Nod If You Can Hear Me

Travis moved to the 2 year old classroom on his birthday last month. It's a much larger room with more kids and different teachers. He seemed to transition very well in the beginning. In the past few weeks his attitude has changed. He prefers to hit and bite his friends, express great frustration, and not listen to his teachers. They would call his name and get no response. And when they sat him down to talk about not hurting his friends he didn't indicate that he was listening and often looked around at other things. The teachers also said he doesn't talk at school, which is odd because he's a chatterbox - well, one word at a time. He doesn't string words together well just yet.

I had a conference call with one of the directors. She recommended a hearing test just to be sure nothing is going on. It's plausible that hearing loss and the inability to communicate would lead to physical and emotional outbursts. It's also plausible that he is utilizing his selective hearing skills and doesn't want to hear what they have to say. The new classroom could be a little overwhelming for him and he doesn't know what to do.

I also gave the director some feedback on what I thought might be leading to his behavior. Travis got plenty of attention in his old classroom. And those teachers let kids sit in their laps during circle time activities, gave out hugs, and were generally warm and friendly. The current teachers seem overwhelmed and spend a good deal of time monitoring the kids rather than getting down to their level and interacting. This is the age when they should be developing away from parallel play and the teachers can facilitate that by getting involved.

To comply with their recommendation I took Travis to the pediatrician today. He didn't understand what to do when the little machine beeped in his ear. I explained everything to the doctor including his occasional fits of rage where he clinches his fists, grits his teeth and growls. She gave us a referral to an audiologist. They have a sound proof booth with child-friendly methods to encourage them to respond and indicate if they hear sounds. I am still not sure if this will work on a two year old.

The next appointment is scheduled for next Wednesday. I'll post the outcome.

As an added bonus, he scored an H1N1 vaccination while we were at the doctor. They happened to have it available, but only as a shot not the mist. He took it like a champ and didn't even cry. He did quickly try to pull up his pants to prevent any more needles jabbing his other thigh. As a reward for his bravery I bought him a chocolate milk at Starbucks, and I bought myself a Caramel Brulee latte.