We had our annual qualification meeting with Early Intervention Friday. Perrin regularly sees a physical therapist, a developmental therapist, and an occupational therapist. In addition, he had an evaluation with a vision specialist in the developmental therapy field, and a speech therapist. He will he seeing the vision specialist from now on, most likely once a month. The other therapist rated his speech at about a 27-30 month range. Since his adjusted age is 22 months, this is awesome. Not only does he understand everything we say (meaning he’s in there) but he can communicate with us.

I have learned as I’ve traveled down this special road that when you brag about a success that puts that ability in the normal range, someone out there would still trade places for a moment. It’s not that they wish your child didn’t succeed. They just wish theirs did. I’ve been there. I get it. Please don’t take my amazement at my son’s success as anything meant to be hurtful. I’ve felt it too, when your child can’t talk but can run. I want him or her to talk, too. I just want my son to be able to run across a room. We’ll get there. We all will. It’s just a confusing journey.

At any rate, he did excellent with the speech evaluation. I didn’t realize just how amazing he’s doing. It’s easy to forget sometimes. Even with a swollen tongue from having his adenoids out, he amazed her. So score one for Perrin! It’s nice to have something go right for a change. Every time I turn around, something else is “wrong” and he needs another therapist for it.

As for the other therapies, we’re still going forward with them. He still qualifies for everything because he has enough of a delay. The minimum is 30 percent, although they can pull strings if he falls under that since he has an official diagnosis. Still, there’s a catch 22 there because obviously you want your kid to succeed in life but when they’re not 100 percent, you want them to fail just enough to still get services. If you’re caught in that area between no delays and not enough delays, your child doesn’t get help. At least not unless you find a therapist through private insurance. Sometimes that’s hard to do.

I won’t break down every detail of every report. We have three in writing right now, and I have those in my hands. The other two weren’t ready in writing yet.

Physical therapy: 42% delay
Developmental therapy:  33%
Occupational therapy: 17.5% (That’s an overall average though and one of the areas was 35% so it still qualified him)

We’re continuing the same schedule we have had with therapy, and this coming year is going to be spent focusing on getting him to be independent enough for school. One more year til my sweet baby starts preschool! Ahh!

The next emotional hurdle for me, I think, is that there’s talk of teaching him to use a wheelchair. I am willing to bend heaven and earth to get him to succeed in a modified way, but actually seeing my baby in a wheelchair is going to be hard for me. When it happens, please don’t tell me it could be worse. Please don’t tell me to love him as he is. I do. That doesn’t mean I’m not entitled to grieve.

Right now I’m not grieving, though. I’m overjoyed because my angel can talk!! He can talk the way he’s supposed to!!!!!