Today marks 15 months of Lewis' young life! He celebrated by eating some spicy black beans!
He has been such a joy, and so much fun. We love him more and more each day. We wish we could say that he's progressing right on schedule for his age, but he is definitely behind in some areas. So, recently Justin and I made the tough decision to get some help and have Lewis evaluated by First Steps (part of WKU's early education dept.) to determine how to best help our boy move forward.
While Lewis scored right on target for adult interaction, he is in desperate need of some communication skills. If you've ever waved at Lewis, for example, and gotten no response, don't take it personally! He's never really waved at anyone. With the help of a speech therapist and a developmental interventionist, we are hoping to teach him how to communicate (both verbally and using signs and/or gestures) and to close the gaps in his mobility. Honestly, we're really curious to see what these professionals' approach will be. We feel like we've tried everything we can think of, so getting a fresh perspective should breath new life into our efforts.
Please pray for us in the coming months. Much of this therapy will be to train Justin and I to be "therapists" when the pros are not around. It is painful to see your child struggling, even when he is mostly unaware of it! We just want to give him every resource we can to help him succeed and catch up to where he needs to be. We hope to share a lot of breakthrough moments in future posts of how Lewis is developing, but we may have some setbacks along the way too. Next week we will meet with the rest of our "team," the two therapists and our initial contact through First Steps, to come up with a game plan with specific goals for Lewis. At that point we'll have a better idea of how all of this will work.
The good news is that Lewis is really liking his new "friends" so far. He has enjoyed all the visitors we've had at the house, and he's smiled and laughed through most of the evaluations which gives us a lot of hope for the coming sessions.
3 comments:
Lewis as well as you and Justin are in our prayers. I think it's amazing that you guys had the foresight and courage to get help early.
We will be praying for all of you.
We should also get together again soon. I think it's our turn.
All the experiences i have heard about with First Steps have been very positive and kids pick up quickly. It is very common - we will be praying for you all and know that it will all turn out okay :)
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