Friday, November 16, 2007

Developmental report

We got the report back from the Early Childhood Intervention team, and as expected, Elijah has some significant delays. He scored the lowest possible score for gross motor, which didn't surprise us at all, and his gross motor delays seem to be affecting other areas. If he can't get around to explore, he's not going to be as stimulated cognitively, so that's what is happening. His cognitive scores were pretty low as well. His fine motor and adaptive skills were great and his language and social skills were good. Here's the funny part...he scored the highest possible score on LEISURE. That's our boy! Dan and I got a pretty good laugh out of that. Starting on December 3rd, we'll have therapists coming to our house weekly to help him to improve in the areas needed. Our first thing to focus on will be gross motor. We actually have been focusing on gross skills all along, so it's a little frustrating that we aren't seeming to get anywhere. Hopefully these new people can really help us out.

I should also point out that they did NOT take his prematurity into account when coming up with these percentiles, so he's a little better off than they report him to be. Also, there are things that he is able to do that are listed on the report as him not being able to do, so this report is not entirely accurate. I have to share these two lines from the report: "Elijah did not demonstrate rolling to his stomach and cried when assisted into this position," and "Elijah played with his toys contentedly and jabbered during much of the observation." That's Elijah in a nutshell.

He went through the night without eating again! He did need a few back rubs because his plugged, boogery nose woke him up a few times, but those episodes are getting less frequent. I don't want to jinx anything here, but I believe we are soon going to have a sleep-through-the-nighter!!

Dan is taking Eli to his cardiology check today. We'll post later with the details of that. Our sweet skydiving friends Tammy and Doug offered to come down and watch Elijah for an evening on Saturday so we can get out for a few hours and have some adult time. We're very excited for that. Tammy and Doug are so nice to do this. They live pretty far away, so it will be quite a drive to get here and back. Thank you, guys!

3 comments:

TimnKatienElinSam said...

Do not get down about the report. As you said, they did not take into account prematurity. Also, when we had our evaluation, I asked why they give until 2 years for preemies to catch up. They said that there are some very significant milestones that happen quickly in the first year, and after that the milestones get less and further apart, giving more time for the premature babies to catch up. Your Elijah has had some big obstacles that he has had to overcome and I can imagine that he would not like to have his chest messed with.....after all the O2 issues our little Elijah has had, he does not tolerate any messing with his face. I think your Eli is doing great and it is because of his attentive and caring parents! Just keep with the therapy and he will catch up by the time that he needs to :)

Love,
katie and the boys

Terri@SteelMagnolia said...

Girl...
I know how you're feeling...
Matthew scored very low too...
and he was 2 months premature...

but now..
he's coming right along...

he was about a year off on communication... yikes..


really..
we just need to work w/ our little guys a bit more....

but it is hard to hear...
THAT'S FOR SURE

Samantha said...

I know that it stinks to hear these things, but you and Dan are doing an INCREDIBLE job with Elijah! I can tell with all that you write about and watching your little man grow, that you are going above and beyond! Eli is so lucky to have the two of you as parents.

I need to go reread, bc I forgot that Eli was a preemie too...he has been through more than most go through in an entire lifetime and he is still one of the happiest boys in the universe. Hang in there...I know that it was not fun to hear all that stuff, but I know that you and Dan are doing everything for this precious boy and he will catch up.

Good luck with the cardiology appt today...I am sure that you will get a great report!

You are all amazing!

Heart Hugs,
Samantha