Questions

Yesterday we had our "big day" where we took Isaiah to Illinois Masonic Hospital in the city for his clinical evaluation.  I kind of knew that it had about a 90% chance or being a disaster based on the fact that it was scheduled right smack dab in the middle of his nap time but I really didn't want to have to wait six months to get him in!  We headed 30 minutes away to pick up Daddy from work and then into the city.   We were fortunate to get the results of the evaluation yesterday early evening.  The Developmental Pediatrician was happy to let us know that there were no signs of Isaiah having any level of Autism which is great news.  My biggest question going into this was if there was an underlying reason that Isaiah has not and seems not to be developing much speech despite therapy.  Isaiah also has some decreased eye contact and doesn't always respond to his name all of the time.  The findings of the evaluation came up with some controversial results that Isaiah's current therapists don't totally agree with, and Mark and I have some questions as well.  To make a long stroy short their report indicated that a lot of Isaiah's failure to develop speech were related to a Sensory Processing Disorder or because of behavior.  The evaluation team sort of indicated that Isaiah wants things done his way, doesn't want to do things another person's way, and speech is hard for him so he just doesn't want to try.  They thought that his reduced eye contact were because when confronted with a challenge that he doesn't want to do he will avoid eye contact to avoid that activity.  Isaiah's current therapy team along with Mark and I have some questions around this.  Isaiah's cognitive scores are right on track with his age if not higher.  Why does he score near a three year old for some cognitive things but he has failed to develop speech?  Also, at two years old isn't that a little young to just DECIDE 'Hey, I don't feel like talking.'  What is the underlying reason that he is age appropriate in every other area of his life except for speech?  In talking with Isaiah's OT today her thoughts were that Isaiah is a good boy and he really does try hard to do different things.  She thinks that his frustration comes when he doesn't know how to do something or wants to do something but can't quite figure it out.  I tend to agree with her.  I know he has his tantrums frequently but I'm not thinking they are behavioral most of the time (sometimes they are).  Isaiah's OT says that there is a fine line between behavioral problems and a processing problem.  She compares Isaiah's issues to a traffic jam.  It's as if there is a bunch of information coming into his brain from all five senses but he just can't quite sort it out.  It really does make a lot of sense to me.  So now I'm at the point where I'm asking where we go from here.  We are trying to bring in a more experience speech therapist to work with Isaiah, and beyond that we are wondering about Apraxia or a motor planning problem.  I'm feeling blessed to have such an experienced team already working with Isaiah in the OT and DT department, and hopefully we can secure a Speech Therapist for Isaiah with more experience (he has not "clicked with his current therapist and we have had several wasted sessions).  I'm honestly not sure if we will have another evaluation with a different hospital targeting motor planning or Apraxia or what.   Our Early Intervention family planner has to read the comprehensive report and speak with us and Isaiah's OT for now.