With the birth of our first child, we knew we would experience a lot of ‘firsts,’ the first smile, first words and first steps. But we never expected to experience some of our first challenges as a family when we realized that Eli was slow in achieving his developmental milestones during the first year of life.
We had so many questions. What did this mean? Would he be ‘normal?’ What could we do to help him?
That’s where UCP’s Birth to 3 came in. When Eli wasn’t showing any signs of wanting to crawl at his 9-month doctor’s appointment, we were referred to UCP. They helped my husband and I gauge more accurately where Eli was in his development and how we could encourage him to gain some of the skills he was lacking.
While with UCP, Eli received services from occupational therapists and speech language therapists. They helped us to see how his language and motor delays were connected, that his decreased muscle tone prevented development of language. The therapists provided us with concrete goals and activities to work on each week. They always took the time to not only explain what was needed, but also why they were important for our son. The continually solicited our feedback and made us part of the treatment team.
More than anything, UCP provided us, as first-time parents, the reassurance and confidence that we needed to help Eli succeed.
We are incredibly grateful, thank you UCP!