Annual IFSP time!

This week we had Madison's annual IFSP.  For those of you that don't know what that is......it stands for Individualized Family Service Plan.  Madi receives early intervention therapy until the age of 3 and they do an annual review to decide where she is at developmentally and what our goals are for the next 6 months.  At this time, they also determine what type of services she is eligible to receive.

Riding in her new car that she got for her birthday!

During the review, they had to assign a percentage to the amount of delay that she is in comparision to other typical kids her age.  She is delayed 30% for Fine and Gross Motor skills, delayed 40% for Adaptive, Cognitive and Communication skills, and delayed 0% for Social/Emotional.

I have to be honest with you.......the 40% number kind of bummed me out.  I wasn't expecting it to be that high.  I mentioned this to her SLP (speech therapist) in private but she reassured me to not get all wrapped up in the numbers.  When they were evaluating her, they take a list of skills and they have to categorize where she is at.  The categories are:  has Mastered the Skill, the Skill is Emerging or Skill Never Seen.  When they determine the score, they stop once they get to their first Skill is Emerging.  So, even though, she is starting to do LOTS of new things, they can't take them into consideration until she has Mastered them.

Playing around with big sis' in mom and dad's bed!

This makes sense.  And she said, you want to see a delay, otherwise, they can revoke the services that are being provided, since she would technically be "no longer delayed and not needing the services".

One thing I WAS happy about.....the 0% delay for Social/Emotional.  I guess Madi fits the stereotype of people with Ds.......they thrive socially!

So, the goals for Madi for the next 6 months......

     Gross and Fine Motor
-  Start to take a few independent steps.
-  Pull herself to stand consistently
-  Side step along the furniture.
-  Crawling on all fours.  (Quadreped Crawling)
-  Individuating her fingers to point.
-  Come off of bottle.

     Language
-  Vocalize open and closed vowel cooing (aah, eee, ooo)
-  Vocalize new consonant chains to include m & p sounds.
-  Purposeful and specific when vocalizing "dada"
-  Increase purposeful use of signs: eat, mile, more, mom, dad, play, cat

I have to share about these stairs.....they are for one of our cats that is old.  He is unable to jump up on the bed so we have these for him to help him up.  Well, Madi thinks it is fun to climb up them.....even though she gets a mouthful of cat hair every time she does it!

The great outcome of the IFSP is she gets to have more therapy!!!  Yeah!!!!  We officially will be starting OT (occupational therapy) every week!  She will now be doing PT, OT and ST each and every week!  And we are going to have a nutritionalist come in the next month just to help us along in determining how much food and formula we should give her until she is off the bottle.  We are working on the straw cup still but until she can drink out of it consistently and actually swallow the liquid, we have to give her a bottle to make sure she is getting enough nutrition.

We have some great goals to be working on for the next 6 months!!!!