Sunday, July 19, 2009

Eval time

Well, it's that time of year again. 6 months ago Drake had his last PT, OT and speech evaluation. That was December, when Drake was pretty much only rolling as a means of mobility, and pretty much rolling only to the right.

I was actually looking forward to this evaluation, because in my mind, he's achieved so much (especially in gross motor) in the past six months! He crawls, pulls to high kneeling, is starting to pull to stand. He sits independently and plays with toys with both hands.

However, his first reports came in and hit me like a ton of bricks. On paper, it shows he's only marginally improved in terms of age appropriateness. He is 21 months old and his gross motor skills only went from 6 to 8 months in locomotion, and from 7 to 10 in stationary! WHAT? Only a couple months progress in 6 months of awesomeness?

But when I sit back and think about it, I guess it seems right. Babies crawl at 8 months. Babies pull to stand at 10 months. That is how old Lucy was when she did those things. I guess it's easy for me to forget and to think how normal crawling at 21 months seems. Which is funny, given I also have a typically developing 21 month old.

His fine motor skills and language are pretty delayed as well. I am waiting on the reports from his speech therapist, but I am pretty sure it will be in the marginally improved realm as well. He has about 5 good words: hi, uh-oh, book, ba-ba, hot, hat. 6 months ago, he was at the 6-9 month level in language. Maybe he's at the 9 -12 month level now? We'll see.

The best news is that Drake is almost up to his age on his cognitive skills. He came in at 20 months for all the cognitive and social \ emotional evaluations. Woo-hoo!

I know these evaluations are just numbers and mean nothing about his outcome or his achievements. But, they are still tough to swallow, especially when I am seeing such progress and it doesn't translate on paper. His therapists remind me that the expectations are so much higher at this age than they were 6 months ago, when he was 15 months. So, it's easier to fall further behind at this age.

Whatever. I think he's doing awesome. And progress is progress!

4 comments:

Katy said...

Our therapists always remind me that the real issue is whether or not they are developing--it's a complete lack of progress that I'd be scared of. Honestly, Charlie's progress is s-l-o-w and I'm still proud of all he can do.

I don't know how you feel about it, but social and cognitive were, without a doubt, the most important things to me, so yay on that score!

Anonymous said...

As nice as most therapists are, there's a real skill for conveying more than the numbers to parents. I'm hoping you can look beyond the numbers to see more meaning - like what Katy said. Barbara

Cary said...

I so get what you are saying here...but agree with Katy regarding social and cognitive. I've (mostly) accepted the fact that Ben's hugely delayed in gross motor. Most days I'm OK with that. I just pray and pray that he's OK cognitively (which I think he is).

And I agree...he's had 6 months of AWESOMENESS!!! Go Drake Go!!!

Hopeful Mother said...

Sounds like he's doing great.

I hate seeing the reports on paper. I often think I would rather not know the number/months equivalent even though in my head I know they are accurate.

I am concerned about Alex's delays because I really feel he is delayed in pretty much every area - not just gross motor. But no one has a crystal ball, so I guess we just have to keep being positive and moving forward!