Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Babies Can't Wait


Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA), is a national law that works to improve results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities.


President Bush signed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, which reauthorized the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), on December 3, 2004.


Babies Can't Wait (BCW) is Georgia's statewide interagency service delivery system for infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities and their families.


When Wade was 1 month old, we had our first meeting with someone from the BCW program. A lady came out to the house and started what they call the "Intake Process". Basically just asked a lot of questions about how Wade was doing and discussed with us what all the BCW program involved.


BCW works with children from birth through 3 years of age. Early intervention programs can take many different forms and can include a wide variety of services and professionals, depending on the child’s needs.


Today we were visited by 2 ladies from BCW. One was an Occupational Therapist, the other was an Infant Educator. They held & played with Wade to evaluate how well he is doing in various areas such as muscle tone, orthopedics, eye tracking, etc. They felt like he is doing quite well and is not exhibiting a lot of the troublesome symptoms that are quite common with Down Syndrome.


One problem area with a lot of people with Down Syndrome is an overall low muscle tone and increased looseness of the ligaments between the bones. This often leads to orthopedic problems after infancy.


Wade seems to have good strong muscles. He kicks and pushes hard with his feet. Squeezes tight with his fingers, and he is feeding good and sucks well on his pacifier. These are all great signs.

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