Potential

Brian has had a few psychological evaluations that have recommended us looking into augmentative alternative communication (AAC) so I finally bit the bullet and asked for him to have an evaluation. I was even more excited that I found out the SLP I had wanted to do it with a few years ago and was told no, was the one that was contracted through our school district.

Today was the first day of Brian being assessed. This process is going to include two direct assessments as well as video-taped sessions for Mark, the SLP to go over. I really wanted to attend his assessment today at school but I had classes. I had made a mental note to try to call Brian's teacher when I got home to see how it went.

Within five minutes of walking through my door, Mark was calling me. He was very friendly and very enthusiastic about my little man. He reiterated to me how bright Brian was and how much potential he sees in him. He told me that he has obviously recommended tons of communication devices for kids, but at this point he's thinking he isn't going to need to with mine. He has a lot of ideas to promote further speech and he told me he was very confident in Brian's future for speech production.

He wasn't calling to tell me his final conclusions, but he wanted to let me know how much he enjoyed his time with Brian today.

I can't tell you how much it means to me to hear this. It was so refreshing to hear a stranger tell me my son has potential. To tell me how "bright" he is. I can't say I never hear it, because I do, from professionals who have been in our life for a while. But every experience I've ever had with evaluators who only meet him one time, has been a difficult one. Ones that end with them telling me how delayed he is, that he has mild MR (which I refuse to believe), and so on. So this call really made my day, I think Mark may be my new best friend.