Crossing the line

I think it's happened. In fact, I can almost pinpoint the day it happened. A line has been crossed...a line I could always see, but was never sure if we would actually get there. Kaelen's language has, in the last 3 weeks, overtaken Jarrah's. I wondered if this might happen...I just didn't know when. During the 2nd week of our recent school holidays, while J was away, I found myself teaching K words and concepts that I hadn't yet taught J, fully confident that he would understand them and retain them, which he has. And I can tell you the first of those words too, cos I realized I was crossing that line as I said the word. It was "burrs", like you get in your clothes from Dandelions, or Cobbler's Pegs. This is not a line of choice. It's not because K is somehow brilliant, or J is mentally deficient. It's just a consequence of whatever language delay / disability J has, that K doesn't have. And I'll confess it made me a little sad, to realize that my 4yr-old now has greater command of his native language than his 6yr-old brother. As I've already said, I wondered if this day might come...I just thought I'd see it coming instead of only realizing it had come once it was already here. On a more positive note, J has an excellent speech pathologist at the moment. We first met her through the LOCHI study being done by NAL (National Acoustic Laboratories) in Australia, but she's now working for another service provider and we've crossed paths again. J is non-standard, there are just no two ways about that, and she's working really hard to try to understand exactly what's going on with him so she can help him most effectively. I really appreciate that; not because our other speechies have been bad, but they've all taken a fairly standard approach, and figured that things would come good in their own time. This one can see that things are not coming good in their own time, and that there is something unusual going on. She's working with him weekly at school, and I just love the way she listens to me, and takes my examples of difficulties we have seriously, instead of just saying "yes but kids of this age are like that". I just hope she finds some answers soon...he continues to make progress, but it's about time for another break-through... Next appt: Mon 13th Aug, J & K Aus Hearing check-ups