This year Jake had the most wonderful teacher, Mrs. Warrick. We requested her because he needed strict and firm limits on behaviors and with his issues with not talking to the teachers and "shutting down" we thought she could effectively work with him and get him talking in class more. He continues to not talk to people unless he really knows them well. It drives us crazy because he talks constantly at home and we have to tell him to "PLEASE BE QUIET" all the time. Apparently, this was a good decision because he started raising his hand to answer questions on occasion, as well as, answering when called upon if he knew the answers. Sometimes it took him a second, but he would at least try to answer. He even got in trouble a few times for talking in class (WOOOHOOOOOO) haha! 

We are looking into Selective Mutism, which is an anxiety disorder common in children with severe language delays.  These children talk to people they know and when they are comfortable.  However, getting someone around here that knows about it has been difficult.  Most people think he is just being stubborn.  He says he is shy and afraid when he does not talk. 

He is very uncooperative with the speech therapist now that he has completed all the articulation issues and all the work is language based.  It is harder for him and he shuts down a lot in speech.  He went through more educational testing and is "average" but has auditory processing issues.  He shut down on the IQ testing and had to be given a non-verbal test.  They felt this happened because he was overwhelmed with the amount of auditory information to be processed.

He is reading well, has great word attack skills and is an excellent speller.  Math computation is a strong point but word problems are hard for him.  He is a perfectionist in writing and erases holes in his papers which cause him to shut down at times. 

He is using a personal soundfield system in class to help him hear over the noise. He hates the FM systems that connect to his processor.  We have tried two types but the type of processor he has makes it necessary for him to wear a lapel mic so he can hear himself and the people around him.  Apparently, when you connect the auxillary device it goes completely to the teacher mic and this cannot be overridden in his model.  So, we may have to purchase the newer processor to try an FM again.    We had tried the BTE processor at the end of school last year when his BWP was broken and he hated it even though he tests to hear exactly the same with it. He says it looks like a hearing aid and he does not like it. He is quite quirky like that, very obsessive compulsive about things. 

The microphone is on the BTE and with his BWP it is on the actual headpiece and he likes that better. So, he is back to the BWP for now.  I am not going to force the issue with him.

In March, we went to California for some research testing about how AN children do with CI's.  It was studying several issues including if gap detection was improved and how the brain processes it.   We had a blast at Disney and Dr. Starr and Fan-Gang Zeng were excellent hosts.  We could have done without the flight delays and lost luggage going there and coming home!

Since Jake's main issues are language based and writing issues I am including his writing samples. They are exactly as he wrote them with grammar and spelling errors.  He is improving but has great difficulty getting his thoughts on paper. Sometimes he can say the sentence but can't write it correctly. They use story boards, story webs, brainstorming and various other methods to get it on paper, including writing and editing several times in longer stories. 

4/28/03--Earth Day started in 1970 on April 22 by Senator Nelson. It is a time to think about pollution. It is a time to recycle paper, plastic, and aluminum. We can clean the earth by throwing garbage in the trash not on the ground.

5/1/03--This is Main Street. There's a strawberry in my front yard. I spray water on the strawberry. In the spring time I picked up the strawberry. Strawberry sprout on the ground.

5/5/03--My group are Nicholas, Mohamed and Jake. Mohamed wants Nick and Preston group. We pay sponge throw. We play straw throw and I am the winner.

5/8/03--The three little pigs try to build their house. The 1 pig threw squid to 2 pig. The 3 pig is fat and squash on the house. The 2 pig started to throw some squirrels.

5/12/03--The butterfly lay egg for caterpillar baby. Caterpillar baby eats lots of leaf. 4 weeks to go the caterpillar turns to chrysalis called a pupa. They turn into butterfly.

Once upon a time there was a whole week I was in the beach. The hour I started was at 12:00 P.M. and over at two aclock P.M. I was playing in the sea. The sea weight is 406 pounds.

5/19/03--This summer we will play with Mom and take a walk for a long time. Mississippi is where my Lulu lives. We will go to see her then Florida. We will dig a hole in the sand and I will see crabs.

5/23/03 Writing about his trip to see the Durham Bulls game with Josh and Dad

Once upon a time there was a baseball field. Everybody wore raincoats on the thunderstorm, lightening will come back soon. The man called, "Who wants some popcorn, hot dogs, and hamburgers". There was a seesaw, merry-go-round, monkey bars, and a slide. The rain comes now it was cannonballs evreywhere. Run for it everybody has to go home. There are huge black balls, billion. Wow that is lots. We need to hurry because we need to get home.

We spent a week in Florida with my family.  Josh, Jake and I went alone so Dad could work (and pay for our trip-hehe).  Jake had a blast and absolutely loves the beach.  He has always said he wants to live at the beach.