Speech Therapist

Garrett has been stuttering since before he turned 3, at his 4 year checkup, the Dr suggested that we contact BISD to have him evaluated, since he'd been stuttering for over a year. The entire process was just a headache! It took about 60 days from when I first contacted them to get my initial meeting, this was without Garrett. I met with the director of the special ed department. Apparently, in Bryan, if your child needs to attend therapy of any kind, he needs to be enrolled into the Special Ed department, for the time of the therapy. After the initial meeting, it was determined that yes, he needed to be evaluated by a speech therapist, and he had 60 days in which to contact me, and buy did he wait almost those entire 60 days!

We finally met with him on May 10, the therapist did a great job, he was so good with Garrett, put him at ease, tested him in a variety of different ways, and of course, Garrett barely stuttered! His stutter comes mostly with conversation, he just can't get past the first one or two words. He does not show distress or even any signs that he's aware that he stutters, these are good things. But, the testing they did was mostly on words, not a lot of conversation, so there wasn't much stuttering.

The therapist admitted that he doesn't work with kids Garrett's age much, so he wasn't even sure what kind of treatment program he would use, but on his initial evaluation, he did not feel Garrett needed therapy. I went back and forth and at Payton's 15 month check up, I asked the Dr's opinion, he said again, he would like Garrett to get treatment before kindergarten and before he becomes self conscious about it.

I had a follow up meeting yesterday and came away feeling slightly better, we've decided not to enroll Garrett at this time. I even had a letter typed up requesting an evaluation by a second therapist, but the fact is, they really, honestly, and truly, feel he will grow out of it.

One of the tests they did, kids his age score a 100, he scored 126, the principal, said it shows he's a very bright child and what's probably happening is his mind is going so fast, that he just can't get his thoughts out fast enough. We also discussed the fact that he has been in 4 year old preschool, not 3 year old, so he's "competing" vocally with 5 & 6 year olds, and that over the summer, we may notice a lot less stuttering.

If at Christmas, he is still stuttering, as bad or worse, then we are to bring him in again, and they'll most likely do therapy at that time. So, we'll see. I do feel a it better after talking to the therapist, the principal, and a kindergarten teacher and I think I just need to relax and see if he does grow out of it.