This is something I don't talk about very often for various reasons, the main one being that I don't want to present myself as some sort of martyr and have people feel sorry for me. But I have been trying to reconcile this for a long time, and feel that writing about it will help me accomplish this.
I have mentioned a few times here that I didn't learn to talk until I was 3 1/2 years old. This is the story behind it.
My parents thought I would be an early talker because I said my first words as a seven month old baby: "Ba ba da da" (translation: Bye bye dada).
As the years wore on, I was developing every way a normal child should, except at age three, I still wasn't talking. Since at that time, the experts said that if a child wasn't talking by that age, it was time to seek medical attention. Thus began the series of specialists and medical tests. Not to mention I had my first eye surgery around this time too (I was cross-eyed).
Some specialists didn't even take a good look at me before (incorrectly) diagnosing me with autism. Others performed silly tests on me (giving me blocks and then pretty much taking them away from me, for example). There were also those who would snatch me out of my mom's lap for examination. Since I pretty much thought that they were kidnapping me, I gave them hell, for lack of a better term.
I got a series of bizarre diagnoses, that I was an emotionally disturbed child (with autism) who would never lead a normal life and would be institutionalized by the time I was a teenager. Of course, my parents didn't believe them, despite being told they were in denial. They continued on.
Then there were the tests I went through in order to qualify for Katy ISD's Special Education services. One of them was a verbal IQ test. Needless to say, I bombed it because duh, I couldn't talk. There were also ones that the speech therapist and Special Ed teacher at my zoned elementary school did. They both said that I was doing everything normally, except talking.
As an act of desperation, my mom took me to my pediatrician: Dr. Fotouh. I personally think this should have been the first stop in all of this, but I digress. My mom told her to pretend that she didn't know us, and that she (my mom) had brought in this little girl who wasn't talking. Dr. Fotouh consented, and performed a physical exam on me.
I believe that during this exam, a hearing test was performed, and I wasn't doing well on it. Gasp! I couldn't hear! She took a look inside my ears and found the worst ear infection she had ever seen in her entire career. The diagnosis: multiple ear infections.
Further hearing exams confirmed an 80% hearing loss in one ear and 50% in the other.
Now, why hadn't there been any kind of complaint from me of ear infections? Surely I must have been in pain! I had had these infections for so long that I was basically used to living in pain.
After the diagnosis, I was pumped full of antibiotics. Now the natural living folks might cringe at this because most ear infections are viral and do not need antibiotics. I had multiple ear infections, which are bacterial, thus necessitating the antibiotics.
My hearing improved as the antibiotics started working, and I started talking to a limited degree.
When most kids went to preschool, I went to Early Childhood. What's Early Childhood, you say? Preschool for special needs children. In other words, I was in Special Ed. Yes, you read right. And I did ride one of those little school buses that the Special Ed kids rode. I also started what would be several years of speech therapy, to help me catch up with my peers if you will.
I would later become a poster child for Katy ISD's special education program. I was the first child with verbal IQ test scores as low as mine to start mainstream Kindergarten ON TIME. A later verbal IQ test would show that I had an "above average" IQ. So yes, I defied many odds.
Of course, how I was treated throughout my time in Katy ISD, is another story, and this post is already long enough as it is.
I should conclude by saying that the experts have reduced the requirements for "talking" age to two. They changed it while I was going through the testing procedures at age three.
To be continued....
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2 comments:
I find this interesting because 1) I can sort of relate--I was very, very shy and CHOSE not to speak in daycare and up through Kindergarten, so my Kindergarten teacher told my parents I wouldn't grow up to be much--and 2) I'm a speech therapist! I work with lots of PPCD kiddos. I often wonder where they'll be functioning several years down the line, and I hope they'll be successful. Of course it's my job to do everything I can to expand their communication skills. Anyway, just my two cents. Can't wait to read Part 2.
wow.. we have a lot in common.. only, I didn't become a 'guinnie pig' until I was in 5th grade. I started being suspended from school and punished for NOT TALKING! teachers said I was beligerant because I 'wouldn't' answer.. not the case... I would really be sitting there fighting with myself internally to speek and couldn't. after lots of testing and counseling and doctor apointments.. I was diagnosed with 'selective mutism.' very rare 'disorder.' so rare that not much studies are able to be done on it. and yes, I was also diagnosed and labled as emotionally disturbed. the two kind of go hand in hand.. selective mutism usually comes on by some kind of emotional trauma at an extremely early age. I could only talk to my 'peers' and some kids my age.. But I physically, and mentally could NOT open my mouth or form words to speak to any adult of any kind until I was about 14yrs old.. I could ask my parents for little things from time to time but that was the extent of speaking with my parents as a young child growing up.. my case was very severe, and people wondered if i'd ever be able to be on my own or take care of myself. when I graduated I held a job for 6mos and saved up my money, packed my bags and moved to Utah where I transfered my job and lived and took care of myself.. now I am married and am a mommy and hold a very social job. (being an apartment manager.) and have even gotten my CNA and was able to complete my schooling as well as my clinicals in hospitals and nursing homes. But... I will admit that still to this day I do struggle with certain aspects of the 'disorders.' and it's hard and sucks at times, but the bottom line is that I've made it a lot farther than anybody ever expected me to.. Some people choose not to understand these situations and dont want to educate themselves on the subjet, so they are jerks about it all to people like you and I. I am glad that you have decided to no longer be "mr. nice girl" I need to work on that also! As a fellow struggler, I totally agree that you have over come something huge. Not all people will see it the same way as we might, but if anybody can go through all of those things and put up with so much 'crap' from the worl around them, I'd say they defied odds for sure.
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