IFSP Meeting with Boyer Clinic

Sorry I've been behind on updating the blog....my mom and little sister are in town and we've been talking too late at night. So, I'm a bit behind, but we've been having a lot of fun.

Taylor had her Individual Family Services Plan (IFSP) meeting on Thursday and it went well. Kelvie and Sarah from the Boyer Clinic came over and we spoke about our goals for Taylor's development. This is a requirement by the state and seemed premature to us since we haven't even met with the neurologist yet, but we want her therapy to start asap and the IFSP had to be in place.

They both agreed that Taylor was focusing and tracking objects better than the last time they saw her. This is good news - we always love to hear positive feedback since small improvements are difficult for us to notice sometimes.


While we talked about her IFSP, Sarah (the physical therapist) worked with Taylor. This picture is of Taylor uninterested in one of the toys and playing on the exercise ball. She practiced holding shaker toys in each hand at the same time, holding a large ring with both hands at the same time, and was encouraged to reach for toys. She also practiced sitting and did tummy time. The best exercise was tummy time on a small, plastic ball (similar to what you might use for ab exercises at the gym, but baby-size). Taylor did well, although got tired mid-way through. We need to work on her stamina. I asked about specific therapy recommendations and we were encouraged to work with her regularly through-out the day (i.e. when changing a diaper, roll her over for tummy time, etc.) vs. a specific work-out plan. We're going to really focus on making sure she gets lots of opportunity to get stronger following Sarah's lead.

The IFSP discussion was interesting. We shared what we hope for Taylor, mainly:

• We want Taylor to have a normal life, with the same opportunities and potential as other kids (if this isn't possible, we want her to get as close as possible).
• We want Taylor to have a high self-esteem and believe that she is wonderful, regardless of where her mental and physical development may end up.
• We want our family-life (particularly Lauren and Jake) to be normal and to minimize extra burden on them.

Our short-term physical goals will be focused on helping Taylor learn to reach for toys, sit alone, and push up on her arms for tummy time (she mainly rests on her elbows now). The hard part is that there are not any guarantees or timeframes they can give us on when she will hit these milestones - we just need to be patient, work with her and hope for the best.

That is it in a nutshell. We really like Kelvie and Sarah and look forward to spending lots of time with them. We also will meet with the vision specialist at the Boyer Clinic after we meet with the neurologist. While Taylor's eyes are fine now, it's difficult to know how impaired her vision might have been in her first months of life, which slowed her development. This area is fuzzy to us, but we'll take help from anywhere we can and try anything to help Taylor.

We had a really nice week-end with the kids and my family. Today at church the message was about faithfulness - I am feeling hopeful and trusting in my faith that Taylor is going to be OK. We're really excited to see the neurologist on Tuesday and hope to have lots more to report.