The Strattons: Graysons New School

We have some good news! Grayson has been accepted to a new pre-school!
We are excited for the opportunities he will have attending there, and hope it will be a really good thing. As many of you who live near us know, Grayson has some difficulty with his speech. They estimate his delay to be about a year and a half behind, and he really struggles to communicate. We have been working with a speech therapist and occupational therapist in our home for the last year through No Child Left Behind programs like Help Me Grow (in cincy) and ECE (in Houston), but his improvement has been slow. Grayson has incessant ear infections that have chronicled most weeks of his childhood, and is on his second set of ear tubes. We have often wondered what he can and can't hear and figure that most of the time his hearing was compromised.

His infections finally seem to be settling down and we have had one straight month with out an infection, which is fantastic!! Grayson understands language and what its use is and is now trying to vocalize which is improvement from last year. We can sometimes make out his thoughts, and that is so incredible. Last week we heard him say "goo ie mom" "Good idea mom". It was such a breakthrough that Rod and I practically thew a party! Its so amazing to hear his thoughts. We want so much to know what he is thinking and why, and he has so much to say, we just can't understand it. He often leaves off the first or last half of words or trunkates them, its pretty challenging to know what he needs sometimes.

The school that he will be attending is a Special Needs pre-school run through the school system. He falls in the 2 % meaning that 98% of kids his age are communicating better than he is, this is categorized as a severe delay. Once Grayson turned three they began testing him, visiting and trying to see if he qualifies for the program. They turn many children away because they can't provide the intense level of attention for too many children at once.
Because his speech is so significantly holding him back we feel like this school is a good choice for him, he will be able to work with a speech therapist every single day. In his class 5 of the kids are typical kids with no problems, the other 5 have delays, though not necessarily the same ones as Grayson. Its sad for us to send him to Pre-school, feeling he is so little still, but feel confident that this will be the best way to help him. Private speech therapy is expensive, once a week at most and not really covered by our insurance.

We met with his 5 teachers, the school counselor and the principal and have worked out a plan with how to help Grayson. They have talked to us already about things to implement at home that will help us and are really interested in his overall well being. I feel confident that they will help him get up to speed. I am hopeful that he will be up to his age level by kindergarden.

Something interesting that we learned about Grayson is that he has a hard time isolating sounds. If I am talking to him at the same time that a fan is going in the background they are both equally loud, he gets overwhelmed because he is unsure which to pay attention to. To me it just appears that Grayson hasn't heard me at all or isn't listening to me. So we are talking about how to help that sound focus emerge. Enviornments with a lot of noise or children make it hard for him to focus. His teachers are great, he starts soon, we are so so happy that he will be getting the little extra boost he needs. But, well, I am a little sad to send my baby off to school.

We are giving him all the opportunities to grow that we possibly can. Can't wait to hear my little boy talk and tell me stories someday.

---------Grayson had his first class today! Went well.---------------------------