Tegan is a non-stop talker, singer, or noise maker. He does his best to keep up with his sisters and is very disappointed if he is not allowed join them. He is in his second year of PreK and will be more than ready for Kindergarten next year, despite having a June birthday. The only special service he is receiving is a little work with a speech therapist. He is understood my most people, but we are concerned that he is a little lazy with certain sounds and want to be sure it doesn't stem from the Chinese he was already speaking. At this point it just a short term intervention.
Corban is a totally different child than just a year ago. I believe the multi-sensory therapy (Mendability) we have been doing with him has really helped in that process. A year ago he was saying only a few words and did not do any requesting of anything. Today, he can put together short sentences, knows the letters of the alphabet and each of their sounds, colors, shapes, numbers, and has recently been saying "I want ....", which I was beginning to wonder if he'd ever request things!!!!! PTL!!!! He is in a special education preK class, works with a school speech therapist and a private speech therapist. He catches onto things pretty quickly and keeps his teacher on her toes to challenge him. He still has a long way to go in socializing, he still prefers to do his own thing, most of the time; therefore, he will probably go to PreK for a third year.
Corban's demeanor has improved quite a bit, as well He still gets upset for the weirdest things but it is much less than it was and he rarely does any sort of self-abusing anymore. He seeks our attention and asks for hugs or kisses. He rarely plays with toys like they are meant to be played with and gets mad if you try to show him how to play with it. Lately, he just sits on the couch with a book, flipping through the pages and rubbing them. I have gotten to the point of encouraging him to play because I'm not a fan of him just sitting all day but then he breaks down. This is beginning to wear on me. He was beginning to do imaginary play at one point but seems to have reverted (if anyone has any experience with this, please give me some guidance). Redirecting him to play with something does not work for him, he just gets upset and shuts down
I'm sure I've forgotten lots of things but those are the highlights. Please let me know if you have any specific curiosities about how things are going. Since I decided to pursue grad school last year, I just haven't had the time to keep up with the blog. I am currently almost half way through my first internship, which allows me a little free time and will then start my second round of 6 classes in the spring.
We had both boys baptized in July just before their final (I'm hoping so, anyway) round of expanders were removed.
