We dropped Ben at Renaissance Academy this morning for his first day in Kindergarten.
He hasn't gone to preschool so he was a bit nervous because it's the first day he goes somewhere by himself (except for Primary, but that somehow doesn't seem to count...)
The people at Renaissance are great. His teacher (Mrs. Kerr) is very nice and she is aware of the things Ben needs. He also has an aid that talks sign language really well (Mrs. Snarr), and she'll be there most of the time. We are hoping he'll learn as he interacts with her, which will make us learn too. We are excited about that, as it'll help us communicate better.
On top of that he has a "special" teacher. She (Mrs. Pay) and her assistants (Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Kerr) help children with disabilities. He gets sign language classes, and some PT, OT and ST.
He is at school right now. We are going to pick him up at 11:00 AM. We'll keep you posted on how he does.
In other news, Ben is doing better all the time. He is able to eat the same lunch/dinner as the rest of the family, albeit in very small portions. We still need to supplement his nutrition with formula through his stomach button, but he's progressing really well in his eating of solids.
He still has problems swallowing water because it goes down too fast for his throat to react: he chokes and coughs. But with practice his epiglottis and vocal cords will learn to react faster, and then he'll be able to swallow water without choking.
He is crawling all over the house, and the other day he did something cool. He was downstairs with Melisa and Jared, but they came upstairs. I thought "I need to get Ben", but when I turned, he was upstairs too. He crawled upstairs all by himself. He was laying on the last step of the stairs, and wouldn't move because he was so tired! We have been practicing, but we didn't expect him to do it by his own so fast!
He can also make more sounds, but his speech is still very slow and blurred. We know what he says most of the time, but it's hard sometimes. Hopefully, between the sign language at school and his ST he'll get better.
We're going to pick Ben up now.
Jerry
