My Quirky Boy

Sometimes things turn up in the most unlikely places. One of the challenges Fin faces is an un-official diagnosis of Selective Mutism. The short version is in social situations where he experiences anxiety he will not speak. By social, I mean an audience outside of myself, my husband, my parents, and hubby’s parents. I am hesitant to say he chooses not to speak, because I am fairly certain there is not much choice about it on his part. In public if an unknown person speaks to him, he mostly ignores them. Often he will come to me and try to use me as his voice. Standing right up under me, and whispering. Usually with a request for something, or to ask someone else something for him. When we have tried to discuss it in his IEP meetings, we get the response, “He talks!”. Then we branch out to specific inquiries on our part to learn that 2 years into his placement in this school maybe in a small group they might, stress on might, get him to whisper. The school also admitted that they hear him talk, quietly, to other children, but not to the adults. With a spectrum child it rides the line of lack of ability to self advocate, and identifying him as a child with SM.

I have a weakness for trashy magazines. For the most part I have recently foregone them for 2 reasons, 1 the budget, and 2 they are a horrible thing to expose my daughter to image wise. As a special treat hubby brought home People for me this week and they have an article about SM, and they give a face to the story as they usually do for the human interest factor. I read the article to Fin. It was funny because he said he wasn’t like the child in the story, yet when we probed him on his own communication skills we can see how truly lacking they are, he sees it as no problem at all.

YET ~ he wanted me to read the article to him over and over, I think he is processing. We are going to have him evaluated for anti-anxiety drugs per the advice of his development specialist. If we do move forward with meds, it will be interesting to see how much it impacts his SM issues. I promised I would read it to him again tomorrow, and I am seriously tempted to make copies for each his teacher, his Speech Therapist, his OT, and just a few for them to have on hand.

I took the Girl for her first haircut this weekend. I have been claiming since day one of her life that I was NOT going to cut her hair. But it became obvious I was subjecting her to a form of torture with her whispy locks constantly falling into her eyes. She started to wear a winter hat all the time to keep her hair back. The result:

Her first mullet. There really is no other choice, her hair is really long on top, and long in back, but has not really filled in at all on the sides. The hairdresser warned, once you do it, she is destined for bangs. With slippery hair, barrettes are really no option either. Oh well, she is happy.