School starts tomorrow in our town. This is a bit of a stressful time for us this year. My four year old son is starting a special preschool for kids with learning disabilities. He’s a wonderful, bright, friendly, golden little boy, who happens to have some sort of language delay. His speech, except for a few words, is mostly unintelligible, even to us. He often communicates through gestures. It seems that he has some problems with language reception as well; sometimes he seems not to understand simple statements (such as, “put your shoes on”), though sometimes he does. This can be quite frustrating; it’s given us a much deeper appreciation of families who cope with disabilities, and of the worth of each person who is in some way “disabled.”
We’re not sure what’s causing this delay, although we believe it’s related to seizures he’s periodically experienced. All the medical and neurological tests haven’t shown any particular anomalies (except the seizures themselves). The nuerologist classifies it as unspecified juvenile seizure activity, which often dissipates with age.
We’re grateful that our local school district has an excellent pre-school program that deals with issues such as language delay. We’re nervous, however, because our son is a stubborn little guy, and doesn’t always handle separation well. If he decides he doesn’t want to be in the classroom without mom or dad, it’ll be a long haul.
So, we covet your prayers that our little guy will take to his new school and that his language skills will develop well.