New Teachers, New Therapies

On Tuesday, we had the coordinator for our local early intervention services come out to our home with Makayla's new teacher.  They went over all her usual background info and we read over the paper work from Makayla's old teachers, and they did a quick assessment to gauge what progress she has made in the month that we have been here, and since she was last seen by her old teachers.

According to her assessment, she is is falling right in line with her adjusted age (based on her prematurity: 19 1/2 to 20 months) for her gross and fine motor skills, but is more in line with a child that is 14 or 15 months when it comes to speech.  They said that over the next six to twelve months they would like to see her gross and fine motor skills catch up with her actual age, and we will begin speech therapy as well.  We are also working to get Austin speech therapy, and it looks like we'll be able to combine his services with the ones Makayla is already getting, so we'll have the same teachers and either a longer session, or more frequent sessions.

I'm happy to share that I really love her new teacher.  She calm, and kind and patient.  She was good at getting my very shy little girl to interact with her and feel comfortable.  I still don't think anyone can possibly replace the wonderful teachers we had before (yup, crying again!), but I feel confident that she will give Makayla everything she needs and be someone I'll enjoy having in my home each week.

From the sounds of it, the new town we live in has amazing schools.  Living here, Makayla will have services available to her that are a lot harder to get in any of our neighboring towns.  Something that will be new for us, is that starting at about 24 months they like to bring twerp and mom into a class room environment (I think they said once a month) for new experiences and social interaction. 

We'll officially start our sessions next week.  I am looking forward to getting to know Makayla's new teacher better, and see what new things she teaches us.

Recovering + New Environments

Exactly One Month Post Nystagmus Surgery - 9.2.12

It's been over a month now, since Makayla's surgery, and obviously we are long overdue for an update on her recovery. 

Makayla's recovery has been as smooth as can be.  Since those first two weeks, her eyes have been totally clear of any redness, with the exception of just the slightest bit in the very corners, which continues to fade a little bit more every day.

We noticed right away that she stopped using her old, head back tilt, null point, and that her eyes are working together now.

Before the surgery, the biggest challenge for Makayla, visually, was her depth perception.  Early on, she would simply not go beyond a certain point if she didn't know if there was a step.  I remember being a friend's house when she first learned to walk, and she was happily walking in the living room with the rest of us, but would not follow her brother into the next room where the floor changed from hard wood to tile, because she would not tell if there was a step.  Something like this would make her very frustrated and anxious.  However, eventually, she learned that she would turn around and crawl over it backwards if there was a step and she would do this over everything, from cracks in the sidewalk, to a simple doorway.  But not since surgery!

Three weeks ago, we moved to a new house now, in a new city, so she has been stripped from all her learned familiar places, and yet she is braver and more coordinated than she ever was in the old house and has a new found confidence.  In the three weeks that we have lived here, I have not seen her get down and crawl over an area once.  We have a small step from our house to our garage, and she proudly steps out without hesitation.

October 2, 20102, will mark the two month period since her surgery.  That is when the doctor said we should see the full result of surgery (although, her vision will likely improve more with age).  I will post a new video then to compare to her pre-surgery video.