Early Childhood Intervention

Every state has (or should have) an early childhood intervention program in place for identifying children with disabilities or children at risk. In Texas it is called ECI and they provide a multitude of services to families with children at risk or with identified disabilities from birth to 3 years of age. Calleigh has been enrolled since last summer and today was her annual appointment. Since Calleigh receives outside services, such as therapy, the only services we use that ECI provide are Nutrition services and transition services(these services help Chris and I get her into a PPCD or other Special Education class when she turns three. However, we have not yet decided if we will be putting her into school when she turns three. Since her birhtday is in March, we may wait until the following Fall to enroll her in school. She will continue to receive outside therapy, Chris and I refuse to take that away from her) . Calleigh's case manager is this wonderful women named Julie. Julie came over today to prepare Calleigh's annual IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan) and part of that includes a variety of questions that determine her 'age' in many different categories. The categories are: Adaptive Behavior (self-help skills), Physical Development/Motor Skills, Cognitive Development, Communication Skills, and Social/Emotional Skills. So, for each of these areas, Julie asked Chris and I a series of questions...yes or no. When we answered no to three of the five questions, that is when Julie would stop and total the score. Calleigh has come such a long way. The first scores are those done one year ago at her first IFSP. The second set of scores are from this annual IFSP. We are so proud of the accomplishments that Cal has made. I know I have said this before but...we were told that she would NEVER do a lot of the things that she IS doing. These things were not said out of negativity and were not meant to be hurtful...they were just a response to the 4p-. Now we have learned so much and one of the main things we have learned is that children with 4p- are all different. Some are higher functioning than others, but no matter what, as a parent we are proud with the accomplishments our children make. Needless to say, our meeting with Julie was a good one!

THESE ARE JULY 2007 (15 months)

Adaptive Behavior/Self-Help Skills...............BIRTH

Physical Development/Motor Skills.................5 months

Cognitive Development....................................10 months

Communication Skills.......................................10 months

Social/Emotional Skills.....................................10 months

THESE ARE JUNE 2008 (26 months)
Adaptive Behavior/Self-Help Skills...............15 months
Physical Development/Motor Skills..............10 months
Cognitive Development...................................16 months
Communication Skills......................................13 months
Social/Emotional Skills....................................20 months (can we say "Social Butterfly"??)