Jessie will be three on November 16. I can’t believe that she’s so big. I still remember the day she joined our family when she was nine months like it was yesterday. Where did the time go? Can we stop it?
Jessie has been getting therapy through Early Childhood Intervention since she came to us. I don’t know why she wasn’t enrolled in her previous foster home. Jessie has gotten occupational therapy since her initial evaluation. ECI added speech therapy when Jessie turned two. I had been asking for it before then.
Today was Jessie’s last visit with ECI. Her occupational therapist, Alex, came to play. Her speech therapist, Karen, came last week before. I’m sad to say goodbye; we’ve been working with these teachers for so long. Baby E qualifies for therapy, but different people will come to see her.
While we were going through these last sessions with ECI, Jessie also met with the local Independent School District about moving out of ECI and into the school system. I had wanted to send Jessie to a Montessori school for preschool, but at the local public school she’ll continue to receive speech therapy. We went to the school for evaluations to see if she’d qualify for the program. Her first evaluation was with speech and cognitive. I wasn’t pleased with how the visit went. When Jessie wouldn’t follow directions, the school personnel asked if I’d had her hearing checked. Yes, she hears around normal; she’s not listening to you. The nurse tested my toddler’s hearing the way you’d test a much older child. A two-year-old doesn’t understand how to hold up her hand when she starts to hear noise. The physical evaluation went much better.
Jessie qualifies and is going to start preschool after Thanksgiving. She’ll be in regular class with extra attention to speech. I’m excited.