A big YIPPIE today

[Guest guest]

Faith's annual evaluation for EI was today. We knew she had made some

progress over the last year, but we had no idea how much. Now in her social

skills, adaptive skills, speech and gross motor she's just barely delayed

enough to continue getting her therapy. Her fine motor skills are a little

delayed, but within normal range for her age. The big news.........her

cognative levels, which were a 50% delay, are ON TARGET FOR HER AGE!!!! She

not only made progress, she completely caught up.

WOOOHOOO!!

Toni

[Guest guest]

Congrats Toni......

and now the big ole....but.....

The IU told me that about Jordan, too. Said he had " met and exceeded " every goal

they had set for him. That he was the TOP OF HIS CLASS, and should no longer be

receiving their services, and be removed from the IU preschool. hmmm..... I

then had him tested independently, only to find out that sure, he tested top of

his class......OF 3 YEAR OLDS. Only problem w/ith that is, that he's 5. Seems

they told me that so they could discontinue THEIR services, and have me put him

in a regular preschool, with typical children, AT OUR EXPENSE. The independent

SLP, and OT said that they could not BELIVE that anyone with a conscience could

tell us this (not that we don't see it ourselves....)Another lawsuit for the

famous state of Pennsylvania. Seems this is the NORM here, not the exception.

......just something to think about.......

~Karyn

[ ] A big YIPPIE today

Faith's annual evaluation for EI was today. We knew she had made some

progress over the last year, but we had no idea how much. Now in her social

skills, adaptive skills, speech and gross motor she's just barely delayed

enough to continue getting her therapy. Her fine motor skills are a little

delayed, but within normal range for her age. The big news.........her

cognative levels, which were a 50% delay, are ON TARGET FOR HER AGE!!!! She

not only made progress, she completely caught up.

WOOOHOOO!!

Toni

[Guest guest]

Toni I really do hope that Faith is doing as well as the school says

she is testing now. I'm not sure why Pennsylvania appears to be

such a poor state in regards to our children. I agree with Karyn

regardless even if you were in a good state and in a good school

that you " know " you can trust to get private second opinions.

There are many in PA having problems/in lawsuits I've spoken to -so caution.

I'm sure both of you for example have spoken with 's mom Robin also from

Pennsylvania who is in a lawsuit with the PA IUs as well.

http://www.cherab.org/news/.html It appears the plan is cut off

services when young -and then classify the children as learning

disabled or mentally retarded (as in 's case) when they get

to about 3rd grade and are still nonverbal and can't pass the verbal

based receptive or cognitive ability IQ test.

Hope 'your' PA school is doing the right thing -and that Faith

actually is doing just as well as they say.

If that's the case -then a huge YIPEE!!!

Way to go Faith!! (and the one(?) good PA school)

=====

[Guest guest]

Faith is 2 now and wont be 3 until october. so the IU wont be doing thier

own eval on her until September when they get back from summer break. But

next month both Hope and Faith have full evals for everything at Children's

Hospital.

Faith will still be getting all of her services through EI until October.

the only thing that is changing is the goals they'll have laid out for her

since she has so much sensory stuff to work on. I knew just from watching

her all the time that she had improved, I just wasnt' sure how much. Now

with the levels they came up with, the chances of Faith qualifing for the IU

preschool are slim. But I was talking to the one woman at head start while

Hope was there for speech therapy and she said that due to Faith's Dx of

cerebral palsy and Hope receiving SSI, that Faith would qualify for head

start and could go to preschool there. We're technically over the income

levels they have, but they forget those with special needs children and

children from families with special needs kids. I'll be checking with her

next week when we're in for therapy again to find out all the details and

get things going for fall.

Toni

Re: [ ] A big YIPPIE today

Congrats Toni......

and now the big ole....but.....

The IU told me that about Jordan, too. Said he had " met and exceeded "

every goal they had set for him. That he was the TOP OF HIS CLASS, and

should no longer be receiving their services, and be removed from the IU

preschool. hmmm..... I then had him tested independently, only to find out

that sure, he tested top of his class......OF 3 YEAR OLDS. Only problem

w/ith that is, that he's 5. Seems they told me that so they could

discontinue THEIR services, and have me put him in a regular preschool, with

typical children, AT OUR EXPENSE. The independent SLP, and OT said that

they could not BELIVE that anyone with a conscience could tell us this (not

that we don't see it ourselves....)Another lawsuit for the famous state of

Pennsylvania. Seems this is the NORM here, not the exception.

.....just something to think about.......

~Karyn

[Guest guest]

I see that the ones with experience have warned you about getting

dumped by the system now that Faith is doing great. I hate to see

how railroaded some families have been! They promise us success yet

pull the rug out once the success has started.

