Today I received a second phone call from Kerri's new speech therapist at school. The first time she called, she had not yet met Kerri. But she met with her on Wednesday, and wanted to share her findings with me.
She commented on how amazingly smart Kerri is. She had shown Kerri a picture of a dinosaur, and although Kerri was not clear in her pronunciation, she figured out Kerri had named the dinosaur and went on to explain it was from the Jurassic period. This astounded her, because she claimed most kids Kerri's age would just say "dinosaur" and leave it at that.
Then the speech therapist went on to tell me how charming Kerri was. She said she was going to have lots of fun working with Kerri, because Kerri was funny and a pleasure to be around. I have watched Kerri "turn on the charm" since we first saw her. So I know she worked her magic on her new speech therapist.
Additionally, she did tell me what I already knew, that Kerri's phonological delay is severe, and she will be focusing again on the "F" sound at the end of words, and then move on to "S", "SH" and other sounds. She also told me that Kerri would be in speech therapy the entire school year with biweekly visits, and would continue next year as well. As happy as I am that Kerri is receiving much needed therapy, I was saddened that - despite all of Kerri's strides in speech - she keeps lagging behind her peers.
Finally, the speech therapist advised that she did understand Kerri sixty percent of the time. That is ten percent more than last year!
I am looking forward to working with Kerri on her speech exercises this year.
Life with Kerri is charming.