Abby is doing awesome. I mean really... with a capital "A!"
Each day she amazes Brian and me - with her word articulation, with her pronunciation, with her understanding of simple addition & subtraction, with her improvement of writing her letters, numbers and shapes.
Friday, I had the rare opportunity to pick up Abby from her afternoon preschool class. When I arrived, Ms. Tiffany greeted me with a smile and said she had some exciting news to share. Abby had been retested (which is done in the Fall, Winter, & Spring each year) using the Hodson Assessment of Phonological Patters (HAPP-3) that they have been using with her since she entered her speech communication class. The HAPP-3 is a test where the higher the score, the more severe the impairment so it is a score that we want to see going DOWN over time. The HAPP-3 assesses articulation for single words, not connected speech. None the less, it is a very important gage to see where Abby started and where she is today.
As a reminder, when Abby turned 2-years old (the same time we arrived here in AK) she could barely utter 10 small words. To anyone other than Brian and me, she was not understandable. To review things from her preschool, her initial testing in September 2012 (age 3 years, 1 month) she was found to be "profoundly" delayed in her speech with a score of 161. At the end of last school year in May 2013, her assessment revealed a score of 74 with a rating of "moderate" expressive language delay. She had made excellent progress just in her first school year - an 87 point improvement! Abby returned back to Ms. Tiffany's class this Fall and her August score was a 66 which still has a rating of "moderate" delay.
HOWEVER, Friday, Abby was retested again with the HAPP-3 and the news that Ms. Tiffany shared with me brought tears to my eyes. She said that Abby's score was incredible & truly amazing. She earned a score of 14! Yes.......... only 14 points! This girl has worked so hard with in school Ms. Tiffany, with her speech homework, and also with her private speech therapist, Ms. Lindsey. We are so proud of you, Abbigail Grace!
Take a listen... here she is with "Old MacDonald!"
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