An unexpected call

Ainsley had a speech/language test in June and they shared with me after that Ainsley's speech articulation was a bit delayed and recommended 30 minutes of speech therapy per week--not a big deal, we knew we still had some work to do.  They shared they could come to Ainsley's school but since it was private therapy they'd have to run it through our insurance and then set up a schedule (we are still waiting to hear back on her first speech therapy session...).  When I got the written report in late July I freaked out a bit...it said Ainsley's understanding of language was on par, but her spoken language came in at 2 years and 11 months with a 65% intelligibility.  Her age peers are normally 100% intelligible at this point.  She thankfully doesn't get too frustrated, but we are frequently saying "what did you say Ainsley?"..."say that one more time".

I called the Director of the Baylor University Speech & Communication Disorder Center and asked if her if it were her daughter would she pursue a school district pre-k in addition to the lab school we have her in (similar to what we did last year in Iowa for Ainsley).  She was out of the office (I left a looong message), but sent me an email right away and said yes look into the school district.  I called the school district and found out the options for this year weren't a good match with what Ainsley needed.  For 3 year olds they have a pre-k program for moderate to severe challenges, we would have had to leave work mid day and drive over 40 minutes to and from to get her from one school to another...this wasn't workable for many reasons.  We decided to keep her at her child development lab full time--it is a wonderful center that is connected to the university so they are amazing educators who are committed to helping each child grow and develop.

Today out of the blue I got a call from the Director of the Speech & Communication Disorder clinic and she said "where are we at with Ainsley".  I was so touched that she cared enough to follow up.  I shared that we checked into the school district but decided to keep her at her child development center full time.  She said, we have another option for her.  She offered Ainsley a spot in the Language & Articulation Pre-School at Baylor!!  What a gift!!  I didn't even know this existed!  Ainsley will be in class of 4 kids.....4 kids!!  4 kids due to the fact that the faculty to GAs at each site visit is 1:4.  She will have her own graduate assistant that she we will work with all semester.  She will have 10.5 hours of speech therapy per week as compared to 30 minutes!  

Ryan and I went over lunch to see the classroom and accepted the spot in the classroom for fall!  Ainsley will be attending there in the morning and then we'll drive her to her child development lab (where she will eat lunch, nap and then be with her other friends).  We'll have to cut back on our eating out since we now have 2 pre-schools to pay for :), but totally worth it!

The thing I am the most excited about is seeing Ainsley develop a relationship with her graduate assistant.  This card is from Ainsley's deaf and hard of hearing teacher, Kim, who she worked with from when she was a baby!  She  learned so much from her.  I think she learned so much because she was comfortable with her.  Hopefully spending so much time with a GA she will feel comfortable and the supervising faculty member for the 4 GAs is amazing and so kind (we got to meet her today).

So excited for our sweet girl to grow in her speech confidence this semester!  She is talking up a storm these days and hopefully soon we'll be able to understand all that she is saying :)!