Several new developments since my last post on this subject.
Firstly, we stopped taking our youngest daughter to her speech therapist. It just didn't seem like it was helping and the therapist was constantly saying, "Even if she gets comfortable enough to talk to me, I am only one person; it won't help her out in the world." So, we ended the sessions.
My two youngest have started going to taekwondo, twice a week (when we make it). They both love it, however we have had some struggles with our youngest. They are in separate classes, one right after the other. On their second day of class our daughter refused to go onto the mat. She cried and wouldn't say what was wrong. I took her outside to try and get some answers, but she was still shut down. There are certain tasks that she doesn't do, obviously nothing with talking. She is supposed to yell a lot, but doesn't say anything. The instructors also want to do high-fives, but it took many classes before she actually gave a high-five to one of the girls that helps out.
School...
Where to begin. She is in Kindergarten, for a half day. However, when they assessed her over the summer they determined she needed to be in Extended Day Kindergarten (EDK) so she goes to school for the whole day. The first half of her day at EDK is not graded and in a smaller setting. It seems like she is making bigger strides in there. For example her EDK teacher has told us that our daughter whisper reads along in their reading groups. The teacher thinks she probably assumes that she can't be heard and is comfortable for that reason. The biggest thing that has happened is that our daughter has whispered to the teacher's assistant during a task this week. We were overjoyed at learning this! But, we can't ask our daughter about this because she won't admit to it and would not do it again.
As far as her regular Kindergarten class...
I'm really not sure. We don't get much communication from them. She isn't doing well on her report cards or progress reports. Her teacher has let us know that it's because she gives "no verbal response" in class. We talked about us recording her at home for assessments, but that hasn't happened yet. For these reasons I believe she does better in her EDK than her actual Kindergarten class. We are almost halfway through the year and I worry about her passing because she doesn't respond.
Our youngest just discovered, last night, that she has two loose teeth. Boy was she excited! She actually asked me to text her dad (normally unheard of because she doesn't like extra attention) and she mentioned wanting to tell her teacher today. I asked her how she was going to tell her, she didn't have an answer to that.
I don't think we have taken any steps back in our progress and have even had some baby steps forward. It is a huge challenge not to threaten her with something like no dessert or get angry at times. I have to remember that she isn't doing it on purpose and no amount of negotiating or talking from me is going to make her talk to anyone.
If you missed my first post about this click here to read it. Again, I welcome anyone to comment with any experience they have with Selective Mutism.
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