Individualized Family Service Plans

We had Audrey's IFSP last Wednesday and I'm thrilled to report that it went really, really, really, really well.

We were there for two hours with her three therapists, her daycare director and assistant director, Audrey was present (until it was snack time).

Audrey's three therapists are Lori, PT, Andrea, ST and ECI Coordinator, and Suzi, Hearing Specialist and they each see her weekly.  Andrea and Suzi work together with Audrey's speech therapy so she basically gets two sessions a week.  Lori, Andrea, and Suzi asked us several questions.  I'm always afraid of IFSP's because I never know if our answers are "right" or if they show delays... that is until the end when we hear the results.


So, that's why this year we made a CAN list.  We listed out everything that Audrey CAN do.  These sessions tend to focus on what the child "can't" do and we wanted to make sure we had something positive to focus on.  On our list we wrote down all of the words that Audrey communicates... and that list came to 37 on Tuesday night and what she knows how and is able to do.  But, that list seems to be growing faster everyday :)  Audrey's brain is just soaking up EVERYTHING and she is very eager to learn.  She's always pointing to objects or pictures to see what they are.  She signs new words everyday.  She makes a new sound everyday.


At the end of the meeting it was determined that Audrey's physical development is an average of  16 months.  Her Gross Motor skills are at 14 months and her fine motor skills are at 18 months.  I am more than thrilled that her Fine Motor Skills are older than her Gross :)  Her cognitive development is about 20-22 months.  This is AMAZING to me!  They indicated to me that her expressive language is 21-22 months (a year ago it was at 8-9 Months) and her hearing age is only 19 months.  Her expressive language is high because of her sign language vocabulary and because she tries to imitate all sounds that we make. 


Our goals...
PT - We know her Gross Motor Skills will improve once she becomes more stable and balanced so we decided to focus on her Fine Motor Skills.  Between now and May 11, 2011, our goal is to teach her to string beads together (improve hand eye coordination), twist off caps (get that range of motion in her wrists), and to imitate simple movements by drawing on paper instead of scribbling (such as drawing single horizontal lines, vertical lines and circles).  At home and and at school, we will help teach her to pull down and pull up pants (my personal goal is to have her close to potty training or trained by her 3rd birthday). 


ST - We will focus on 2-3 word phrases so that she can communicate without getting frustrated.  We will focus on one sound each week.  We will improve her sign language and continue to model sounds.  We will encourage imaginative play (like feed the baby, change the baby).  We will also lengthen her attention span. 


Her directors offered to move her up to the 2A classroom (she's currently in the Toddler B class with about ten 18 month olds).  So, tomorrow she will be in a class with four other two year olds.  Her teacher will be able to focus on Audrey and our goals. 


Her therapists and childcare directors are thrilled of where she is today and where she will be when she's ready for the PPCD program.  We talked about whether we want her going to the Plano School for the Hearing Impaired or if we want her to go enroll in the Richardson ISD PPCD.  We are leaning towards Plano, but I'll go into that further when we're ready to make a decision.  We plan to visit both programs before the end of the year. 


Big smiles are happening in Texas!!