Our Early Interventionist, April, comes by and sees each of my boys every Tuesday afternoon. She's been our EI since very early on in their lives, post-NICU discharge. She helps to coordinate all the therapists and can make recommendations for therapies or needs that the boys may have. Every 6 months, April will conduct an assessment, where she asks me questions about what they can/can't do and together we decide how to score each question based on what she's seen them do and what I've seen them do. Think of questions like "can he stack 5 blocks?" or "does he say at least 30 words?" - those are not the actual questions from the assessment, but are along the same lines. After she grades the assessment, she does a review with me where we walk through the results of the assessment, as well as the goals that we've laid out for each of the boys. We then decide if they've met the goals or not and any other goals we want to add.
Well, April conducted the 6 month assessment a few weeks ago and when she graded the results, we discovered that we have 2 EI graduates on our hands. April came by on Friday to do the assessment review with me with the results and gave me the update that Stokes and William have both "graduated" from Early Intervention. They both used to show significant delays in several areas of the assessment, but now are basically caught up, or at least caught up enough that EI is not longer warranted.
In the review, we discussed the goals that we had set for each of the little guys, as well as how they're tracking towards their goals.
Stokes -
Although he's not going to get EI any longer, Stokes will be able to continue with Speech Therapy, but we just won't have April as his EI to help coordinate. We will now work directly with BabyNet for his speech therapy needs and can keep his current Speech Therapist (she's also named April!).
Ryan still shows some significant delays and will continue receiving EI services. That means that we'll still get to see April once a week and although she won't be officially seeing Stokes and William any longer, we'll let them come see her and play with her at the beginning or end of Ryan's appointments.
April was joking around about wishing she had some sort of graduation certificate and we said we needed caps and gowns! It's crazy that April has been working with us for almost 2 years and all of a sudden, she no longer has Stokes and William. I made sure to get a few pictures of her with all 3 of them on her last official appointment as the EI for all. We love April!
It's definitely a good thing that Stokes and William have graduated, because that means that they're really catching up and getting on the same ground as their peers of the same age, but a small part of me is a little sad. It may be because they are really "growing up", which is hard to accept as a parent. It's also nice having a professional set of eyes on them each week to help me keep up with what's going on and keeping track of whether they need any additional services. At least she'll still be around and I'll be able to ask her questions, even if they don't apply to Ryan specifically!
Cheers to my EI graduates! Here's what their most recent assessment grades looked like!
Also, did you know that November is Prematurity Awareness Month? How ironic that two of my boys graduated from EI and are overcoming the effects of prematurity in the month of November! The March of Dimes is trying to focus the nation's attention on premature births this month to create awareness and to decrease and prevent prematurity. Purple is the March of Dimes color and they encourage everyone to wear purple this month. We love purple (Clemson's other color ha!) South Carolina's current preterm birth rate is 10.9% - that's fairly high! That means one out of every 10 babies born in SC is a preemie. My prayers go out to the babies, families and healthcare workers that are dealing with prematurity.
Well, April conducted the 6 month assessment a few weeks ago and when she graded the results, we discovered that we have 2 EI graduates on our hands. April came by on Friday to do the assessment review with me with the results and gave me the update that Stokes and William have both "graduated" from Early Intervention. They both used to show significant delays in several areas of the assessment, but now are basically caught up, or at least caught up enough that EI is not longer warranted.
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| April with Stokes, Ryan and William |
In the review, we discussed the goals that we had set for each of the little guys, as well as how they're tracking towards their goals.
Stokes -
- Increasing attention span and doing an activity for at least 5 minutes - still working on this ;)
- Share toys with brothers - still working but definitely getting better
- Follow directions without having a tantrum - has met this goal
- Identify people, places and objects - has met this goal
- Name people and objects - has met this goal
- Use words to tell us what he wants instead of biting - lots of improvement but still working
Ryan -
- Getting on hands and knees to crawl - still (aggressively) working on this
- Playing with toys by pushing buttons - seeing some progress, but still working
- Increasing hand/eye coordination - still working on this
- Reaching for food to feed himself - seeing some progress, but still working
- Catching himself from falling over while sitting - still working on this
- Imitating and using spontaneous sounds - still working on this
- Pulling up - still working on this
- Getting into sitting position by himself - has met this goal
- Moving forward across the floor - has met this goal
- Tolerating a variety of solid foods - has met this goal
- Rolling from back to tummy and tummy to back - has met this goal
William
- Transitioning to speaking multiple words - has met this goal
- Stacking blocks or doing puzzles - has met this goal
- Pointing and naming pictures in books - has met this goal
- Using at least one word to tell us what he wants - has met this goal
- Stepping over toys without falling - has met this goal
- Walking up stairs - has met this goal
- Kicking a ball - has met this goal
Notice a trend with William's goals? He accomplished each and every single one! April said she has never had a kid that met each and every goal on a review. Normally there's at least one or two that they're still working on. William is doing awesome!
Although he's not going to get EI any longer, Stokes will be able to continue with Speech Therapy, but we just won't have April as his EI to help coordinate. We will now work directly with BabyNet for his speech therapy needs and can keep his current Speech Therapist (she's also named April!).
Ryan still shows some significant delays and will continue receiving EI services. That means that we'll still get to see April once a week and although she won't be officially seeing Stokes and William any longer, we'll let them come see her and play with her at the beginning or end of Ryan's appointments.
April was joking around about wishing she had some sort of graduation certificate and we said we needed caps and gowns! It's crazy that April has been working with us for almost 2 years and all of a sudden, she no longer has Stokes and William. I made sure to get a few pictures of her with all 3 of them on her last official appointment as the EI for all. We love April!
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| April and the boys |
It's definitely a good thing that Stokes and William have graduated, because that means that they're really catching up and getting on the same ground as their peers of the same age, but a small part of me is a little sad. It may be because they are really "growing up", which is hard to accept as a parent. It's also nice having a professional set of eyes on them each week to help me keep up with what's going on and keeping track of whether they need any additional services. At least she'll still be around and I'll be able to ask her questions, even if they don't apply to Ryan specifically!
Cheers to my EI graduates! Here's what their most recent assessment grades looked like!
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| William's assessment results |
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| Stokes's assessment results |
Also, did you know that November is Prematurity Awareness Month? How ironic that two of my boys graduated from EI and are overcoming the effects of prematurity in the month of November! The March of Dimes is trying to focus the nation's attention on premature births this month to create awareness and to decrease and prevent prematurity. Purple is the March of Dimes color and they encourage everyone to wear purple this month. We love purple (Clemson's other color ha!) South Carolina's current preterm birth rate is 10.9% - that's fairly high! That means one out of every 10 babies born in SC is a preemie. My prayers go out to the babies, families and healthcare workers that are dealing with prematurity.
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