Decisions

My little Buddy has been going for speech therapy over the last year. Two is the magical age to get any sort of speech assistance BUT it is focused on helping the parents assist their child in building a good base of words. The past year I have gone to seminars on this topic and then we have attended a monthly play and say group where speech therapists and assistants work with 2 or 3 kids and their parents in a play setting and model tactics for parents and take notes on the children.
Now that JA is finally at the magical age of 3 he can be more formally assessed to see which funding and programs he qualifies for. JA and I headed to the health centre this morning for his formal assessment. I must admit that I was stressed and praying hard for it to go well. JA is sooooo shy and I always feel like every time we have gone to the play group he must be in pain being so quiet and shy; literally the moment we would walk out of the door he would talk and talk and talk but would barely say a word while there.
He was for sure shy today and really didn't string an entire sentence together as often as he can but he did warm up and give simple answers. It was a long tough process of testing via flip charts, pictures, having him complete sentences, etc with small breaks to play or treats as bribes to keep going! It was painful for him and for me. It was so hard to watch and see him not answer something correctly because it was too complex for him or just because he was tired and really does know the answers. (ie one of the more extreme examples, Point to the smallest cat that is closest to the turtle? Not one cat was located next to the turtle and there were several small cats in the pic. When he points to a small cat that isn't closest to the turtle he is scored a zero. Complex.) It is always hard to see your child not understand something.
He was assessed as having a severe speech delay in the 1st percentile and 15th percentile for understanding. I know that it isn't a completely accurate assessment of where he is at but I know that he is behind for sure.
I got in the van, called T and had a little cry and then resolved to get him the help he needs.
He qualifies for ECS programs that are located in elementary schools at various locations, 4 times a week for 3 hours with bus service provided. I was immediately discouraged after calling all of the schools anywhere close to our house and finding out that they don't take children that aren't in their neighborhood. There is no school in our neighborhood with this program. I called schools as far as a half hour drive away to find all are full. One school that is about 20 mins away put him on their wait list (#33 with 18 accepted). Discouraging.
I finally got in touch with two organizations that will partner with your child and the community preschool that you have him registerd in and that you pay for. They will send him an educational assistant to work with him each and every day he is in preschool and then monthly visits for an assortment of speech, OT, behavior experts. Both organizations are meeting with me next week to discuss their program. They both stressed how valuable it is to place a child in their community program with "normal" children that don't have speech delays or other delays and can model the language they want him to learn. One program in particular really struck a cord with me (and my teaching background) on the plans and goals they put in place. I am feeling much more hopeful now.
With a new baby this summer and one child starting kindergarten at the school down the road keeping JA in the neighborhood preschool seems so much more appealing then shipping him off on the bus half way across town.
Now to start applying to the provincial education program to get him qualified for all of this funding now that the assessment is complete.
Anyone who has some local insight and advice on the subject please pass it on to me.