So Many Appointments

I haven't posted much about all the appointments and evaluations Ben has had in the last few months, and it seems about time to summarize what we've been up to.  When he had his 2-year checkup before Christmas, the pediatrician was concerned about his speech development and referred us to a speech pathologist.  We saw her in January and she was very concerned that his speech had regressed a lot since we came to Germany.  She was also concerned about his personal-social skills.  First, she asked that we make an appointment with a pediatric specialist to evaluate his development more thoroughly.  Second, she put in a referral to the early intervention office.

A special ed preschool teacher from early intervention came to the house to do another evaluation of Ben.  That determined that Ben had enough issues to qualify for the early intervention program.  She and another speech therapist evaluated him again later.  From that, they determined that while he was still within the normal limits for personal-social skills, his communication is quite delayed.  The teacher and speech therapist came back last week to interview me & Mike in order to come up plan for working with him in the next few months.  I am glad to know that they will be helping with issues other than speech, like how unbelievably independent and strong-willed Ben is.

Early on in this process, the early intervention teacher was concerned that Ben never had a proper hearing test and has had a little fluid in his ears every time we've taken him to the doctor since last summer.  So she made it possible for us to make an appointment with an audiologist.

Ben saw the audiologist about a month ago.  She gave him a hearing test, and after she poked around in his ears with some instruments, she said that he had some fluid in his left ear that was preventing the eardrum from vibrating.  This was definitely the reason that he didn't respond to the low tones from the left.  She also said that if he has fluid in his ears he may not be hearing some sounds, specifically consonants.  So this is why he sometimes leaves off the beginning or end of a word.  She scheduled another hearing test (at the beginning of April) and suggested that I go back to the pediatrician if he shows any signs of ear problems.  He has been tugging at his right ear, so I take him on Friday to check for fluid.  I don't know what the chances are of him getting tubes to drain any fluid that might be there, but the audiologist said that if we don't make any progress with the pediatrician that she will try to refer Ben to an ear/nose/throat doctor.

It also took a long time to get an appointment with the pediatric specialist, but we're so glad we saw her.  She evaluated Ben for an hour and a half.  She was awesome.  She said that she understands why Ben's healthcare providers have been concerned that he has "lost" speech since we came here, and that a big concern for a kid like this would be autism, but she doesn't think he's autistic and provided a bazillion reasons why not.  She said that a big move like we made can be really disruptive for little kids, and she emphasized the importance of keeping routines to give him some sense of stability.  But she also talked about how incredibly persistent Ben is, even for a toddler, and how we need to overcome the challenge of providing structure and discipline for him.

Talking to the specialist really motivated me & Mike to try harder to be consistent with Ben.  The specialist suggested we start out with one behavior and add on from there.  We have had a hard time getting Ben to sit in his high chair for meals, so we started with that.  We have been making him sit in his high chair (or the Big Boy chair at the table) any time he eats a meal or snack.  He still resists but understands that if he wants to eat, that's where he'll be doing it.  After about ten days of that, we also took the pacifier from him when he wasn't sleeping.  The pacifier has snuck back into use during the day over the last few months.  Now he only sees it in the crib.  This has brought many tears and tantrums, but he seems to understand that he won't get it if he's not sleeping.  It is really hard for us to be more persistent than Ben is, but we are sticking to our guns.

Sorry for the all-text post...more photos soon.