Yeah so I’m having a slumber party with my friend Julie in Fort Payne, AL as part of the “me program”. I am getting to scrapbook (digitally) and catch up on some blog posts that I wanted to write months ago that are not earth shattering, but ones that document our life and things I want to remember.
State Testing. Yaya has been getting what is called Early Intervention Services through Hand in Hand for her speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and feeding therapy. Currently we only need speech, praise the Lord. Yaya has “graduated” out of needing the other three therapies. Woot! Woot! She has had a big year indeed. When Yaya turned 3 years old we lost the benefit of getting these services for free anymore. So now we see our speech therapist as an “outpatient.” The good news is that the State of Alabama provides the same such services through the school system for free beginning at the age of three. The services are only offered during the school year so Yaya won’t start with speech with the local school system until the mid-end of August. In the gap we are using Hand in Hand and thankfully our insurance covers all but the co-pay. Why am I explaining all of this…well to help me remember and to set up this blog for the cool stuff. To get State services you have to “qualify” for them. Meaning you get your child tested and if they have a sever enough delay in an area then the State will step in and provide the therapy needed. This is good and bad. For Yaya we knew that she would qualify automatically for speech, but we didn’t know about any other area.
Well we set up testing and the way it works is that a team of teachers will ask Yaya questions until she in unable to answer correctly consistently. Then they rate her at the level that she topped out at. The test continues until she has exhausted all areas they want to test. So the test can take longer the smarter your child it…you see where this is going don’t you? At the 2 hour mark…Yaya was just starting to shut down. They asked this child questions for 2 hours straight with no breaks!! Granted it was “play” for Yaya but still intensive.
Also, Yaya had to have an interpreter. This was weird for me since I AM and interpreter but I can’t be the interpreter. I was torn about insisting on them paying for a certified interpreter or letting them use their highly acclaimed speech therapist who “knows” sign language. Well, I called this speech person and instantly liked her. She offered to meet with us prior to testing day and see how Yaya and her communicated. They did beautifully and it was great because Yaya really liked her and then she was a familiar face on testing day.
The results were not surprising…Yaya is one smart cookie. All the ladies working with her were amazed at her during the test both with intellect and just who Yaya is as a person. I was very proud. She did not qualify for anything other than speech, which is awesome, because that means she has no other significant developmental delays. She is one extraordinary little girl. The first two pictures are of Yaya standing on different color squares and signing the color to me…green and blue. There also are some of the pictures of Yaya totally comfortable being the center of attention of a group of total strangers…go figure.
Above, Yaya is talking to the speech therapist who is acting as her interpreter. Love this lady. Wish she could be Yaya’s speech person with the state. However, the lady who will be doing it I like as well.
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