Hi ladies! I wanted to share a Center success story . Typically we read during GMMs but sharing here instead so I didn't have to shorten😊

This comes from early Intervention: About a year ago, six month old Sophia* began in the home based early intervention program at The Childhood League Center. Her family came to The Center with concerns for both her motor development and eating issues. Sophia has a genetic condition that is associated with developmental delays and she had recently had a feeding tube put in because she was not able to eat enough by mouth to gain the appropriate amount of weight. When a child begins in our EI program, they are assigned a primary service provider (PSP) and because of Sophia’s motor delays, a physical therapist was assigned to work with the family as well. Her family was very supportive and often her mother, father, siblings and sometimes an aunt or uncle were present during the home visits. During the initial visits, the physical therapist noticed that Sophia had decreased strength and fatigued easily, especially when eating. She was getting most of her nutrition through her feeding tube at night because she could not tolerate bottle feedings. Her family and medical team, however, identified bottle feeding as a goal, eventually planning to move away from the feeding tube entirely. Sophia’s family and her PSP began to schedule their weekly visits so that a feeding time occurred about halfway through each appointment. At the beginning of each visit, the therapist and PSP worked with the family to show them methods to support building Sophia’s muscle strength during play. By participating in play activities on the floor with her siblings and parents, Sophia started to get stronger. The PSP and parents also worked together to find the best position for supporting Sophia while she was taking her bottle and spent time analyzing feeding methods, and she began to drink her bottle in a shorter amount of time with less effort. As Sophia got stronger and her parents implemented the different techniques they’d developed with the PSP, Sophia started drinking 3-4 ounces from the bottle at a time! She also began developing new motor skills such as rolling, sitting, and crawling and she could keep up with her cousin who was the same age. Once she was able to sit up on her own, the family began to introduce pureed food, which Sophia enjoyed! She has continued to gain weight in a healthy way and loves to eat a variety of different foods. Recently, her PSP modeled how to help Sophia learn to feed herself with a spoon and fork and after working with her family, she is now independently feeding herself with utensils. She enjoys eating meals with her family and this summer she had her feeding tube completely removed, as she no longer needs it! Sophia had a challenging start in life, but with the support of her family and our early intervention team, she has an unstoppable future