Isabelle Bentley

Izzie started pool therapy through EIT. She loves it.

Early intervention did Izzie's yearly evaluation and she was found not qualifying for services for 3 out of the 5 areas. Her scores in the 3 were on the lower end but if she was a typical kiddo, she wouldn't qualify for those 3 areas. Kind of cool. I will get the scores and report back next week. Last year she only didn't qualify for 1 area. 

Isabelle started a new playgroup today at Kennedy Donovan Center. She will be bused from daycare to there once a week for 2 hours and has a 1:1 aide. 

Isabelle started a playgroup at the early intervention place she sees twice a week. It went really well. Jack loved it. 

So Izzie sees early intervention (EIT) for physical therapy once a week and speech twice a month (but that's switch to once a week in January). They did her re-evaluation that happens every 6 months and they look at 5 areas: social interaction, cognition, gross & fine motor skills, adaptive and language (receptive and expressive). I'll get her exact scores next week but she qualified for 4/5 areas. You need to get a 76 or less to qualify for services. She was in the 60s except she got an 82 for social interaction. She's very attentive and copies things with her mouth (like kisses). That's awesome! She didn't qualify for one area! It uses something called the Battell test. 

She had two EITs today. One for feeding and one for her regular PT.  Both went well. The food one went GREAT. They said she is doing awesome. She is engaged in eating which some kids with DS aren't. Some are on feeding tubes for life :( Some never outgrow purees (really hoping that doesn't happen). But she ate oatmeal and sweet potatoes and then banana and watermelon through the mesh feeder which is a HUGE deal. She was in the highchair - with support (blankets, pool noodles etc...). She does great with a spoon. All around a very good visit. 

Shopping after EIT. They want her sitting up as much as she can handle each day.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Her EIT appointment went really well. She gave me lots of tips and tricks to help her start getting less low toned. She'll always have low tone - it's something you're born with but you can work on it. Like I've said before, it's not a bad thing. Gymnasts are low tone, marathon runners are high tone. Same shirt. Her visiting nurse also came and checked her out. She's doing awesome.

Look at that tummy! One of the moms whose daughter had heart surgery told us to take pictures of her abdomen before surgery since there will forever be a scar there after. She said she wished she had. EIT said she's doing great. She tends to tilt her head to the left but other than that, she's doing well. 

Love the little hoodie. She did well for EIT.

Just hanging out. She did well at EIT. Her legs are flaring out a little like a frog so we need to keep them straighter if possible to avoid hip issues. 

Happy 2 months Izzie! EIT said that there is a significant improvement in her tone - she's less floppy. She also can push up a little on her tummy and almost rolled over by accident. By the way, she was born low tone. That's something you are born with and never goes away. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Gymnasts have low tone, runners have high tone. you can improve tone but if you have low tone, you tend to stay low for your life - floppier. 

Izzie went to school with me. Everyone fawned over her.  Then her EIT nurse came adn said she's looking absolutely amazing. Moving a ton, making eye contact etc...

Izzie's first trip to Jiffy Lube. Jiffy Lube is boring...  Ok, that was dumb. But she did have her first EIT visit. Went well.