She loves school! I'm so glad she got a place in Fleming Fulton, which meant she could have two years at nursery, instead of the usual one year. A few weeks ago she had her sports day. She did amazing! She used her walker for most of the races, then did a "demonstration" at the end were every child attempted to do something that they had been working on in school. For Caitlin this was walking without using her walker. She was a little shy at first, holding onto her classroom assistants hand but then she let go and walked back unassisted, with everybody clapping and cheering. It was an amazing moment. I had to hold back the tears, so proud of my princess as always :)
Last Friday I attended her first annual review at her school. It was a meeting with the principal of the school, her teacher, classroom assistant, physiotherapist, occupational therapist and speech therapist. Caitlin gets all her therapies while she is at school which is an absolute godsend because it means I don't have to take her to all of her appointments with the baby in tow!
The meeting went pretty much perfectly. Each person give their assessments of how Caitlin was doing. The speech therapist just said she doesn't see Caitlin as she was assessed at the beginning of the school year and scored very high on all levels of the assessment so she was happy to keep her discharged from speech therapy for now, which I totally agree with. Anybody who knows Caitlin knows how much she likes to talk :)
Caitlin's physiotherapist just said how happy she is with her, how she has come on so well with her walking, how she is trying very hard to stand up from sitting/kneeling without holding onto anything to pull herself up and that's what they've been working on in their sessions. Caitlin actually got from the floor to standing with no assistance on Thursday! So all that hard work in physiotherapy is paying off :)
Caitlin's regular occupational therapist wasn't there which I was a bit disappointed about as she really is a fantastic therapist, she goes out of her way to assist Caitlin in any way she can and calls me regularly to keep me updated, as well as sending photos home of things they did during their sessions. She is fabulous and Caitlin loves going to OT! Anyway, the occupational therapist that was there just said Orla (caitlin's OT) was delighted with her, and is working on encouraging her to dress herself, as well as playing with things that Caitlin sometimes has issues with, like fluff, messy play & games that make noise.
Caitlin's teacher and classroom assistant both said Caitlin has excellent social skills, is on track in all areas for her age in terms of learning and is a pleasure to teach. They did mention how Caitlin can occasionally hit out if she isn't getting her own way, and challenges anything she doesn't agree with (don't I know that!) but thats all very normal for a 3 year old. Her teacher said Caitlin has become much more boisterous the past few weeks which is lovely to see as usually with any type of boisterous play Caitlin will sit back and observe rather than join in, but she has been joining in more the past few weeks which means she's growing in confidence :) :) Caitlin's imagination was discussed amongst all of us, with her teacher saying how her imagination is just phenomenal, she will create entire stories with toy people/animals, create personality's for each character, she knows most of the storybooks in nursery off by heart as well as every nursery rhyme they sing. I just sat there with a big stupid grin on my face. It really was just lovely hearing all these wonderful things about my daughter. It made me think of all the worry, stress and heartbreak throughout my pregnancy when her hydrocephalus was increasing weekly and I really thought she would be permanently brain damaged. 3 years later I'm sitting in a meeting with all these educated professionals telling me of all the achievements Caitlin has made and how she is doing so fantastically well. They had no concerns about her whatsoever!
Catherine, the educational advisor from SHINE, (the spina bifida & hydro association) came along with me and we had a good discussion after the meeting. Catherine has helped us so much through the years, mainly when it came to Caitlin going into education, she helped me with her special needs statement to get her a place at Fleming Fulton. Catherine is such a dedicated, knowledgeable, friendly lady. She feels that Caitlin should be placed in a mainstream school after she completes her second year at nursery in Fleming Fulton. I think she's right. I want Caitlin to make friends in her own area, to go to the same school as Aoife and I do think she is capable of achieving anything she sets her mind too. There is of course some worries I have with sending Caitlin to mainstream school, mainly how she will cope with being in a class of 25+ (she's in a class of 6 at the moment) as she doesn't like crowds, noise etc. Her hydrocephalus is also likely to have an affect on her learning as she gets older, but Catherine is there to assist us in putting additional learning support in place whenever she may need it. So I figure, we won't know until we try and if it doesn't work out she can always go back to Fleming Fulton. The plan is I will visit a few schools from around September and decide then what we will do for sure.
We also have an appointment with Caitlin's neurosurgeon on Tuesday. The last one didn't go well with Caitlin being admitted to hospital so I'm hoping this one goes much better! Caitlin is still having headaches, probably one a week on average, which could be a shunt problem, but then those with hydrocephalus are prone to more headaches even with a working shunt so it could be that too. We will discuss this with him and how she is more sensitive to noise since her last revision, although this past week or so I've noticed she is coping a bit better with noises. She isn't regressing with her walking at all like she was with her last shunt blockage, but then Caitlin doesn't present the same set of symptoms ever when it comes to shunt problems so who knows! I'm pretty hopeful that the neurosurgeon will be happy enough to send us home with no plan to return anytime in the near future :) Fingers crossed!
Oh and finally, Caitlin took a few steps this week without her splints (Afo's) on!
Oh and finally, Caitlin took a few steps this week without her splints (Afo's) on!
Take that Spina Bifida!!
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