We are scheduled!

I've been calling Children's almost daily and had yet to get ahold of anyone! There was a lady I was supposed to call for the appointment but day after day of leaving messages, she'd either not return my call or she'd call during the 5 minutes it would take me to drive from our house to the school and back. After a frustrating parent teacher conference (more on that later) I called again and this time after getting the machine, I redialed and requested the appointment desk. I was extremely lucky that one of the Drs had a cancelation so we got in for the day after Thanksgiving. Its definately not the most ideal date and way across town but we'll take it!

Now about the conference....it started off good. Her teacher told us how advanced Payton is! Yeah Payton! The good portion was short lived however and quickly turned to "Payton NEEDS to start talking. Here we go again! She told us it would be okay if my mom was there for the next round of testing but she was going to sit at the table, instead of back a ways this time. She said the May testing she would not allow my mom to be there and she wants Payton to start doing simple request such as "I need to go to the bathroom" etc. We went around about how Payton really CAN'T control this. I don't think he teacher quite gets it still! Her teacher is doing a few things right though. She's allowing Payton to participate in group activities by drawing and she's including her in reading groups etc. We agreed that maybe moving her next to two of the girls Payton really seems to like that maybe they will form a friendship and Payton will start talking to them. I'm hoping the therapy is going to really help Payton but I'm not holding out hope that she will talk THIS year...hopefully in the next school year though.

Lastly, I found a great site for SM books. They are priced MUCH cheaper then Amazon! I ordered "The Silence Within" and the Supplemental book for $31 with shipping! Yeah!! I'm going to give the teacher copy to Mrs. S and hope we can use it as a tool to get a better communication system going.

Here's the website for the books....
http://www.selectivemutism.org/resources/abookstore

Making Strides

Payton is doing so well! We went to Richies sisters wedding over the weekend and she actually talked to his cousins Julie and Kellie! She has met them before but thats really wonderful that she would talk to them because there aren't many people on her list that she will talk to! She made hand motions to some of the aunts when they asked her, her age but she didn't really make eye contact or anything with any of the new people. Hand signals are great though....we were very happy with that!

Payton had her Kindergarten testing today. My mom read the questions and Mrs. S sat kinda back a little where she wasn't right over top of Payton. Payton answered every single question! Wow! were we happy! Mrs S said my mom could come back later in the year when they did additional testing so thats a huge relief!

Dr P's office called back on Friday after we had already left for the wedding and said that Children's is getting her appointment set up for us.

We are making strides! We are so proud of Payton!

Couple of small updates...

I heard back from the pediatrician's office today. They are referring us to Children's Hospital to see a specialist. I guess normally they have the parents call and it has to go through several people before you get an appointment that can take up to three MONTHS! The gal at the office agrees with us that we should get this going as soon as we can so she's making the phone calls for me to get things moving a little more quickly. I should hear back in a few days.

Payton's note to her teacher was a huge success! Her teacher loved it and was very pleased with it! She told me they got the ok for my mom to read the questions for the screening to Payton so they will do that tomorrow. I'm hoping Payton will answer the questions even though Mrs. S will be in the room.

So just a few small updates...let's hope Miss Payton will talk for her screening tomorrow!!!

hmmm, maybe a new idea!

Payton had her first "library day" at school today. We read the book she picked three times together. Payton really enjoyed the book and wanted to tell her teacher how much she liked it. I got the idea of maybe writing a note to tell Mrs S about it! With my help, Payton wrote her teacher a note about how she read the book and really liked it! She's now communicating through head gestures, sign and now paper...we just need talking lol!

Haven't heard back from her pediatricians office about the referral yet so I'll call back tomorrow. She had an ok day at school today. She was kinda in a bad mood because I made her wear pants (she went through the same type of thing last Spring with wearing shorts after she was so used to pants.) Mrs S asked me what was wrong today and kinda acted like she thought it was strange when I told her the reason why she was acting funny today. I don't know if there's a connection to the SM but Payton is picky about certain fabrics, freaks out when her hands are sticky etc...just generally pretty sensitive about things like that. She had a decent day at school though and said they had inside recess and she played with the kids in her class....yeah!

Teacher meeting and Referral

Wow a big day! My mom and I printed a bunch of information on Selective Mutism and went to school a little early to present it to her teacher in hopes that maybe she would understand Payton better. She did thank us for the info but she seems somewhat indifferent about all this. We asked if my mom or I could be present when they did the retesting to help Payton feel comfortable so maybe she would do the test and she just told us the principal would have to approve that. We brought her a video of Payton doing her Kindergarten testing from last year too so hopefully that will show her that Payton IS doing all the things she needs to be doing. I'm thinking about e-mailing her in another day or so to tell her we don't need her to do anything special for Payton...just not pressure her to talk! I called her pediatricians office back and she agreed with me it wouldn't be a bad idea to get her into a specialist. They referred us to a Behavioral Neuropsychiatric Specialist but they didn't accept our insurance so I'm waiting to hear back again. I know she doesnt have behavior issues but with there being so few specialists out there thats where they are getting started. Children's Hospital by us has a SM program so after she gets her "offical" diagnosis we'll go from there. I feel like some pressure has been lifted and Payton does too. We told her that she can talk when she's ready and we won't "make" her talk if she's not ready to. She has an awesome day at school today and even got a totsie roll as a reward which she was very excited about!