Right on track

Two days ago the speech therapist from the elementary school called me because she had received Serafina's file.  She will age-out of the early intervention program she's currently in at age three and the school district will take over and likes to line up services for the next year before current school year ends.  Based on her last testing, the therapist thought she might not qualify for services.  I told her she's made great progress, but she's still hard to understand and sometime is reluctant to talk.  Oh and she's terrible at listening.  She thought it would be best for her to have a quick meeting with Serafina and she would determine from there if she was in need of a full evaluation (and the stacks of paperwork I would need to fill out to accompany it).  So this morning after I dropped off Leo at preschool, we walked over to the office (Leo's preschool is on the elementary campus) and met with the therapist.  Serafina wasn't 100% cooperative, but she was talking up a storm and repeated all the words the therapist prompted.  I could tell it was going well and in the end, the therapist said not only is Serafina on track for her age, she's a little ahead in some areas.  I felt like doing an end-zone celebration dance with lots of fist-pumping and hip thrusting!  I was so relieved and proud.  There are a couple sounds that Serafina still doesn't have, but it's expected those will be acquired later.  The therapist said I can call her down the line if I have concerns.  I asked her about some of the issues Serafina's current therapist has brought up, like sensory processing problems and lack of eye contact.  The school therapist said that most kids Serafina's age have trouble processing and that the lack of eye contact was probably her way of avoid doing what is asked of her.  The therapist also noted that Serafina seemed to be strong-willed and have her own agenda.  Truer words have never been uttered.  So we won't be continuing services after we are done with the current program, though the therapist said starting preschool in the fall will be very good for Serafina.

Anyway, I was so thrilled with the news that I bragged about it on Facebook.  I never do that, but this is shout-it-from-the-roof-tops type news.

Here's Leo giving Serafina a lift home after we picked him up from school.

Here's a sample of Serafina's recent artwork.