UAMS Pediatrics - KIDS FIRST Program

Angela Remley is a longtime veteran of KIDS FIRST.

She first learned about the program ten years ago, when her son Kendrey was born premature and weighed just two pounds. A social worker at Arkansas Children's Hospital recommended that Angela look into KIDS FIRST to help with any developmental challenges that lay ahead.

Kendrey spent a year in the program and tested out at 14 months of age.

Seven years later, in April of 2005, Angela's daughter Aniya was born weighing one pound, five ounces. She was 17 weeks premature.

Aniya spent many weeks in an incubator before she was strong enough to leave the hospital.

When Aniya was discharged from the NICU, she was a tiny baby with a long road ahead of her. Fortunately, Angela knew just the place to go for help.

She enrolled Aniya in the KIDS FIRST program in Pine Bluff, Arkansas as soon as the baby was home safely from the hospital. Since then, Aniya has explored the program's full range of services, and she is a true testimony to its ability to help at every stage.


Proactive Care During Therapy

Looking back, Angela is most thankful for the KIDS FIRST staff's diligence in her baby's medical care. They watched Aniya carefully as she went through the therapy program and identified her problems before they caused any long-term effects.

"There were all these signs that I didn't see, but the therapists and classroom staff saw them," Angela said.

She remembered when Aniya, then five months old and still very small, became sick with an upper respiratory infection shortly after she enrolled at KIDS FIRST.

"My mother picked her up, and her temperature was 103°," said Angela. "They treated her at the ER because she was coughing and had a hard time breathing."

Though she recovered from the fever, her cough persisted, and a nurse at KIDS FIRST became concerned.

"She told me I needed to make an appointment at the pulmonary clinic at Arkansas Children's Hospital.  Something wasn't right," she said.

Angela took Aniya to the pulmonary clinic, where doctors discovered that the baby had mild asthma. They prescribed a regimen of breathing medications, which have since cleared up her cough and helped her to breathe normally.

"I was so thankful that they caught that," Angela said about the staff. "Otherwise she would still be on cough medicine, and I would still be taking her to the ER for her breathing problems."

KIDS FIRST evaluated Aniya for therapy services as soon as she was able to sit alone. They recommended physical, occupational, and speech therapy to help her reach her milestones.

By this time, some of her difficulties were beginning to show.

"She had some difficulties when she was learning to crawl," Angela remembered. "She also had a hard time with things like holding her bottle and grasping a toy. Little things, but you could just tell that there were delays."

Physical and occupational therapists continued to work closely with Aniya to help her develop her motor skills as she grew.

Later, when Aniya was 18 months old, her mother and the KIDS FIRST staff noticed that her speech was not developing the way it should. Her attempts to form words never advanced beyond babbling even though she was clearly trying to communicate.

"She would try to talk," Angela said. "You could tell she was trying to tell you something. But no one could understand what she was saying."

The speech therapist at KIDS FIRST remembered that Aniya had suffered repeated ear infections and had been through course after course of antibiotics. Suspecting a connection between Aniya's ears and her delayed speech, she recommended that Angela take her daughter to see an ENT specialist.

The specialist saw that Aniya had a chronic buildup of fluid in her ears. The fluid had not only caused her repeated infections but had also kept her from hearing. And without her hearing, Aniya had been unable to learn words to speak.

The ENT specialist put tubes in Aniya's ears and within two weeks, she was speaking coherent words. With the help of one-on-one speech therapy, Aniya's verbal ability was completely within normal range after three months.

Aniya tested out of all three therapy programs when she was two years old.


Ready to Learn

Now that she has tested out of therapy and her health is under control, Aniya has been able to spend her school day learning. Angela has been thrilled with her daughter's academic progress in the last year.

"We'll see a stop sign and Aniya will say, 'Look, Mama, a red octagon!' She knows all her colors, all her shapes."

She credits her daughter's teachers for Aniya's impressive range of knowledge. Angela proudly relayed that, in addition to knowing all of her colors and shapes, Aniya can also name some important historic figures.

She recently showed her mother her daily report with a picture on the back. "Who is that, Aniya?" asked her teacher, pointing to the picture. "That's Martin Luther King," Aniya replied correctly.


On to the Next Step

In addition to program's wonderful medical oversight and dedicated teachers, Angela also praised the warmth and friendliness of the entire staff.

"With kids, some days are better than others," she said. "But to walk in every single morning and get a big smile and a 'good morning' from every person in the room—that just makes you feel really good."

Aniya is now ready to leave the program. The KIDS FIRST staff helped her at crucial stages in her early development to prepare her for a mainstream setting. She has reached all of her therapy goals and her health issues no longer require such close supervision in a classroom.

The tiny, frail baby who spent so many weeks in a hospital incubator has grown into a robust, curious preschooler ready to take the next step: She will attend a regular Pre-K program in the fall.