Yesterday, we had a meeting with Erin, our EI; Sheri, our occupational therapist; and Sarah, our speech therapist. I say "our" because they are teaching me as much as, if not more than, they are teaching the babies.
Our first session with Sarah went very well. So much of her therapy is play-based, and they just love playing with her. Their attention spans were great and they were very well-behaved. She affirmed a lot of what we are doing and gave me some tips for more ways we can work with them. Our goals for speech are to:
• increase their vowel and consonant sounds,
• improve their responsiveness to simple commands,
• increase their vocabulary (she thinks they should both have 10-15 words in the next few months),
• increase initiation of turn-taking games, and
• increase demonstration of appropriate use of toys.
At one point, Sarah was trying to get Karyssa to ask for help in getting a cheerio out of a very small smokestack on a toy train. Instead, she was so impressed that Karyssa could get it out herself, repeatedly! But we'll get to more of that in a minute.
Kyran also had a good session with Sheri. Karyssa seemed a little jealous of the extra attention that Kyran was getting, but Sheri did a great job of acknowledging her as well. The best and most surprising part of her visit was going over her evaluation. The babies were evaluated with the Peabody Developmental Scale, in the areas of grasping (using the muscles of the hands and controlling the fingers) and visual-motor integration (eye-hand coordination).
Kyran scored around 10 months for grasping (37%) and 12 months for visual-motor integration (63%).
Karyssa was not eligible for OT services, but I didn't realize quite how ineligible she was. She scored 13 months for visual-motor integration (75%) and in grasping, scored 20 MONTHS!!! The 95th percentile!!! I got tears in my eyes as she told me that!
When the babies were in the NICU, I did a lot of reading. Probably too much reading, but I wanted to be prepared for anything. My mom bought me several preemie parenting books and I googled a lot. There was so much to worry about, even after they were out of the dark. Texture aversions to toys and foods, problems with physical touch, especially on the feet, vision and hearing problems, oral motor/swallowing problems (especially in babies with bad reflux like Kyran), issues with vocal range, the list goes on and on.
We've experienced none of this, and I know it is by the grace of God! Kyran does have significant physical delays, but all of our therapists agree that they are not progressive or permanent. They see him playing sports and see Karyssa dancing. Our former PT even suggested getting them into martial arts!
We are so blessed with two amazing, brilliant, adorable, happy, healthy babies and life just couldn't be any better!
2 comments:
Yay! So glad that your meeting went well. And I am also go glad that your therapists were able to see the babies in action. They are both such amazing little miracles!
We have our one year review (with BabyNet) coming up next week. All of MK's therapists have been assessing her this week and we will have the results Monday.
There is so much great news in this post! The strides Karyssa is making is so awesome and Kyran is doing great, too. It's just so amazing that they are doing so well! Such a God-thing!
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