The March of Progress

Back in October 2011, about a month after starting nursery, Bee was assessed and set goals for her Individual Education Plan. Her nursery has spent some time getting to know her and then set out some targets they felt were achieveable and specific to her development needs. The nursery asked me in for a meeting to explain and confirm these goals, to make sure I was happy with the direction they were taking with her and ask for any input. They had chosen three main goals and aimed to review them in March 2012.

• Turn-taking and socialisation - To become involved in turn-taking activities with an adult e.g. simple games, building a tower, filling a bucket with sand.

• Using two-word links - For Bethany to demonstrate a range of two-word links e.g. 'baby sleeping', 'boy running'.

• Fine motor skills - Bethany to gain confidence in relation to her fine motor skills and the use of a pincer grip and finger isolation.

Just recently I was asked back into nursery for a review on Bee's progress which I was a little nervous about as, although we see a lot of improvement with Bee at home we know that she doesn't neccessarily display it at nursery, especially when it comes to her use of language.

Wonderfully Bee's teacher (K) couldn't have been anymore positive about the strides Bee has taken and how well she's adapting to life at nursery. K talked at length about what a happy, sociable, curious, interactive and sweet little girl Bee is and what a pleasure she is to teach. She went on to talk about the goals that had been set and how well Bee had achieved them:

Turn-taking and socialisation: Bethany is now much more settled at nursery and has established good relationships with familiar staff members. She is able to engage in simple turn-taking activities with an adult and responds well to prompts given to her, e.g. 'Bethany's turn'. She also responds well to being praised for her success.

Using two-word links: Bethany is keen to use spoken language and her confidence has grown significantly during recent months. She is using many more two-word links and will listen, and sometimes repeat, the phrases she hears adults using. Staff are pleased with Bethany's openness to spending time with them and engaging in sociable interactions.

Fine motor skills: Bethany has been happier to become involved in a variety of activities which encourage the use of a pincer-grip and require her to develop fine-motor skills. Staff are pleased with the progress she is making and feel that her accuracy and confidence are improving. She will continue to benefit from involvement in such experiences.

Overall it was a wonderful report and we're thrilled that Bee has settled into nursery so well and is achieving so much. After some discussion with K we've set some new goals, which will be reviewed in June 2012:

• Turn-taking and socialisation: To become involved in turn-taking with another child. 
• Increased use of spoken language: To continue in her use of spoken language to express her needs, engage in play experiences and comment on the world around her, e.g. using 2/3+ word links. 
• Involvement in creative/'messy' play experiences: For Bethany to become involved in a wide variety of sensory mark-making and exploratory experiences.

I'm especially happy with the last one. Already since starting nursery we've noticed an improvement in Bee's tolerance of different textures (like the sand in Southport) and knowing that the nursery are working on it specifically can only help even more.

I'm so proud of my girl for all the achievements she's made and how she continues to defy all those doctors and medical professionals that said she wouldn't.