Anyway, it is GREAT that Faith is progressing so well. Regardless

of their testing standards, you know she is getting better. That

sure should make you proud. Do you feel she is age appropriate in

cognitive skills? That gut feeling is critical. I still see how

far behind Ian is and I can't WAIT to get news like yours.

Yeah for Faith!

Pam

> Faith's annual evaluation for EI was today. We knew she had made

some

> progress over the last year, but we had no idea how much. Now in

her social

> skills, adaptive skills, speech and gross motor she's just barely

delayed

> enough to continue getting her therapy. Her fine motor skills are

a little

> delayed, but within normal range for her age. The big

news.........her

> cognative levels, which were a 50% delay, are ON TARGET FOR HER

AGE!!!! She

> not only made progress, she completely caught up.

>

> WOOOHOOO!!

>

> Toni

[Guest guest]

That's the thing. This isn't the IU that eval'd her. It's the EI. The EI

here is excellent. The IU is a whole other story. Like 2 sides of a coin.

Complete opposites. The EI here will literally bend over backwards looking

for a way to help. The IU can't be bothered to even return a phone call

until you call several times and have to hand deliver a letter saying if you

dont hear from them within 7 days, the next contact they'll be getting will

be from an attorney.

The EI here doesnt even do their own evaluations. Those are contracted out

to an independant agency. This one is RehabWorks. They deal with a lot of

rehabilitation work with people from accidents and with children who have

problems for whatever reason. Even the therapists who work with Faith dont

answer 100% to EI. They actually work with United Cerebral Palsy. The EI

just has a contract with UCP to use their therapists. :-)

But regardless, Faith and Hope both have appointments at Children's hospital

for full evaluations. Since Hope will be 4 at the end of next month, they

want to do a bunch of different tests on her while she's there. We were

initially sent there by the SLP we saw in December to rule out any behavior

problems with Hope on top of the speech problems. They've even called her

preschool teacher to follow up on the reports she filled out for Hope and

called me for more info. apparently they are planning on an IQ test or

something of that nature and wanted to know exactly how much she can talk so

they can figure out what test to use on her.

And if anyone is totally confused, Hope is my almost 4 year old with

apraxia. Faith is my 2 year old with cerebral palsy. Faith has no problems

with communicating at all. Well her eval came out with a 25% delay, but

that was because she's using mostly 2 word phrases instead of longer ones

and she's still a little confused when she answers yes or no. (saying no

when she means yes, etc). Her latest phrase.....coming to mommy saying " I

smell " , which usually is followed by her running to the shelf yelling

" pants! " . lol. Just a subtle hint.

Toni

[ ] Re: A big YIPPIE today

Toni I really do hope that Faith is doing as well as the school says

she is testing now. I'm not sure why Pennsylvania appears to be

such a poor state in regards to our children. I agree with Karyn

regardless even if you were in a good state and in a good school

that you " know " you can trust to get private second opinions.

There are many in PA having problems/in lawsuits I've spoken to -so

caution.

I'm sure both of you for example have spoken with 's mom Robin also

from

Pennsylvania who is in a lawsuit with the PA IUs as well.

http://www.cherab.org/news/.html It appears the plan is cut off

services when young -and then classify the children as learning

disabled or mentally retarded (as in 's case) when they get

to about 3rd grade and are still nonverbal and can't pass the verbal

based receptive or cognitive ability IQ test.

Hope 'your' PA school is doing the right thing -and that Faith

actually is doing just as well as they say.

If that's the case -then a huge YIPEE!!!

Way to go Faith!! (and the one(?) good PA school)

=====

[Guest guest]

Congrats!!!!!

> Faith's annual evaluation for EI was today. We knew she had made

some

> progress over the last year, but we had no idea how much. Now in

her social

> skills, adaptive skills, speech and gross motor she's just barely

delayed

> enough to continue getting her therapy. Her fine motor skills are

a little

> delayed, but within normal range for her age. The big

news.........her

> cognative levels, which were a 50% delay, are ON TARGET FOR HER

AGE!!!! She

> not only made progress, she completely caught up.

>

> WOOOHOOO!!

>

> Toni

[Guest guest]

Oh yeah I can see big improvements with her cognative skills. Last year she

basically sat like a sack of potatoes and didnt do much. Her idea of

playing with toys was to carry blocks or the animals from her Little People

zoo around. That was it. Even if you sat her down and tried to play with

her and show her a few ideas, all she did was sit there and hold things and

looked at you with this blank look on her face.

Now you get her around other kids and you can't really see a difference in

how they play at all. Now if you give her a Little People set, she wants

ALL her sets out with the mat with the roads and the drawer with ALL the

animals and people. She can care less about the fence for the zoo and the

farm (I guess the animals are supposed to be free) but she gets everythign

else out. She puts all the animals in the barn (in the right stalls even),

she puts the people here and there in the house, and then has a pig and an

elephant riding the ferris wheel at the amusement park. lol Her play food

is a big favorite too. Especially when she decides it's time for a party,

where she gets daddy or whoever she can grab to drink cups and cups of " tea "

and feeds you.

