{"id":48387,"date":"2022-12-15T02:26:06","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T02:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/?post_type=family-stories&p=48387"},"modified":"2022-12-15T02:28:31","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T02:28:31","slug":"home-visitation-program-helps-yuma-boy-live-up-to-his-legendary-name","status":"publish","type":"family-stories","link":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/home-visitation-program-helps-yuma-boy-live-up-to-his-legendary-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Home visitation program helps Yuma boy live up to his legendary name"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karla Thomas says her son, Legend, has been catching up since day one. Born two months premature and weighing just over four pounds, Legend spent a month in the neonatal intensive care unit before Thomas was able to take him home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so small and underdeveloped,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cHe couldn\u2019t eat on his own. I had to teach him. He couldn\u2019t suck, swallow and breathe at the same time. In the beginning he was being fed through a tube in his nose, and slowly we taught him how to be able to suck a bottle and swallow and breathe at the same time. By the time he left the hospital, we had taught him how to eat properly. He gained enough weight that he ended up weighing five pounds the day he left the hospital.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas wasn\u2019t anticipating the challenges of a newborn who was born prematurely, but her adult daughter did. She signed up Legend and her mother with the Easterseals Blake Foundation home visitation program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The First Things First Yuma Regional Council<\/a> funds the program that provides personalized support that includes practical, hands-on activities and techniques that prompt early learning, knowledge and understanding of important developmental milestones.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce he came home, everyone from doctors and Easterseals were definitely watching closely to ensure he continued on the positive path,\u201d Thomas said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The home visitor from Easterseals Blake, Teri, has been a strong support, she said. At first the visits were weekly and the COVID-19 pandemic forced visits to be virtual.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve visited us since day one. They have been checking his vision, hearing, weight and growing pattern. Making sure that he is within normal range for a child of his age. Reassuring he is doing well and constantly checking cognitive and physical abilities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Every week, Teri encouraged Thomas to read books to Legend on a regular basis and have back and forth conversations with him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe told me to repeat what he says to encourage his talking and grow his vocabulary,\u201d Thomas said. Recently Legend\u2019s vocabulary exploded.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At some visits, Teri would suggest finger painting and ways to create puzzles out of household items or fill a plastic bottle with rice and beans and use it as a rattle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese were things that anyone can do,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cShe goes over \u2018this is where we should be\u2019 and any time I bring up a concern, we go over it in our next session. She helps with research and provides suggestions. She\u2019s amazing. Another thing that she does is she sets goals and revisits to see progress. It gives me something to shoot for and focus on what Legend should be working on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now at age 3, Legend runs to the door and shouts, \u201cTeri is here!\u201d when she arrives. Recently, the home visitor recommended Legend attend a child care center for more social interaction with other children and Thomas also returned to work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point he is starting to be able to be with children and he loves kids,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cI look forward to him growing socially as well as everything else. We are at the stage where he\u2019s learning to share and that is a challenge because he hasn\u2019t been able to be around other children. While I love that he knows that I am his support and he comes to me for all of his needs, I want him to continue to be a little independent and I\u2019m sure that will come with time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Today Legend is a healthy and loving boy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe is 3-years-old and into everything. He\u2019s finding new things and creating new things. He is going to get through it and be able to meet his milestones,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThrough the support of the people around me he is able to be at a 3-year-old level or beyond. His name is Legend and I personally feel that he lives up to that name because of where he has been through and where he is at this point.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The FTF Yuma Regional Partnership Council funds family resource centers to provide parents with free, in-home visits from a parent educator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":48273,"template":"","tags":[134,162],"class_list":["post-48387","family-stories","type-family-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-home-visitation","tag-yuma","regions-yuma"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHome visitation program helps Yuma boy live up to his legendary name - First Things First<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The FTF Yuma Regional Partnership Council funds family resource centers to provide parents with free, in-home visits from a parent educator.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/home-visitation-program-helps-yuma-boy-live-up-to-his-legendary-name\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Home visitation program helps Yuma boy live up to his legendary name\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The FTF Yuma Regional Partnership Council funds family resource centers to provide parents with free, in-home visits from a parent educator.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/home-visitation-program-helps-yuma-boy-live-up-to-his-legendary-name\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"First Things First\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AZFirstThingsFirst\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-15T02:28:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/2022-Yuma-Impact-Story-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"393\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AZFTF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/home-visitation-program-helps-yuma-boy-live-up-to-his-legendary-name\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/home-visitation-program-helps-yuma-boy-live-up-to-his-legendary-name\/\",\"name\":\"Home visitation program helps Yuma boy live up to his legendary name - 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