He doesn't have the mental capacity for speech

When we go for our actual speech therapy appointment, I was surprised. The same person who did the eval wasn't our therapist. Apparently she was booked so she gave us to someone else. At least that's what they told me when I asked at the front desk.

This SLP said she first wanted to just observe Austin. Austin was right around 2 at the time. He was trying to find and push his boundaries, just like any other kid his age.

He wandered around, looking for things to play with, he knocked over a little chair, the SLP put it back up and he knocked it down again. (I wasn't allowed to tell him no) He found a little ball with velcro on it. He touched it hesitantly, dropped it in surprise, and then picked it up again. He didn't cooperate with the SLP at all. He spun in a circle for a moment while we talked. She looked at him very concernedly.

Finally, she told me "he has a lot of stims, he doesn't seem to know a chair is for sitting, not knocking down and he has tactile defensiveness. Next time, I'd like you to wait in the waiting room and I'll try to get him to imitate sounds"

I was suddenly longing for my twice a month visits from ECI, but I was willing to give this therapist a chance. I thought we'd give him a month.

After a couple of weeks, she told me we should stop trying to get him to imitate sounds and just try to get him to the point where he would point of identifying pictures. She told me "He doesn't have the mental capacity for speech or sign, I think we need to start working on a picture communication system"

IF she had told me she wanted to use a picture communication exchange system as a bridge to speech, I would have been okay. Maybe that's what she meant, but I remember exactly what she said, and "he doesn't have the mental capacity for speech or sign" is NOT a phrase any mother of just turned 2 year old boy should hear without some solid proof. I didn't say a word, I just took Austin by the hand and left. I remember thinking later I SHOULD have said something. Even if she did believe he truly didn't have the mental capacity, she shouldn't have said it like that. If she thought he didn't have the mental capacity at that moment, she could have said that. Even better, she could have found a way to phrase it that didn't make me want to hit her.

We went back to our pediatrician and I explained the situation with the chair and the spinning. "The things she says make me think she thinks he's autistic, and has diminished mental capacity. I just don't understand it, because ECI seemed to think it was just the language issue. Do you think we need to go to a developmental pediatrician? It's not like he spins around for hours or anything like that..." I stopped talking suddenly, realizing I was babbling and sounded a little frantic. The pediatrician laughed and said "Don't worry about it, let her worry about speech but don't listen to anything else she says. I have two boys and they'd spin all day if I let them. I really don't think it's autism, but I can refer you to a developmental pediatrician if it makes you feel better." We got the referral, and I left feeling better that at least his pediatrician seemed to think his behavior was normal.

The thing was, I didn't want to go to this person whose only accomplishment in a month of therapy had been to make Austin even quieter in therapy sessions and to make him not want to go the therapy.