Conferences Part II

I was able to conference with Adeline's developmental classroom teachers a month or so ago.  This classroom consists of children with delays in a variety of areas.  Some have a diagnosis, some require much more support than Adeline, and some children are ahead of Adeline.  All children are there because a mainstream classroom is not the best fit on a full time basis.  

Adeline's conference seems like ages ago.  Truthfully, it almost time for another one.  Most teachers would feel that this extreme frequency would be redundant, but not Adeline's.  The overriding theme of her conference was PROGRESS at a fairly fast pace.  I was sure they were just finishing the getting to know Adeline and her needs portion of the school year when I went in to meet with the teachers.  I should add that Adeline has a head teacher, two support teachers, an OT, PT, and SLP in her classroom.  My goal of the conference was to make sure the needs Adeline demonstrated in the classroom aligned with the previous Early Intervention Therapists' opinions of Adeline's needs.  We were on the same page from the get go.

To my surprise Adeline's teachers reported many areas of progress over the first couple months of the school year.  In previous classroom settings, Adeline has to be reminded of directions and then physically directed with hand holding etc.  In her new classroom, she follows directions independently!  I am thrilled as this is something we have been working on ever since Adeline could understand a direction.  She is rather independent in the classroom thanks to her teacher's very structured way of doing things.  For example, when it is time to wash hands, blue and red tickets are handed it out and each child goes to the blue or red sink.  Adeline does this with no help.  She then will find her picture at the snack table (different seat everyday) and sit down and wait for her snack.  I was expecting her to get distracted and start to play with something along the way.  That is not the case.

Adeline also participates in circle time.  She is more of a listener than active participant (no real hand motions or singing) but clearly attends to the activities.   I assumed that she sat but didn't listen or understand.  I was told that is absolutely not the case.  Her teachers would like full body participation but are happy with her cognitive attention.

Adeline's therapist wanted to point out her unique perserverance.  Her OT commented on how she has never had a child try as hard and long as Adeline tries with different tasks.  It is her perserverance that continues to push her forward down the path of development.  Adeline rarely gives up or protests.  She is focused and has a strong desire to complete a task.  All qualities I thank God for giving her.  What is even better is that she trots right over to her OT when she sees her getting out an activity.   One would think that Adeline would tire of all the hard "playing" but she greets these activities with a smile each and every time.

Adeline continues to prove that she learns by doing over and over again.  A task that might take a typical child one or two times learn, takes Adeline ten times to learn.  We are still concerned with her language delay and lack of conversation but see that she is expressing her wants and needs more clearly now.  Language is difficult for me because there isn't an object that I can pull out to work on with Adeline.  It is harder to practice because she doesn't have the interest in it like she does stringing beads on a pipe cleaner.  Adeline's PT is thrilled with her overall increase in speed.  She walks, runs, jumps and gets around much faster than she did in September.  Fine motor remains behind for Adeline.  She can't really color or hold a crayon with a strong grasp.   Her OT is excellent and tries to put my fear of her not writing her name by Kindergarten at bay.  Adeline is very far from writing anything that resembles a letter.  We are still focusing on strengthening her pincer grasp.

While Adeline still has many delays and struggles, she is progressing at a faster rate than expected.  I am happy to report that I walked away with smile on my face.  I have a better idea of what goes on in the classoom as a whole and how my Little Belle is thriving it.

Class Pictures 2009

I just received the girls' pictures and decided to post them. I will get to Adeline's and Savannah's conferences but for tonight, this is all the time I have.

Conferences

I have been meaning to post about the Adeline and Lila's conferences.  It has been so busy and with all my time spent in the car picking up and dropping off, that I rarely find myself in front of the computer.  If only my Blackberry was user friendly in the blogging world. 

I will start with Lila.

Lila is in a class with 15 children and two teachers.  She is the youngest with the exception of her good friend Vincent who just turned three on Wednesday. Many of the children started this year at 3.5 years old. That being said, Lila is three and expected to meet the challenges of a three year old classroom. Her teacher knows me well. She was Savannah's teacher and played an important role in embracing our family while the twins were fighting for life in the NICU. We both had the feeling of "full circle" when sitting down for Lila's conference.

Lila is doing very well at school. She is very social, plays nicely, and is one of the MOST attentive student during circle time. I was surprised to hear that she hasn't engaged in any negative behavior like fighting over toys or not sharing because she can get into some pretty loud tiffs at home. Mrs. Jones indicated that she was right on target for the social/emotional domain. Although her articulation makes it hard to understand her, she always engages with others during free play and plays nice! It is so strange to have a very social child after agonizing over Savannah's painfully shy road in this same class three years ago.

With regard to receptive and expressive language, Lila was given satisfactory for her age. She communicates her needs, participates in music, and is very involved in finger plays and stories. However, she is still on the low end of the language curve. Conversations are beginning to emerge but going back and forth with Lila is still difficult. It is hard to know if she doesn't understand what you are saying or if it is just expressive language immaturity and her not realizing the format of a conversation.

