Meet Monet

With infectious energy, a beaming smile and two blonde pigtails as spunky as her personality, Monet is a force to be reckoned with. 

Before she was even born, Monet was diagnosed with Trisomy 21, a common form of Down Syndrome, along with Transverse AV Canal, a heart condition that would require the tiny tot to undergo open heart surgery at just seven months old.

With a prenatal diagnosis, Monet’s parents, Genevieve and Ryan, proactively pursued early intervention care with Joya to ensure Monet could have access to the critical services required for her health and development.

When Monet came home from the NICU at just a few days old, she immediately started receiving personalized occupational, speech, and physical therapies through Joya, which were instrumental to her early development. Initially equipped with oxygen and a feeding tube at home, Joya worked with Monet on bottle feeding support to quickly transition her off the feeding tube, allowing her to build the strength, coordination and confidence to eventually eat more independently.

From there, Monet worked with a speech therapist on communication skills and building foundational tools for interacting with loved ones and expressing her enthusiasm and curiosity for life. Monet’s speech therapist taught the whole family how to use signs to communicate and helped Monet learn the signs associated with her favorite books and songs so she could play along.

To help build motor skills and improve her physical development, Monet worked with a physical therapist early on to lay the groundwork for future milestones such as lifting and turning her head, rolling and crawling.

Now thriving at the age of two, Monet has overcome more obstacles than some face in their lifetime – but you’d never know it from her exuberant demeanor.

“Monet has always been a happy, joyous and sweet child,” said her mom, Genevieve. “Her smile, loving nature and enthusiasm for life spark joy in all those around her.”

After two years of virtual and in-home care with Joya, Monet can now communicate through various signs, including “thank you”, “all done”, “more”, “hungry” and her personal favorites – waving hello to strangers and blowing kisses. She loves reading books with her therapist, singing and dancing to her favorite songs, and giving lots of hugs and snuggles to her baby brother, Rex. And this girl is going places! She can roll, crawl, pull to a stand and is just about to graduate from her walker so she can walk independently.

“Joya has been such a big part of Monet’s life and our family for 2+ years now,” explained Genevieve. “Monet is doing fantastic, and it is all due to the early intervention services we have received from Joya. Our in-home therapy day and now group days are our favorite days of the week!”

*Originally published in March 2023