Moving on...(edited)

So the last post was about how Kylie was dropped from our Early Intervention program in Kansas. Since then, a good friend of ours from our church sent me some info about the Lee Ann Britain Infant Development Center.



Here is a bit of a description of the Lee Ann Britain Center and what they have to offer...courtesty of their website:


Dedicated to serving children with developmental disabilities from birth to six years of age, the Center provides a unique program that involves parents and siblings in the process of therapeutic treatment and education. Individualized programs are shaped for each child and family by a team of physical, occupational and speech therapists, early childhood special education teachers and music therapists. Through an emotionally supportive environment, the Britain Center staff helps parents, siblings, grandparents and friends adjust their expectations and way of life as they learn to raise and nurture a child with disabilities.



This is a place that our EI therapist had mentioned to us before, but never really went into much detail about, or gave us info on what they offer. It was more or less mentioned in passing. So after our friend told us about it, Kylie and I took a tour of the facility I felt that this would be the perfect place for her!



I had a mix of emotions after our visit: A bit sad that I had not known of all they provided sooner...I could only imagine how much more Kylie could have progressed had we known of this place. Then I was totally grateful that we now know of the Lee Ann Britain Center, and can only move forward from here.



Kylie attends the center once a week, on Fridays, where she has OT from 8:30 -9am and then she attends their toddler class from 9-11:30am. I am present for her OT, but leave while she is in her class.



I came early to pick her up on her first day, and sat in the last few minutes or so of her class. They do a music class as part of their daily schedule, and I was definitely in tears within the first couple minutes of seeing her. You see, they were passing around a little tub of animalss, as part of the song they were going to sing. She has always been very stressed when things like this happen, because all attention is on her to choose something...which is often too much for her. All I can say is that Kylie is in the best place for her therapy, because she was so ready for it to be her turn, and she excitedly selected her animal!



It gets even better :)



When she was called upon to say what she had...she told them "I got a chicken!" Yep...more tears for momma.



Kylie did get really anxious and didn't want to sit down, because she so very much wanted it to be her turn for the teacher to select her animal during the song. She kept shouting out chicken and was getting pretty hyper and all giggles...something that we will work on with her OT in trying to balance out that sensory system. For now, we enjoy that she is able to participate more and be excited about it, rather than stressed.



Oh yeah, and they said she ate the snack that was offered to her at snack time! She would never eat during snack time at her school...so this is another HUGE step!



I had called Matt before I even left the parking lot to tell him that this is the place that Kylie needs to be right now, and how she made progress on the first day she was there. One more thing I love is that during her OT last week, her therapist said that she will help me plug things in throughout our day, to help Kylie and maybe find a good balance that works best for her. We will work together setting up a schedule of a typical day for us, and what we can do to help make the days go a bit smoother, and for Kylie to be less stressed and open up the window of when we can work with Kylie to do more things with her.



Kylie will miss class this week, because we are in Ohio for her follow-up apptmt with her neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic. We see him late Monday afternoon. I will be sure to post how things go there.



I totally forget to add this note in the beginning of the post, so I will put it here. Kylie's new Developmental and Behavioral doctor had sent a letter to us to forward on to ITSJC (our EI program here), stating that Kylie is in need of continued services and so on.



Even after that was sent to them...they met, and still said that the conclusion they reached is the same. They have provided all the services they can for Kylie, and she does not qualify....hence, the title and subject matter of this post.