Hailey's Evaluation

Today, First Steps evaluated Hailey for speech and she qualified for speech therapy. I had taken some video of her speaking as she normally does just in case she spent the entire time talking in her "catch phrases" (phrases the she learned verbatim from Hannah) but I didn't even have to pull out my recording. They very clearly saw what I was telling them: the jibberish, the jumbled sentences, the lack of articulation, the lack of names or descriptor words. They also saw her show off all her other skills - they basically got a very good snapshot of exactly Hailey, which is what I have wanted all along. I didn't care if they qualified her for services or not as long as they qualified or disqualified her based on an accurate picture of the way she speaks daily. They definitely got an accurate picture of her overall. They said that she is off the charts in fine motor, gross motor, problem solving, attention span, language reception, words, and social skills. The only problem is social language (speaking to others so her wants and needs are met). They said that honestly if she hadn't scored so high in every other category, she would be borderline but since they look at development as an overall picture, someone as intelligent as she is should be speaking in full and clear sentences, and there is clearly some sort of disconnect between her abilities and her speech. The final meeting is set for Nov 15 and therapy should start pretty much immediately after. I have heard nothing but rave reviews about First Steps so I'm hoping that in the next 5 months, we can catch her up and she can easily transition into the same preschool as Hannah went.