too. So where I tried to insert my, "Can you hand that to me please?"'s she had already filled the talking space with, "Ball goes in!" "Green grapes!" and "Nom, nom, nom"'s. I heard the speech pathologist scribbling things down. What is she writing? You're really going to judge Kaiden's interaction with me based off this 5 minute playtime with a complete stranger interjecting every 2 seconds? I felt so uncomfortable and so overwhelmed. I'm like Kaiden...I don't like when the spotlight is on me and I don't like when I have to answer so many questions without much time to think. I just wanted to pick him up and leave.

Everyone keeps telling me not to worry because Kaiden is young and he is a boy and it's completely normal. I get that. I agree! I don't have a problem with the fact that he may be "delayed." However, I could immediately tell these therapists or pathologists (or whatever they are) thought otherwise. There was concern on their faces and their opinion is what gets put on paper and handed in with our final out-processing paperwork for the military. The entire time we were there he didn't say a single word. He said, "Ahhh" once, only because they wanted to take him into the next room and he didn't want to leave mommy. Of course, the minute we got home, he ran in the house and started chattering away. It's only baba's and ha-ha's for now but it's more than he showed them. The one thing I will say is that I know these appointments will give me a better idea of how to do things with him. The fact that I never thought to sing, astonishes me. When we got home I started singing "Wheels on the Bus" and he was laughing and having fun. I do need some direction in that regard. Another thing they encouraged me to do this week (before our next meeting) is to give him choices, like milk or water. This way he has to either verbalize or at least point to which one he prefers.

We also went to get his ears checked out today. I requested a different doctor than his primary one (which is actually only a nurse practitioner) and she got a great look in his ears and said there is absolutely no sign of infection...only a bit of fluid. She also said she wasn't concerned about his speech at all and that she would make a note of it in his file. I am so grateful for her evaluation and encouragement. I also want to say thank you to all the mom's that have reached out to me whose children have had delayed speech. It's a huge encouragement to know that is absolutely normal. This concludes our long week of appointments. Tomorrow I have one last meeting with a wedding client and then soon E leaves for some training.