I don't think I fully appreciated my daycare until Michael moved "up" to preschool.
1. Our daycare (Ava still attends daycare) does not have random days off.
2. Our daycare's hours are convenient to us. We are signed up for half days. That means I could drop her off as early as 6:30 in the morning and pick her up as late as 1:00 in the afternoon.
3. Our daycare tuition includes a hot breakfast and lunch.
4. Our daycare is flexible. If we have a doctor's appointment, or if Ava is sick on a "school" day they let us switch her day to another day of the week.
5. Now this one is going to sound terrible, but I'm just going to put it out there. Our daycare doesn't have many expectations. They aren't sending home activities, asking for supplies, wanting us to participate in school fundraisers, or expecting attendance at school functions.
The week before winter break, our daycare was open Monday through Friday. The school was open only through Wednesday. This past week our daycare was open all week again. The school didn't open until Wednesday. I actually decided to keep both children home Tuesday and let them play together rather than have Michael home alone and drag him out to drop Ava off and pick Ava up from school.
It isn't that I don't appreciate pre-school. Michael loves it. His teachers are amazing. The facilities are beautiful. The learning activities and structure are a much better transition to formal schooling than his daycare was. I just chafe a little at the way that the schedule of school dictates our lives compared to the way a daycare works around the schedule of families.
A Speech Pathologist Mother and Her Daughter Diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
The Weekly Review: Week 42
Blog Post of the Week
There's conversation points - "Oh, I got my haircut today."There's news - "Our son brought home his first ever report card today."
There's big news - "We're getting married."
Then there's really, really big news - "By the way dear, I'm carrying triplets."
Check out this blog post. Surrogacy, in my opinion, is a beautiful, generous gift. My congratulations and best wishes go out to Jen, her family, and the family she is helping.
Weekly IEP Preparation
1. Think about what I want to advocate for.2. Do appropriate preparation by setting up appointment to do a classroom visit in our school's special education preschool room.
3. Have all previous preparation rendered insignificant by call to set up IEP meeting in an entirely different district than expected (don't ask - it is complicated).
4. Review new potential placement options. Discuss pros and cons of new placement options with family members and friends. Reassess what I want to advocate for.
5. Set up IEP meeting for next week.
Ava and Michael this Week
Ava loves to mimic her brother right now. Here are a few examples.
Michael: I like orange.
Ava: And I like orange.
Michael: I like candy.
Ava: And I like candy.
Michael: My favorite animal is a kitty.
Ava: And my favorite animal is a kitty.
A few days ago I told Michael that the TV show I had just started was going to be the last one. These were the comments that followed:
Michael: I'm not happy with you! (accompanied by a stomp of the foot)
Ava: And I'm not happy... Oh, I am happy!
Ava's Weekly Home Therapy Focus
This week we've been continuing to work on initial and final /k/ at the single word level. Ava has learned her cards well enough that I can simply provide a carrier phrase and she fills in the blank. For example, I say, "When you go to school you put on your _______." and she fills in "pack." She's at about 80% accuracy on a good night.We're also working with initial and final /s, sh, and f/. I've already put up our initial and final /sh/ card sets and I'm working on /s/ and /f/ card sets now. Every few days I pull out a card set like the /p/ simple sentence/phrase set and focus on final consonants in short phrases and sentences as well.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Year One
One year ago Ava was evaluated by early intervention. She was 22 months old. Her language scored at the level of a six month old baby. She had two consonant sounds and perhaps three or four vowel sounds. She had only about 2-4 word approximations she used regularly. She had mostly stopped trying to talk.
My emotions were a dark and tangled mess. I couldn't stop thinking about Ava's speech and the outside confirmation that something was wrong. I was fighting tears all the time. That night I sat down and wrote the first real post of this blog. Even today, one year later, my stomach still twists re-reading that post.
I just needed to write it all out. It was a tool to help me cope. I was too upset to talk to my loved ones. I couldn't talk without breaking down. So I wrote it down instead. No one was reading the blog then. No one at all.
Since then, others have joined in. Other parents. Other professionals. Other people who are interested in my family and the things I share. I appreciate all the voices that contribute. I appreciate all of you who read regularly and those who just stop by.