Just a couple of weeks ago I went through and cleared out all the baby toys

we had in the house yet. I still had rattles and toys for a 6-9 month old

in the house, because up until a few months ago those were the toys Faith

understood and played with. Once she started really getting the concept

for the other toys, she stopped playing with the baby toys.

On some of thier evaluation things they were looking for, I was shocked.

They say at her age she should be able to build a block tower 3-5 blocks

high. Faith will build it 10 blocks high, and count the blocks as she

stacks them. Of course when Faith counts she starts ok, then once she gets

up close to 10 she goes 'eight, nine, e-web-en " totally skipping 10. But

that's still really good. anyone looks at her now and unless they see her

limp, they have no idea there was ever anything wrong with her.

It's so different from before. For a long time you could look at Faith and

tell she was small for her age, she couldnt sit up well, and she just had a

look on he rface that said something was a bit off. Put that with Hope's

seizures in public and my mother-in-law and I heard a lot of comments about

" those poor kids " and " that poor woman having to take care of those kids " .

Now you can't tell anything is wrong with Faith, Hope's seizures are

controlled, and her not talking in public is written off as she's shy.

Now the only comments I hear are how pretty the girls are or something to

the effect of " they're 4 and 2 1/2 and you're out shopping with them alone?

and you're not insane yet? " lol

Toni

[ ] Re: A big YIPPIE today

I see that the ones with experience have warned you about getting

dumped by the system now that Faith is doing great. I hate to see

how railroaded some families have been! They promise us success yet

pull the rug out once the success has started.

Anyway, it is GREAT that Faith is progressing so well. Regardless

of their testing standards, you know she is getting better. That

sure should make you proud. Do you feel she is age appropriate in

cognitive skills? That gut feeling is critical. I still see how

far behind Ian is and I can't WAIT to get news like yours.

Yeah for Faith!

Pam

[Guest guest]

Toni--

A big YIPPIE and A OOO too! Way to go, Faith! It just goes to

prove that when you are able to put your child in the right

environment, they can make incredible leaps and bounds.

Big hug for Faith!

le (mom to Drew, 2.10 yrs. apraxia, DSI, hypotonia)

> Faith's annual evaluation for EI was today. We knew she had made

some

> progress over the last year, but we had no idea how much. Now in

her social

> skills, adaptive skills, speech and gross motor she's just barely

delayed

> enough to continue getting her therapy. Her fine motor skills are

a little

> delayed, but within normal range for her age. The big

news.........her

> cognative levels, which were a 50% delay, are ON TARGET FOR HER

AGE!!!! She

> not only made progress, she completely caught up.

>

> WOOOHOOO!!

>

> Toni

[Guest guest]

Oh yeah. The evaluators and her EI caseworker were looking at the toys she

was pulling out after they were finished with thier eval and they all said

" well no wonder her pretend play and cognative skills came so far. Look at

this stuff. " Blocks, Little people play sets, play food, the play kitchen,

wooden food to cut, wooden pizza with toppings to count and cut, play doh,

dolls and furniture.... They asked if I knew just how good these type of

things were for the kids. Some of it yes, most of it I bought just becuase

it looked like fun.

My sister is now using Faith as a wake up call for some friends of hers.

they have a developmentally delayed son who isn't making much progress. Of

course since he doesn't play with things or really do much, they stick him

in a pack and play in front of the tv and leave him. He's 18 months old.

they dont play with him, he doesnt' have toys, nothing. an EI therapist

sees him once a week and unless my sister is babysitting for them, that's

the social interaction he gets. The basic attitude they have is he can't do

stuff so what's the point. he's not 'normal " .

the really sad part is CYS here says he's clean and fed, the house is clean,

and he's not being sexually abused or beaten. So there's nothing they can

do.

Toni

[ ] Re: A big YIPPIE today

Toni--

A big YIPPIE and A OOO too! Way to go, Faith! It just goes to

prove that when you are able to put your child in the right

environment, they can make incredible leaps and bounds.

Big hug for Faith!

le (mom to Drew, 2.10 yrs. apraxia, DSI, hypotonia)

[Guest guest]

toni,

that's wonderful. good job Faith!!!

chris

Toni W <mommybizz@...> wrote:

Faith's annual evaluation for EI was today. We knew she had made some

progress over the last year, but we had no idea how much. Now in her social

skills, adaptive skills, speech and gross motor she's just barely delayed

enough to continue getting her therapy. Her fine motor skills are a little

delayed, but within normal range for her age. The big news.........her

cognative levels, which were a 50% delay, are ON TARGET FOR HER AGE!!!! She

not only made progress, she completely caught up.

WOOOHOOO!!

Toni