She speaks!!

When we went to playgroup on Wednesday, I thought it was going to be a rough day because the first thing Iz did when we arrived was to hide behind me.  And then she laid on the floor and covered her eyes (in her mind, no one can see her if she covers her eyes).  She did eventually start to play a little but if anyone spoke to her, she would cover her eyes. 

She moved over to the play kitchen (one of her favorites) and started to play with me and she didn't leave when other kids came over!  She interacted with them a little bit but mostly played by herself but not leaving when they came over is pretty big for her :p 

The EI teacher in charge of her playgroup is concerned by her lack of social skills and the big regression we've seen as far as speech and anxiety and is recommending Iz get another full evaluation for services to see if she qualifies to move into the next program to get extra support to help her reach her social/emotional developmental milestones.  She's not sure its severe enough to get her into B's program, which is a special education preschool program, but she may qualify to move into their "regular" early childhood education program with extra support.  We talked a bit about Iz's unknown neurological issues and the teacher is thinking we should do the evaluations towards the end of the year to give neurology time to do their tests and try to figure out what's going on so we know if the neuro issues could be causing the social/emotional issues (Iz has also started having outbursts than can rival B.  This is around the age it started with B so there is some concern that she could have whatever B has--he's got an appointment with a neuropsych coming up so we can try to figure it out!  Iz could just me mimicking his behavior but who knows :\).  So we'll see what happens.

At one point, all of the students and parents were on one side of the room and Iz led me over to the other side to play with her and she started talking to me--last week, not one word out of her the entire time (hour and a half) so her talking to me while we were in the room was great :)  Her favorite little girl came over and Iz talked a little to her as well.  She talked a little on and off the rest of the session so that was nice!  And she sort of participated in some of the songs/games during circle time :p

Yesterday was speech therapy and she opened up there and spoke to Miss Emily, too!  We are apparently on a roll this week :D   The first word she said to Emily was an accident, I think.  Up to that point, she'd been pointing or grunting or mouthing words with no sound.  But a word popped out and it seemed to open the floodgates because a few minutes later, after trying out single words here and there, she was talking up a storm.  Emily is impressed with her grammar LOL  She may not be able to say the words clearly but she knows how to put them together ;)

Her therapist (who we saw Tuesday) is going to try to come to a speech session so she and Emily (and I) can coordinate to try and get Iz over this anxiety that is keeping her from speaking.  She couldn't make it yesterday because she couldn't rearrange her schedule but she's trying to shuffle some things around to make it next week.  If she can't, we'll try to move one speech session to a time all of us can do and then go back to our normal time.

We've got several things coming up!  In a little less than two weeks we have Iz's MRI, B's neuropsych appointment, Mr. Piper is coming for a week, we have another genetics appointment, and then in a little over a month we have a 24-hour EEG.  I was told the EEG was an overnight but when they called to schedule they said nope, full 24-hours.  Yikes.  Luckily, we were able to schedule it during a time Mr. Piper will be home (not til May, though) because I have to have a second adult there.  I wish I had thought to ask some more questions :p  Will she be tethered to a machine in her room?  Because keeping a toddler in a hospital room is not fun.  Or is there some sort of portable machine so she can walk around the hospital and go to the playroom?  Guess we'll find out when we get there in May!