More Puzzle Pieces

I feel like maybe one day we will have all the pieces of the puzzle sorted out for Evelyn.  It seems as though each year we continue to gather more up and begin to see a clearer picture of our first born and what makes her unique.

This year's portion of the picture was really illuminated by her attending preschool.  Being able to watch her interact with her peers, work alongside them, and learn with them has been telling for us.  It confirmed some suspicions for us and her teacher become a fresh set of eyes for us in which to analyze what might be going on.

This led us to having Evelyn reevaluated for speech delays as well as now also having an occupational therapist evaluate her fine motor function as well.  And while a couple different potential over-arching diagnosis terms have been thrown around, she is still officially label-less, but receiving services for both speech articulation delay, fine motor delay, and below average visual motor integration.

I'm glad that we've caught these things relatively early because with help, she should eventually be right on par with her peer group.  We have no idea why she struggles in these areas while excelling in others.  That part is still a mystery.

In the mean time, besides therapy, we are extending therapy activities to home to help her progress as quickly and smoothly as possible.  I went over a list of things we could get for home with her occupational therapist and came up with a box full of things for under $100 that Evelyn and Annie can do together that they would find fun and not laborious.  Annie starts preschool next year, so I'm doing the therapy activities with her as well so that she can be as successful as possible when doing PreK activities next year such as writing and cutting.

Here's what we ended up with.

Theraputty

This is much firmer than play-doh and playing with it helps strengthen the muscles in your hands.  The therapist often uses it to hide objects such as beads or coins in and has Evelyn work them back out again.

Snap Cubes

Great for the snapping and unsnapping, making and copying patterns, and working on simple addition at the same time.

Beads and Pattern Cards

Bead Set

Beads and Peg Boards

Just pray for me now that Abraham doesn't find this one.

Bed Bugs Game

The tongs from this are good for lots of fine motor games.

Stringing Pegs