Heartspring Outcomes - Meet Preslie

Understanding Preslie

A social little girl with a lively personality, Preslie is the youngest of six children. When Preslie was three, her parents Mike and Lisa became concerned. “I thought she wasn’t where she needed to be,” Lisa said. “She just didn’t keep up. I don’t know how else to explain it. I didn’t know what was wrong for sure because you have to know what you’re looking for.” Although she seemed to be developing speech skills appropriately, Lisa watched Preslie struggle to put her ideas into sentences that made sense. Friends and family members dismissed her initial concerns noting, ‘She’s so cute, she’s fine’. “You’d like to think so,” said Lisa.

In July, 2006 Mike and Lisa brought four year old Preslie to Heartspring Pediatric Services for an evaluation with speech-language pathologist Debbie Harr and occupational therapist Mimi French. Detailed testing revealed several specific language deficits as well as deficits with processing instructions. “Debbie told us that it would be hard for her to learn to read. We know she processes things differently, she thinks backwards,” said Lisa. Other testing showed decreased upper body strength, and deficits in motor planning and visual motor skills making writing and cutting difficult. French is helping Preslie to develop these skills, helping to prepare her for school.

One year later, outgoing and popular, Preslie appears to be a typical five year old. Only when she attempts to engage in conversation are any delays evident. Most often Preslie knows what she wants to say, the words just don’t always make their way from her brain to her mouth. “She gets upset when she can’t think of or remember something,” said Lisa. “But she likes the knowledge. It’s a relief for someone to tell her so she doesn’t have to work so hard.” She added, “I used to have comfort knowing that she knew what she wanted to say, but couldn’t verbalize (it). Now I know she needs that skill for others to understand her.”

At Heartspring Preslie is focused on a variety of goals. While participating in speech therapy Preslie with Harr, she works to use pronouns such as she, him and her correctly. In addition, Harr is helping her to understand more complex sentences, apart from the three word phrases Preslie can easily comprehend.

Harr has also given Lisa a multitude of games to play at home with Preslie to promote therapy outside of Heartspring. “It’s incredible the stuff I can do at home,” said Lisa. “I feel empowered. I know what I need to do to work with her, even if it’s a silly little game.”

Since coming to Heartspring Preslie has already met her original goals in occupational therapy with French. Her fine motor skills and strength have improved and she is very mindful to use her “round thumbs” while holding her pencil or crayon. She has become so proficient that she even checks her brother Parker’s round thumbs at home. Her current goals include recognizing and copying upper case and lower case letters. While in therapy with French, Preslie utilizes multisensory input such as play-dough, sand, pipe cleaners and chalk to create letters. Using her creativity, Preslie makes up songs and rhymes that enable her to recall different therapy techniques, especially while learning to write the alphabet. She also gets plenty of encouragement and assistance from her large family. “Preslie is very blessed to have a family that supports her and the therapy goals and activities,” said French. “It is obvious that mom, dad or one of the older children worked with Preslie on home program activities.”

Preslie Always eager to please, Preslie displays tremendous effort during therapy. She looks to others for approval and a big grin spreads across her face when she knows she’s excelled at a task. Often she will announce, “I’m making better S’s now” or “I’m trying really hard” as she works to master a project. Because Preslie is sensitive about others opinions, therapists are quick to encourage her, noting that it’s ok to make mistakes. This has greatly helped Preslie to not give up during therapy.

Preslie is the entertainer of the family. She loves to perform songs as she plays “American Idol” at home, often getting her sisters to join the act. During a recent family reunion in Illinois, she thrilled family members with a song she had just learned from her grandfather. She has an abundance of imagination and originality, telling elaborate stories using whatever props are within an arms reach.

Therapy and support from Heartspring and her family have helped Preslie engage with other children. “Heartspring has made the difference between Preslie going into things with more confidence, instead of playing catch up. She finds other kids and initiates play with them, instead of staying by my side,” said Lisa. “I think it’s going to be night and day – gaining knowledge from therapists.” With that knowledge Lisa hopes that someday it won’t be a challenge for anyone to understand Preslie.

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