therapy

Mady had her annual evaluation today for Early Intervention. She has a big eval once a year, with a few smaller ones for setting more goals and seeing which have been met in between. Lots of questions asked about her abilities/inabilities, lots of watching her play and interact in her surroundings. They scored her around 10-12 months on her speech abilities...so her OT will be working a lot with her speech and oral issues. She also scored on the low side for cognitive abilities...not showing that she understands what's going on around her, self help skills, and those kinds of things...so that will be another focus over the next year. She did however do remarkable on her motor skills eval. which is amazing considering when she began the program last year she couldn't sit up, barely could roll over, and had moderate left sided weakness. Her therapists are amazed by all that she can do in that area!!! And her OT is extremely pleased with her eating...She watched Madelyn eat her breakfast and was shocked at how much that little teeny girl can eat! She ate an entire banana one whole eggo waffle and a handfull of craisins!!! Why she won't gain weight I just don't know. We also decided to have another barium swallow study done to check to see if she is aspirating her liquids. I am of course hoping that she's not and we can continue off the thickener for her liquids. Our appt. for that is next friday.

So it was a good evaluation and I am happy that things are moving in the right direction. She's made lots of great progress over the past year, and we have some really great goals to strive for over the next year...including making plans for special education preschool...which we will begin planning in 6 months!!! She will be able to start the program when she turns 3, but they start making plans 6 months prior to make sure she is placed in the right kind of class for her needs. Most likely she will go to a "regular" curriculum preschool, with special education teachers that work with the children on issues on a more individualized basis. We may decide to have Katelyn evaluated at that time to see if there's a chance for her to get into the program with her sis.

It was fun to get a chance to compare her eval from today with the one they did this time last year...so many great changes, and so many goals met. Incredible!