The Jones Girls

Maryssa doesn’t seem to come to me when I call her name.    Her verbal communication and receptive language seem to be delayed. than her sisters Amanda and Miranda.  She only speaks barely 1 word sentences.   There are only about 10-15 words she will say.    Interestingly though, she knows the whole alphabet by sight and numbers 1-5 by sight too.    I have been working with her speech, language and communication through books.    She loves books.    I spoke to Dr. Sylvia Gonzalez, our pediatrician about it.   She ordered a hearing and speech evaluation.

Maryssa had a hearing test and evaluation at Providence at CHOC in Orange.    The results are her hearing is fine.   They are recommending a speech evaluation.  I will receive an authorization from them in a month or two.

I contacted Regional Center about Maryssa’s delay.   I met with a case worker, Paulette Diaz, and she ordered a speech evaluation.   Maryssa had the evaluation just a few days after her adenoid surgery, on Thursday October 2nd.   The report said she was 49% delayed in receptive language, close to a 13 month old.  They are recommending speech therapy for her.  They recommended a group setting 3 times a week for 2 hours each.  I told them I want an in-home speech therapist because Maryssa is already in a group setting here at home and that really hasn’t helped her that much.   I believe she would benefit from one-on-one sessions with a speech therapist.   So they recommended that.  I have an appointment this Friday October 17th to meet with Maryssa;s new case worker, Melanie Barkken.  She was Amanda’s case worker when Amanda was receiving Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy.

I am so glad that I looked into this.  I have been really keeping an eye on Maryssa’s communication skills when she turned 18 months old.   I want early intervention for her so she can start communicating and close the gap on the delay.

Savannah was showing the same signs at the same age and I started doing all of the same evaluations for Savannah too but Savannah didn’t get the evaluations done till she was 2 -1/2 years old, 6 months older than Maryssa.  Savannah’s hearing came out fine, just like Maryssa’s.    Savannah had a speech evaluation and it came back about the same as Maryssa’s.   By the time all of the evaluations were done, Savvy was turning 3.   I contacted the school district and we had a few  evaluations with the school psycholigist and the speech therapist, Ronita Van Vliet, who teaches and offers speech therapy at the preschool.    Her “IEP” reported she was delayed.  Savvy started preschool at Meadowgreen Preschool for the s4 week ummerschool session for the month of mid-June through mid-July of 2007 when she was 3.  Then she went back in the fall, September 2007 through June and then again she did the summer school session.   She is now in PreK at the preschool.   She will not be dong summer school session there.    Savvy gets picked up and dropped off by a ittle school bus.  It has been so helpful.  She loves her little school bus.

More than likely Maryssa will be going to the same preschool to help her with her speech, communication and language delays.   Thank goodness they have such wonderful programs in place to catch these things early on for our kids.   I really do think very highly of our school district, Lowell Joint School District.

Maryssa has had a very smoothrecovery with her adenoidectomysurgery.    She has been cutting her 2 year molars and I think that was about as painful as dealing with the pain from the adenoids.    For over a week she has had a hard time sleeping.   I am contributing to the molars coming in.   She is all healed from the surgery by now.  So every few nights I will give her a little Tylenol with Codeine and that helps her sleep peacefully through the night.   Goodness knows I have enough of this Codeine in the house….a huge pint size bottle!!

Her breathing through her sinuses sounds so much more clear now.    I don’t hear snoring anymore when she sleeps and she doesn’t wake up suddenly from apnea.   So I am hoping this adenoidectomy did the trick.

She has a follow up appointment with Dr. Koempel at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on Tuesday October 28th, the same day as Amanda’s appointment.

Amanda had a follow up appointment with Dr. Wright at Children’s Hospital a few days after her surgery which was Tuesday September 30th.  Cliff and I were so excited with anticipation to see Amanda’s new thumb.  When the bandages were taken off, we were amazed how awesome her new thumb looks.    They cleaned up the surgical sight with Betadyne then Dr. Wright bandaged it up with something similar to an ace bandage.  No cast!1  Woo hoo!!

Then I had to take Amanda the following week, Tuesday October 7th.   They took off the bandages and again cleaned up the surgical sight with Betadyne then Dr. Wright bandaged it up with same similar ace bandage material.  She will not be required to wear a cast at all.  She wears the bandages for a month.  I iwll need to replace the bandages once a week.   I wrap 2 bags around her arm to protect it when I give her baths.

Her recovery is going smoothly.    We have another appointment on Tuesday October 28th.  They will then fit her for a new wrist brace.    She will wear the brace only at night.

Cliff and I are so thankful to God for taking care of our precious Amanda.   Praise The Lord!!

Yesterday we took the girls to Knotts Berry Farm.   Knotts Berry Farm was hosting a Halloween event in Camp Snoopy.   We spent the afternoon at Camp Snoopy.  They were giving away pirate hats for all of the kids to wear and cute pirate bandannas.    Creepy Halloween characters were walking around providing great photo opportunities with the kids.   

The triplets rode their first ride all by themselves at Knotts Berry Farm today.  They rode on the airplanes.  They had so much fun.    I tell you , it just put tears in my eyes.  My baby girls are all growing up!!   Then they drove in a race car with Daddy.  Each child had to ride with daddy because it had a height requirement to be with an adult.   That ride took us over half an hour for all 4 of the girls.    Savvy rode on a kiddie roller coaster with daddy.    We got some great pictures.  At the end of the day we got to get a great family shot with Snoopy.