Cognitively, Mrs. Jones doesn't have any concerns for Lila. She considers her a young three and assessed her accordingly. I still have concerns and most of them stem from the above conversation piece. I feel that there should be much more dialog in her life as well as the ability to retell about a past event. Again, it is emerging but when compared to other students in her class, she falls behind. Only time will tell if it has a cognition link.

Finally, Lila's motor skills were all satisfactory except for her crayon grasp. Since the conference that has been rectified which puts me at ease. Savannah really struggled with her pencil grasp which carried over into the 4's class. I am glad that Lila has avoided this.

All in all, I am thrilled with Lila's report. I knew that she was very young going into the three's class. Not only that, Brandywine is a very rigorous and academic preschool. There is little to no unstructured time which is very different from many other preschools I know. I worried that Lila Grace wouldn't be able to hang, but hang she does. She loves school and the few times I have peeked in on her, she is following directions and very attentive. In fact, Mrs. Jones said that she ALWAYS follows directions. Lila has taken to her assistant teacher Mrs. Pezick, the only one that calls her Lila Grace, and is viewed as a sweet and quiet student that always uses her manners.

I hope that she continues to thrive at Brandywine. It is going to get much more academic next year which will really start to paint the picture of Lila and how she will do in a school age classroom.

As if I haven't said it a hundred times before. . . never in a million years did I think Lila Grace would be a typical, thriving three year old while I sat watching over her isolette a mere three years ago.

Christmas Tree 2009

We headed out the day after Thanksgiving to get our tree.  It was windy and cold but the girls had a good time.  Adeline was over the moon when she got on the train that drops passengers at various crops of trees.  We searched, we found, we cut, and then we headed home in hopes that this years extra large tree would stand stable in our tree stand. It is still standing today which must be a product of Adeline tightening down the screws extra tight!

Diapers No More!!

Just when I thought I would be spending my entire Holiday season encouraging Adeline to sit on the potty, she proves me wrong.  Of course, this is a typical move for her - atypical progress.  One would think that potty training a developmentally delayed child would be a burdensome task.  Afterall, it isn't that easy potty training typical children. 

And so the story goes. . .

We took Adeline out of diapers on Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  She was sitting and peeing on command within a day.  Alex and I were both flabbergasted and way too cautious to "count it."  During the holiday break, while still in underwear full time, Adeline stayed dry.  We were able to go out and and about while not missing a beat.  By the Monday after Thanksgiving, she had completed both tasks in the potty and was headed to school in underwear.  She has been accident free since - well their was one nugget deposited in her underwear at school but if you knew her pooping issues, you wouldn't let that hold you back from celebrating.

So here we are, mid December and the Belle is potty trained.  It took one try and less than a week.  Pretty impressive for a one pound preemie.  I must note that this little dainty girl is sporting Lightening McQueen briefs just to let everyone know that she has a mind of her own!

Happy Birthday Daddy

I think we celebrated this year which is very unusual for us. Here is a picture of his gifts waiting underneath the tree followed by the night's events.

A Visit with Santa

We took the girls to see Santa the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Typically, there aren't any lines and the girls get some more face time this way. It has been a yearly tradition for Savannah to make Santa a gift and this was no exception. Luckily, there was no line, Santa listened to all the requests, and paid extra attention to Savannah's gift.

The lists went something like this:

Savannah - A new bike, Lincoln Log roof and window pieces, and a purple Ramone.
Adeline - Thomas, Thomas and more Thomas trains
Lila Grace - A red train and a Hello Kitty Purse.

I was surprised when the twins were having to be held back from darting into Santa's lap while the children in front of us (the only ones thank goodness) were telling of their requests. Even more surprising was The Belle. She was the first one to reach Santa and was more than happy to hop up on his lap. The beard was a bit much and you could tell when it caught her cheek but she powered through for the big man. Lila Grace was the first to voice her request as you can hear her saying, "I want a Hello Kitty purse." It should be noted that she was quiet miffed to find out that Santa didn't have her Hello Kitty purse right then and there. I guess she didn't get the Christmas day component and thought that she would get her gift while sitting on his lap. She had to be pulled away from Santa yelling, "Hello Kitty purse, Hello Kitty purse." The candy cane helped quite her down.

Savannah's gift was as sweet as ever. This year I had nothing to do with it. I found it adorable that she made Santa a "Flippy, Flappy, Book." The book even included humor as one flap was labeled dog while underneath hid a bear. Her text on the page provides more evidence that my girl has escaped the shell! I should also note that Savannah wrapped some glow sticks up for Rudolph and dropped them with Santa during our visit. She figured it would give his nose a break.

Here are some pictures and a video clip. The quality is low and it misses some of the precious conversation but it is beautiful to see all THREE of my girls walking up to Santa with anticipation - I never thought I would see the day!!