The Speech Therapist, Take Two

When last we saw the speech therapist, things didn’t go so well.  She called me at work the week after we last saw her and I told her about Carol’s trauma.  I suggested she wait another week before trying to come to the house again to resume therapy.  She took my feedback and told me that she would try another approach.  It was with some trepidation that we welcomed her into our home again.  I told my co-workers that I might have to “fire the speech therapist”.  My expectations were low.  I was worried more about how Carol would react to her visiting again.  In hindsight, I needn’t have worried.  I’m happy to say I like the “different approach”.  More importantly, Carol was good with it as well.

The therapist took the information she gathered from the first visit and came up with some things for Carol to read.  I sat quietly as she went over these things with Carol.  She wanted Carol to read things to herself, and then to read them aloud.  She wanted to gauge how well Carol looked at the written word and be able to not only say them back to her, but also to see if Carol was able to “connect the dots” as it were.  Among the things she listed were “days of the week”, “months of the year”, and “seasons of the year”.  She wrote down my name, the names of our boys, and the name of the current US president.  When Carol read Donald Trump’s name, she remembered “I don’t like that guy”.  That’s my girl… J  The therapist asked Carol to review what they had gone over before her next visit, which she did.

The therapist returned two days later armed with more of the same, but she had some different stuff as well.  This time she came with pictures.  There were pictures of furniture, houses, coffee, and other household items.  It was like having pointy-talkie things that we used to give aircrews for use if they got shot down behind enemy lines.  She also had pictures of shapes.  On one piece of paper, there were two instances of every shape.  The therapist asked her to match each of the pairs.  Carol was able to do this effortlessly.

The therapist was very happy with Carol’s ability.  It boosted Carol’s confidence as well.  She gave us some tips about how to cut down on misplacing things.  Since she is able to comprehend what she reads, the therapist suggested to write down notes and put them in places where she would put things, like “purse”, “phone”, “glasses”.

The therapist saw us twice last week.  She will see us twice every week – Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.  Suffice to say, we’re happy with her work.  After her last two visits, Carol said “I really like her”.  Perhaps she forgot about the trauma from the first visit.  I don’t feel like I have to fire her now.