So much happens in the first year. There's the initial flurry of activity. First there is the evaluation. Then you have follow up testing and finding the right services. In our case we combined private therapy with the services provided by early intervention. We made our way through the first IFSP.
I feared the worst. I feared severe motor planning problems and little progress. I made communication boards and they went up at our house and at my parents house. We made a list of ASL signs that would be useful in our daily life. My husband and I learned them and then taught them to my parents. We all used those signs consistently with her for the first couple of months.
Ava was almost instantly happier. She loved the communication boards and was obviously empowered by them. She picked up signing almost instantly. Oh the power of the sign for "more". She also liked "please" and "up". And then she started vocalizing "uh" when using the sign for up and progress just flowed from there.
Services began. Sounds unlocked and words came. For us, progress came quickly at first and I was so grateful. The inevitable plateau came as well, and that was all right. At least she could communicate now. Not clearly, but we had so much more to work with. I had gone from wondering if she would ever be able to talk to worrying about clearing up the sounds in her speech. Those are two entirely different kinds of problems and I was grateful to move from one arena to the other.
At the six month IFSP meeting we identified additional needs in the area of occupational therapy and began OT services as well. Another miracle. Progress was swift again and perhaps kick started speech progress because we started seeing progress in her speech again as well.
As this first year came to a close we also participated in a transition meeting, because early intervention only lasts through the age of three. Ava was evaluated by the schools for eligibility to continue to receive services. She qualified.
I wish I could travel back in time one year and whisper in my ear. "It'll be ok." We are ok. There's still work to be done, but the journey is happening one little bit at a time and is manageable. We still live life and enjoy it every day. Working on Ava's speech is just one part of a complex whole.
One year later we have words, sentences, and conversation. More importantly, we have laughter, love, and family.
My emotions were a dark and tangled mess. I couldn't stop thinking about Ava's speech and the outside confirmation that something was wrong. I was fighting tears all the time. That night I sat down and wrote the first real post of this blog. Even today, one year later, my stomach still twists re-reading that post.
I just needed to write it all out. It was a tool to help me cope. I was too upset to talk to my loved ones. I couldn't talk without breaking down. So I wrote it down instead. No one was reading the blog then. No one at all.
Since then, others have joined in. Other parents. Other professionals. Other people who are interested in my family and the things I share. I appreciate all the voices that contribute. I appreciate all of you who read regularly and those who just stop by.
So much happens in the first year. There's the initial flurry of activity. First there is the evaluation. Then you have follow up testing and finding the right services. In our case we combined private therapy with the services provided by early intervention. We made our way through the first IFSP.
I feared the worst. I feared severe motor planning problems and little progress. I made communication boards and they went up at our house and at my parents house. We made a list of ASL signs that would be useful in our daily life. My husband and I learned them and then taught them to my parents. We all used those signs consistently with her for the first couple of months.
Ava was almost instantly happier. She loved the communication boards and was obviously empowered by them. She picked up signing almost instantly. Oh the power of the sign for "more". She also liked "please" and "up". And then she started vocalizing "uh" when using the sign for up and progress just flowed from there.
Services began. Sounds unlocked and words came. For us, progress came quickly at first and I was so grateful. The inevitable plateau came as well, and that was all right. At least she could communicate now. Not clearly, but we had so much more to work with. I had gone from wondering if she would ever be able to talk to worrying about clearing up the sounds in her speech. Those are two entirely different kinds of problems and I was grateful to move from one arena to the other.
At the six month IFSP meeting we identified additional needs in the area of occupational therapy and began OT services as well. Another miracle. Progress was swift again and perhaps kick started speech progress because we started seeing progress in her speech again as well.
As this first year came to a close we also participated in a transition meeting, because early intervention only lasts through the age of three. Ava was evaluated by the schools for eligibility to continue to receive services. She qualified.
I wish I could travel back in time one year and whisper in my ear. "It'll be ok." We are ok. There's still work to be done, but the journey is happening one little bit at a time and is manageable. We still live life and enjoy it every day. Working on Ava's speech is just one part of a complex whole.
One year later we have words, sentences, and conversation. More importantly, we have laughter, love, and family.
| Reactions: |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
