Luke's speech follow up

Just a quick update post our IEP meeting with the local school district regarding Luke's speech/articulation issues...

In short, he does not qualify for services as of now. Apparently, in order to qualify, children need to test about 6 months or more delayed, and Luke does not at this time. That being said, their requirements at age 3 are pretty minimal, so it is likely that if his difficulties with articulation continue, he will qualify at 4 years old.

We also have a lovely neighbor who is a speech pathologist and who screened Luke when he was 2.5 and offered to screen him again in about 6 months. Based on her findings, we may pursue some private speech therapy.

What ALL of the "experts" who have met with Luke have said is that he has an amazing vocabulary, advanced sentence structure and phrasing, and an above average attention span for a boy his age. They all seem to agree that his articulation issues stem from that period of time when he essentially lost a good portion of his hearing due to ear infections (from about 15-21 months) until he had the tubes placed in his ears. That time frame is essential for the language and speech development in kids, and Luke missed out on that due to the fluid behind his eardrums. :(

Our hope (and the hope of the speech therapists who worked with Luke recently) is that his speech will continue to develop and catch up over the next 6-12 months.