Speech Therapy, Halloween, And A Black Day Book Give-Away

I was going through old Halloween posts because Finish the Sentence Friday goes live in mere minutes, and I haven’t started. Haven’t even thought about it honestly. Also? I’m so in love with old Halloween photos. Robert’s wearing a fake belly, in case you were wondering. Yes, he’s a weird weirdo.

This still cracks me up, so many years later. The look on Tucker’s face! LOL.

Anyway, in one post, there’s a video of Tucker from four years ago. Watching it tonight did my heart good. OMG friends, he’s come so far with his speech. I was a little blown away. I guess I’d forgotten what he sounded like at age six, but also remember at age six thinking how far he’s come.

It’s strange how we become used to life as it is in the moment and don’t always see the progress. It’s also too easy to become swept up in whatever opinion is directly in front of us.

Speech Therapy

We recently had this year’s IEP meeting with Tucker’s new school, and his speech therapist told us she can’t justify more than 15 minutes a week because “there are kids with much greater needs than he has.” To say I was fuming would be an understatement. “What I’m hearing is that there aren’t enough speech people to provide services to all the kids here who need them,” I replied. This is true, but they don’t see it because they’ve never worked at a school like the ones we had back in northern Virginia. Rather than arguing (more speech at school means less time in general education), I decided we’d once again get private speech therapy. 

I mentioned becoming swept into the opinion in front of us – I became a bit swept away in the possibility that Tucker doesn’t really need as many services as he used to. He has friends, and occasionally I hear him mention that he has a “speech condition” to those friends, but mostly, people understand him.

Well, we went to a private speech evaluation, and the results broke my heart a little. For the most part, he’s primarily working on “R” sounds now, which felt like no big deal. But, since he’s 10 years old, it’s kind of a big deal. He qualified not just for speech, but for speech twice a week. In some ways, I suppose it’s validating to see his low percentage, knowing the speech person at school was wrong (and I was right). At the same time, it’s a bit heartbreaking knowing he *still* qualifies for twice a week support. Which is a super-long way to say why the video of him at age six filled my bucket.

Because, progress.

Oh, and yes, this is supposed to be a post about Halloween. Ta-da! The video from four years ago.

In my 2015 post about Black Day, I didn’t include the follow-up with his mask, but it’s too adorable to not share here.

Halloween

We haven’t yet put our decorations up yet this year but plan to start tonight. I promised Tucker we’d do some today but he was playing, I was working, and boom, it’s 8:00 p.m. He’s off school today and tomorrow, so we have time. He’s had his costume since August. I’ll likely be a Handmaiden again.

Also, look at him. Eeep.

Black Day Book Give-Away

Seeing Tucker’s video about Black Day makes me want to give away another copy.

Comment letting me know you’d like to win a copy and I’ll pick a winner and send you one!

It’s SUCH a great book, written by Marcus Sikora. He’s an actor, a writer, and he has Down Syndrome. I’ve met him a few times, and he’s as awesome as he sounds. I’ll get to see him again at this year’s Be Beautiful, Be Yourself fund-raiser for Down Syndrome, and I can’t wait. Last year’s event was life-changing and affirming. We even got to dine with an Avenger. Robert shook his head at me bidding on a red carpet experience. If I’d have known it was End Game? I would have bid anyway.

Thank you to Mardra (Marcus’ mom and our photo-prompt co-host) for inviting us to THIS YEAR’S EVENT. I’ll forever be a fan of Be Beautiful, Be Yourself, an amazing and duh – beautiful – event that I wasn’t even aware of a bit more than a year ago.

This has been a very rambling Finish the Sentence Friday post with the prompt “Halloween.” Obviously, Halloween memories brought speech goals and progress and all the things to mind, and I wrote about speech therapy, Halloween, and a Black Day book give-away. Thank goodness the host is forgiving this way.