disappointment

Today was time for the speech therapy evaluation for David Augenijus. From my past therapy experience in the states I had very different expectations for what happens than what I experienced. Honestly I came away depressed. Here is why.

The therapist treated us with very little human regard. She had a guest in the room who she told to make tea and cookies (for herself). She asked him to say his name and when he could not, that was the end of her evaluation of him directly. She asked me questions about his background and what he can or cannot do. Filled out the form and said we will reevaluate in a year. She also saw that he brought a car with him. From that she assumed that we need to be told to do games and reading with him, he should not just play with cars.

Among the questions were, what kind of genes does he have, how long did you get to know him before adopting, did you like him? Does he talk in 2 word phrases? sentences? Does he understand what you say? What language are you speaking- and of course when I said both Lithuanian and English she shook her head as if to say- well what do you expect.

She quickly demonstrated how to use lotto cards and dominos to talk with him and he showed genuine interest, but she did not involve him at all.

And then she said we will re-evaluate in a year.

I asked if there are certain things in speech I should be concerned for, what sounds should he be able to pronounce at this age. She said don't be concerned about pronounciation, we deal with that at age 4. At age 3 he needs to be talking in sentences so just work on that.

In other news, the thumb we have been concerned about is still taking a lot of attention including throughout the night. It is not available to put him back to sleep whenever he wakes up. The one blister has broken so that area is no longer black but there is another that still reminds us we need to really work on keeping his thumb out. If we really persevere maybe this will be the time for breaking the habit. Or breaking mama's determination- whichever comes first.

Erik is sleeping after lunch at the preschool and doing better with that now.

It feels like Easter is creeping up on us quite fast. We will know it is here on Sunday- and for the next 2 days (monday and Tuesday) off of work for most everyone here too.