Evaluations

I think I have mentioned before that Andrew has been in the "Early Intervention" program. It is a program for toddlers under 3 years old that have a developmental delay. In Andrew's case, we were referred by his pediatrician at his 2-year checkup because he wasn't saying 10 words clearly and consistently. He had a speech & development evaluation in February and it was recommended that he see a speech therapist and a developmental therapist one hour per week (each). He has been doing great and has made vast improvements in overall vocabulary and is now speaking in 4-5 word sentences. His speech has become less and less of a primary concern although both of his therapists have noticed a few 'red flags' and recommended that we see either a neurodevelopmental pediatrician or a pediatric neurologist for a few more evaluations. Some of the concerns are that he has very fleeting and inconsistent eye contact unless it's on his terms, he is obsessive about trains, tracks, tunnels, & bridges and manages to find everyday objects and points out how they resemble train tracks, tunnels, etc. He prefers to play alone when in a group setting (library storytime, Gymboree, etc). Any of these behaviors could very well be personality traits and nothing more than that. So to make a long story short (too late?), we will be doing a few evaluations over the next 2 months. They are primarily done through play and observation and from there we can determine if there is anything to be concerned about. My feelings are that it would be better to have this done and find out there's nothing to worry about rather than delay it and find out later down the road that we should have intervened earlier. If the evaluations conclude that he is over 33% delayed in any one area or over 25% delayed in any two areas then he will qualify for a state-funded language & development based preschool very close to our house. They maintain a very small teacher to student ratio and focus on each individual child's needs. The goal in this program is to have them caught up with their peers before they go to kindergarten. What we DO know is that Andrew is very smart & perceptive. He knows and recognizes all of the alphabet letters, colors, shapes, and counts up to 12. His favorite number is 16, even though he can't count that far. If he sees a lot of something, marbles in a jar for instance, he'll say there are 16 of them (probably because it's the biggest number he knows). He's a very happy, energetic, eager and affectionate little boy. Did I mention he's the cutest, too? So, our first evaluation will be on Tuesday of next week. I will be sure to let you all know how it goes! Here's some pictures and a video of our latest art project. I put down some heavy duty paper and gave them paint and brushes and they went to town! Note- the video starts off sideways, after 3-4 seconds it changes though!