Early Intervention

Today we had our annual IFSP (Individualized Family Serivce Plan) for Lily's Birth to Three program. We're required to meet annually to review Lily's progress & reassess her goals. In preparation for our meeting, I had Michelle do a screening test on Lily to get an idea of how big her delay is, and to see how far she'd progressed since we last did it (last May).

When Lily was first diagnosed & enrolled in EI, she was six months old and tested at about a 4-month old level (which made sense, because she was four months old when she started regressing & was diagnosed). Last May, when she was in really bad shape we did the screening she was at a 1-2 month old level.

Now, she tests between a 9 & 14 month old level, depending on the skill. She's highest in her adaptive skills (mostly due to self-feeding), and lowest in her motor and...something else, I can't remember.

Anyhow, that laid the ground work for today's meeting. The main points coming out of today's meeting are that we're adding occupational therapy to Lily's treatment, every other week. We're going to try & add a 2nd physical therapy every other week (while continuing weekly PT), but they have to get approval for funding on that one. We'll continue with speech therapy weekly.

Also, we had a great discussion about which group was best for Lily. The baby group is moving from 9:00am Fridays to 10:30am Fridays. The toddler group is moving to 9:00am on Wednesdays. It is really hard for us to be up & somewhere by 9:00am. I have late sleepers. Plus, my mom has Fridays off & generally helps with playgroup. Also, two other mom's in the baby group have babies with epilepsy (one is even another IS baby), and they are obvious good support & connections for me. However, in the fall Lily will be eligible for the preschool through EI & I want her to participate in that, and if moving to the toddler group, as a prepartory step for preschool, is the best for her then that's what we'll do.

Leah, who is our (new!) OT and also runs the preschool & groups said that she didn't think there was that much of a huge benefit to moving up to the toddler group especially considering the logistics & practicalities of me getting to a 9:00am group by myself, and the social support for me. So we decided to go with the Friday baby group and reevaluate if Lily needs more "challenging" group play around Spring Break time.

Overall it was a good meeting. I'll be able to post more about our specific goals once I get my copy of the IFSP.