Graduation, Of Sorts

We had our last session with James's developmental therapist today. She has been a tremendous help, but James is pretty much caught up to his age, so we don't really need her services any more.

We probably would have continued with the once a month visits for a little longer, but they have also changed the way Early Intervention is done here, so we would now have to pay the full cost of these sessions, which used to be covered. If James still needed it, we would have done that, but since he's doing so well, it made this the right time to discontinue. We are fortunate that we are in a position to be able to afford these services if he needs them again, but these changes mean that a lot of babies and families that will need them won't be able to get them because of the cost. And these early interventions truly do have lifelong benefits for these children. (The current NC legislature has decided to balance the budget by cutting services to children and education at both K-12 and university levels, among other programs, while at the same time passing a bill that will allow large companies like Walmart and Home Depot to pay no taxes -- that is, zero dollars -- to the state. It's disgusting.)

In any case, it was great to have one final visit to wrap things up, to get some last pieces of advice, and to say goodbye to K.

[A note on the bottom picture -- Mattie did not draw that perfect circle, but he did do a pretty good effort putting in eyes and a mouth, before he scribbled on it!]