Just when I think I have a handle on things, something new hits me out of the blue. Apparently Ava is doing so well, that she’s in danger of “graduating” from early intervention services. I didn’t even know that was possible. It’s a good thing no one is keeping track of all the things I don’t know.
I thought that once she qualified for services that she would automatically continue to receive them until she turned three years old. Then we’d have to re-evaluate to see if she qualifies for school-age services at that time. Ms. A, our early intervention therapist, just mentioned this in passing during our therapy session Friday morning. At the time, I was busy trying to keep Ava engaged and Michael from interfering too much and I didn’t really process the significance of what she was saying. Later, it occurred to me that I really should have asked more questions. I guess I’ll ask her what she meant when we see her next week. I’ll try not to worry too much until then. Worrying doesn’t do me any good.
Yes, it is possible to test out of EI. Here in MA, they test every 6 months and you have to have a 40% delay - so in order to qualify, my 2 year old son had to have a score that fell at 16 months @ 24 months. Everything was above this except expressive language, so he still qualified - he scored 14 months. His gross motor is 3 months behind (21 months), so he doesn't qualify for direct services for PT, but they are keeping a watch on it.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like Ava is doing quite well - my little guy only has 2 words that he will do on his own - "ruck" for truck and today he picked up "me-mo" for Elmo. No ma-ma or da-da unless we ask him to say it and then he makes this puckered lips and it looks like he has to will the breath to come out of his mouth to say it. So frustrating. They keep telling me it will come - we start a communication board tomorrow.
Gentle Blue: My early intervention therapist comes back Friday. I'll ask her about "graduation" policies in MO. I obviously need to understand exactly how things work here.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely start that communication board. We did one with Ava and it was so empowering for her. She loved it. She still uses it although I think she sees it more as a menu of choices now. I have a picture of our kitchen one in the "What we're doing so far - Parent Edition" post (January).
During that stage when she had so few words we also introduced some signs and she loved that too. One that was particularly powerful for her was the sign for 'help'. More and please were also popular signs. I was never able to get her to use the signs for mama or daddy or brother.
I found that Ava was better able to vocalize when it was paired with a sign or pointing to a picture of the item. It seemed to help her get over that hurdle of trying to produce a word.
Let me know how your little one likes the communication board you make.