Filed under: Elective Mutism, Mute, Selective Mutism, Shy, alternative medicine, anxiety, family, health, self healing, shyness | Tags: alternative medicine, elective mustim, family, health, Selective Mutism, self healing, Shy
I have written this blog to chronicle for others the paths we took with our son who had Selective Mutism, it starts at the bottom of the posts and reads up. I have recently asked my son of what he remembers about the condition and would he remember at all that he was selectively mute?
It turns out he does remember and he remembers it in pieces, but not all pieces. He remembers not talking in school, but not that we took him to a psychologist. He remembers that we tried a lot of things, but is not sure what we did. He remembers teachers coming to visit at the house, but he did not remember that we had a family member who was a school teacher come to observe him in the classroom setting. It is a real patch work of memories.
I also came across a picture of him with other students in his preschool the other day and the blank look on his face was clearly there, and he was participating by hitting a pinata. This was so typical of a selectively mute child to participate but in silence. His face changed dramatically from happy engaged child driving to school to a blank expressionless zombie face every day he was in pre school.
He remembers it as the way he was, he remembers clearly when the mutism broke. He remembers when the things broke on the table and from that time on he could speak.
I will ask him to chronicle it from his remembrance when he is older. Someday I will ask him to add to the blog. But at the moment he is not looking back and his future is very bright. He already in jr. high knows he wants to go to college at Standford or Harvard and we know he has the will, the brains and the voice to get there.
When I started this blog I never imagined it would have as many who seek it out or that I would have so much to tell on the subject.
So yes we did remind our son that he had selective mutism and he was not bothered in the least.
Be sure to start at the beginning of the Archives in Feb and read forward by month to get the full picture of selective mutism, what happened and how it was overcome.
Archives
- May 2008 (4)
- April 2008 (5)
- March 2008 (17)
- February 2008 (8)
Filed under: Elective Mutism, Gifted, Mute, Selective Mutism, Shy, alternative medicine, anxiety, family, health, self healing, shyness | Tags: Elective Mutism, family, health, Selective Mutism, self healing
A reader of my blog asked the following questions, that several of you asked about.
Her comment was: How old was your son at the time of this testing? I believe with all my heart that my daughter is gifted as well as having the selective mutism (along with some SPD issues). She’s only 4.5 and has started reading without real prompting. She’d hit the ceiling the non-verbal portions on a kindergarten readiness test (The McCarthy Scales of Children’s abilities), which is considered a bridge between developmental and IQ tests. She has a language comprehension of a 7 year old. I don’t know how well she did on the visual-spatial parts, but I think she did quite well. I’ll know for sure next week.
I feel that a gifted with an IEP designation will be the way to go, and seeing how it worked out for you confirms the idea that I need to push for it.
But one question remains – how did your son test so well on the private test, but not well on the school’s test? What did the private tester do differently?
My reply: My son was 7 when after three years of trying to figuring it out and being tuned down and not passing 3 years of the school version of gifted testing, did we have him tested outside. I think the second grade is a good time, since at that point he gap between this advancement and the teaching level, left us no choice. His second grade teacher called saying after 6 weeks from the start of school to tell us that he was done with second grade and what did we want to do with him? Now we had had that happen also in first grade, but at least it was after the xmas break. My answer was teach him at his level. That was not met with agreement. Thus the outside testing was our only option left, besides leaving the school and that crossed my mind many times.
The private testing is done on to one, not in a group setting. It is not in a school setting, this is very good for children with selective mustim like mine who may not be able to speak at school or have anxiety issues around school setting or children from the school.
Filed under: Elective Mutism, Gifted, IEP, Mute, Selective Mutism, Shy, alternative medicine, anxiety, family, health, self healing, shyness | Tags: anxiety, family, Gifted, health, IEP, selective mustim, Shy
The next day with gifted letter in hand, I cautiously went to drop it off at the principals office. Since I had already had many meetings that were fruitless with her, I was sceptical, but hopeful. I handled the letter stating he was designated gifted and she looked at it and said, OK we will have him moved into the gifted class tomorrow and your will have a IEP written and to you within the week.
It was so sweet music to my ears, after all the years of no’s, all the …we will not move him, we cannot move him, we will do nothing more. To hear yes…. and with action steps. The hours and hours, the meetings and the delays were finally worth it.
The parents who told me to think of the gifted and IEP designation as Ruby Red slippers was correct. It was exactly what he needed. He moved classes and he did great. He did more than great, he thrived instead of dying under a system of bureaucracy. A system that is focused on no child left behind, was failing since they were leaving my child behind and it did not seem to phase them, since he was above grade level they felt it was not needed. He was smart, he just had anxiety and had selective mutism in his younger years.
The question was, once he spoke at school, if we should push him up to higher class in the same grade level and would he revert? It was what we thought he needed, not what the school policy was. We were right, our gut was right. We did act and give him the chance to succeed and we did push and it was worth it for him. Trust your gut when it comes to your child.
The push was the right move. The expense was worth it. He was pulled out for reading and math and non verbal and continued in his regular class room. He was still way above grade level. There was a gifted only school in the district, that they suggested we look at sending him to. We felt it was better to have him be socially comfortable. This also proved for him to be the best combination. Once you have the designation, you stay the program, unless the grades or behavior deems that they will not place them the next year. He was placed in the gifted program every year. The Gifted IEP that was written with accommodations made all the difference.
It was suggested that he skip a grade and be moved up a grade to be taught at that grade level. We rejected that as an option, since he needed to be with his own age group for social aspects.
Filed under: Elective Mutism, Gifted, Mute, Selective Mutism, Shy, alternative medicine, anxiety, family, health, self healing, shyness | Tags: anxiety, family, Gifted, Gifted testing, health, outside testing for gifted, Selective Mutism, Shy
We finally decided the only thing left to do and not loose another year was to have him tested privately for gifted designation. It was very expensive, over $1200. We reluctantly asked my parents for the funds to have him tested, since this could of turned out to be spending good money and a lot of it and not have him qualify for gifted. After all that we had been through and all the dollars we had already spent on the paths with selective mutism, it was a risk we needed to take.
I learned there are three areas that a child can be tested designated gifted and each one qualifies for different services. The first is verbal. ( Reading ) Second is quantitative, (math), the third is non verbal, (spacial). The leap for our state was an 97% or higher to qualify in on any of three areas. Under 97% you do not qualify. This means that he needed to pass the test in the top 3 percent, he could be designated in all three, only two or just one.
We asked around and found several councilors that would give the tests, some at the university and some centers that treated conditions such as ADD and also tested for gifted. I also had to figure out how many of the test they were qualified to give, if the state would recognized their administering of the test and it turned out to be that only one that fit all my criteria and could take us within a short time frame. Many of these centers where booked up for 6 months or longer.
The councilor was a Phd and wisely insisted on a couple of session with my son and one with my husband and myself before administering the test. She openly told us, that since he did not pass the schools gifted test that she say many that had to do what we did and have him tested privately. There was no guarantee he would pass or qualify.
He went into the room to take the tests, it was 2 hours before he returned. We where told he has passed in both verbal and quantitative. There was a great deal of satisfaction to know we where correct all a long. To have it validated was so gratifying. It made all the barriers, and all the brush offs fade away. We knew he was gifted, we just could not get the school to agree and make the correct decisions, they were so clouded due to his past selective mutism issues and would not do anything without that piece of paper and passing a test. We were given a letter and told to give it to the school, that they would immediately need to accommodate. Was it really the “Ruby slippers” to his educational needs? The next morning I would find out, here I come with the letter in hand.
