Down syndrome clinic

phew - I am worn out! We had Kira's first visit to the Down syndrome clinic today. She's seen our geneticist annually up until now.

This was our schedule:
9:15 arrive
9:30 OT consult
10:00 geneticist
10:30 PT consult
11:00 Hearing eval
11:30 Speech consult
12-1 lunch
1:00 - summary meeting with geneticist

I was so nervous. Kira has always had her therapies once a month and I feel that that is just right for her. But, I was so scared that all of these second opinions would show that maybe I should have pushed for more. I was also so worried about her hearing eval.

I had nothing to be worried about, though! All of the therapists agreed with Kira's current stable of professionals. The PT recommended having her fit for shoe inserts (not the full ankle kind) - more for later development. Her current PT has been on the fence about it. The PT also agreed that at 3 we should get her involved in 1 or 2 community based programs, like tumbling, soccer, or dance. Kira walked up and down the stairs for her and showed off her "blast-off" skills. Jackson was with us and left the PT room saying, "I LOVE the Down syndrome clinic!"

The OT was impressed with her skills and gave me some more ideas on increasing her hand strength. She suggested letting her push golf tees into styrofoam. She also said we could start working with a small pair of tongs - to get started on the motions needed for using scissors.

The Speech path wants us to work on the "guh" and "kuh" sounds - and was really happy with Kira's language development. Interesting factoid - she said that at Kira's age (almost 3) 10% of the child's vocabulary should be verbs. I didn't know that - I need to think through Kira's words and see if she's there.

Kira's current therapists feel that there is a chance that she might not qualify for PPCD (our 3-5 program). She may not be "delayed enough." The therapists at the clinic agreed and offered me lots of suggestions for what we can do if she's not in PPCD. Her geneticist suggested letting her stay up all night, the night before the assessment. ;)

The geneticist also said that if she does qualify for PPCD, she thinks we should do a few months in the program and then transition her into a typical pre-k. I'm not sure what our options are with the school district, so I've got some work to do.

AND Kira totally passed her hearing test!! No fluid in her ears! I was so happy.

Good day all around and I'm so thankful to have access to such great resources. And now I'm going to bed.