With springtime comes testing. One test is for the preschools in the Platte Valley like ExCel, and HeadStart programs.
This week, ExCel preschool is running an ad offering free developmental screening. I encourage any parent of a preschooler beginning at age one to take advantage of this screening.
As a parent, I understand how protective we can be of our children. We want our children to be the smartest in the class, the fastest on the field, and way ahead of everyone else’s child.
The hardest thing for a parent to admit is there may be a problem.
I know. I have been there.
Most people know my son Joshua from when he worked at Valley Foods. He loves to talk.
When he was two-and-one-half years old, a friend of ours, who was a nurse, made a comment that Joshua’s language skills were not where they should be.
He was our first child and my husband and I had not spent much time around children as they were developing language skills, so we didn’t think anything of the fact he was mispronouncing words and not talking in sentences longer than three words.
At the time, we were living in Laramie and the friend told us about the University of Wyoming Speech Pathology Clinic.
We had his hearing tested, it was fine.
We took him in for a speech evaluation and when we got the results, we cried.
Our son could only pronounce one word in 30 correctly.
As we read the report, we asked ourselves if our son would ever be able to talk normally.
Fortunately, because we had a friend who was honest with us, and we took the time to have him tested and then followed up with speech pathology. By the time he was in second grade, he had overcome all of his speech disorders.
I have met parents who told me that they felt their children didn’t need speech pathology and their children would outgrow it.
Incorrect use of the tongue is not something that can be “outgrown”. It has to be taught and the earlier it is taught, the better for the child.
It took six years of training to undo two-and-one-half years of misuse of his tongue.
When he started going to the speech pathology clinic in Laramie, we went three times a week.
When we moved to Riverton, we enrolled him in HeadStart where he was able to continue his speech therapy.
Before he started kindergarten, we moved to Bairoil and Joshua was able to continue his speech therapy there.
Incidentally, his speech therapist in Bairoil was Karen Thornton. She is now the ExCel preschool director in Saratoga.
When we had our second son Garry, we were more attuned to how speech develops and saw the difference in how our children developed their speech patterns.
Regardless, we took Garry in to be tested during the free testing periods to make sure he was on track for a child his age.
As a society, we are fortunate to have programs like HeadStart and ExCel preschool and the preschool in Encampment to help our children succeed, not only in the classroom, but in social settings too.
I will forever be grateful for the friend who told us Joshua had a speech problem and the programs that were in place to help him.
Had we let our pride get in the way, or denied that he had a problem, I don’t know what Joshua’s life would have been like.
As a parent, I feel screening is beneficial and encourage any parent of a preschool child to take advantage of this free screening.
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