After the Fall

Here's the little champ the morning after. You can't really see the impressive black and blue-ness under the chin but I think you get the idea. And her expression kind of says it all.

She got a pretty good night's sleep and woke up pretty happy... until she realized that, yes, she was going to school. But I explained to her that she had to be brave and face that silly bully and show him that he didn't slow her down. She kinda, sorta bought it.

Hopefully her confidence will bounce back pretty quickly. I'd hate to see her slowed down just when she was making so many great advances. In fact, I was at the school less than a week ago talking to her speech/feeding team and it was great.

After almost a year of us insisting that Noa was further ahead than they thought she was, that the "goals" they set for her were too low, that she is ready and hungry for more... I find myself sitting across from a sign language teacher who - after three weeks of working with her - is informing me that Noa is ahead of where "everyone" thought she was, the goals she set for her were too low, Noa is ready and hungry for more. Yes! Thank You! Finally!!!!

The part of the meeting was when the teacher said of Noa, she is telling me where she wants to go. The teacher is keeping a complete record of the work she is doing with Noa. Her understanding from the Bd of Ed's audiologist is that that what they need to do is prove that sign is an issue of expressive language for Noa (not a hearing issue) - if there was any doubt before, and I'm sensing from the meeting that I had at school that there was some doubt, there is no doubt now that this is the way Noa needs to learn.

In fact, as I pointed out at the meeting, the few words that Noa seems to be approximating with any sense of meaning are words for which she has signs. The signs come first.

But for today, we're on a mission to help our little big-lip regain her confidence and get that infectious smile back!