Julianna went for her first Speech Evaluation today with Miss Kate (Kate is my bestest friend from high school, college, maid of honor, etc. etc.). Kate gave her the PLS-4, for those of you who know your testing material. :)
She scored at an age equivalency of an 18 months old for auditory comprehension ( following directions, pointing to pictures in a book, etc). She scored at a 1 yr old level for expressive language, which makes her 34% delayed in expressive language. That was enough to let us know to go ahead and get the Early Intervention team notified to come and evaluate her. So I gave them a call today. It's state run and funded, so it a) takes a while to get the ball rolling, and b) is harder to qualify for therapy these days through them with all the state budget cuts, since the therapy will be free if she does qualify.
So, now we just wait until someone from the TEIS agency contacts us. They will come out to the house and do an overall, developmental assessment of her- gross motor, fine motor, social/emotional, cognitive and language skills. She has to be either 40% delayed in one of those areas, or 25% delayed in two of them to qualify for (free) therapy. So we'll see. The test they are giving her is the Battelle Developmental Inventory.
After the evaluation, we called up Mimi to see if she could eat lunch, since we were already downtown and she works at St. Jude, which is also downtown. This is definitely not a good picture or her, sorry Mimi. :) So we ate lunch at St. Jude, saw a few people that I knew in the cafeteria, Mimi showed Julianna off to her co-workers, and then we were headed home. Julianna was asleep as soon as we left the parking lot (she missed her morning nap and it was late then for her afternoon nap.)
Julianna was such a good, cooperative, little girl all day and when she woke up from her nap, she got to see the surprise that Chase and Daddy had for her- flowers! (And some for Mommy too.) Phil is doing a good job of teaching Chase chivalry!
3 comments:
Ah, St. Jude. Did you get to see Niki? Also, I had another thought, but I assume it isn't possible since you didn't mention it. Once kiddos reach the age of 3, they are transferred to the school system, which I am definitely more familiar with. I know at that point they can qualify for services if they score low in one area (e.g., expressive) on two different tests. So for example giving her the PLS and the OWLS (actually, I think this one inflates). Maybe the CELF-P2, but I don't know how low that goes. Any thoughts??
Aww Ju Ju she was/is my favorite little patient... BTW I think the OWLs is for age 5+
No, at St, Jude I saw Maggie, a guy from my church and a girl from high school who works in the medicine room. Crazy!
I actually am not familiar with school therapy, so IF we still need it at that point, you'll be my reference for sure! I do know that the elementary school in Collierville that offers 3yr- 5 yr old speech therapy happens to be our neighborhood school. I do remember giving the CELF, but I have no idea now about the ages.
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