Hi all,  Sorry it’s been a while since I last updated, I had some PC security issues that I had to get resolved and that required a reset on a few things.  It’s all good now.  Alots happened since the last update.  Matt has finished his last evaluation at SDSU and he’s in for sure.  The second evaluation he did really well and blew everyone away.  He was really focused and did really well with what they call 1 step commands and they moved onto 2 step commands and started with what they call binary choice commands and he does real well with that.  When he’s engaged he is very accurate.  His therapy at SDSU will start in June and run for 8 weeks.  With the conference we had after the last evaluation this past Friday they told us they will be working with higher level commands and giving him multiple choices.  Once again they said Matt has alot of potential and seems to have a real desire for music!  That’s Matt, that was always his love, music, and it’s still there.  We have been working with him to help him find that rhythm he posses and bring it back out where he expresses it more freely.  It’s showing and it’s exciting to say the least.  SDSU said they have heard him verbalize which we have been seeing for quite some time now but we haven’t known what to do out side of what we can only guess at.  The therapist said they are definitely going to pursue vocalization with Matt and when they explained how it’s done it’s process that we hadn’t heard before, no one’s every explained it so much more to learn and work with.  I personally think he’ll get it, especially now that we do have some communication going on and we are starting to understand what Matt’s thinking and that’s a whole lot more than people realize.  The real important thing now and I know it’s hard for some because of not knowing is to talk directly to Matt.  Give him a chance to react.  They people that do are truly surprised.  Most will walk up say hi to Matt and then talk to us and speak of Matt as third person, then he realizes that and most times will look away.  He needs to be talked to directly and given a chance to react, that’s so very very important now.  Please remember that if you get the opportunity to see him.  That’s what he needs, engagement.  The more opportunity he gets to engage, the more he does engage and that’s the goal. 

We do now have a list of personal speech therapist that we received from SDSU and we are going to pursue that to supplement Spencer’s therapy as well as what Matt gets at SDSU.

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