My cousin Lennart, gave Michael a giraffe (and a few more stuffed animals), but the giraffe goes where Michael goes now. He absolutely LOVES it!! I have never seen him interested in a particular toy before like this (except for his jumper). It's so cute!!
So, after almost a week at home, we are all still trying to adjust to the time difference. I usually don't have a big problem with it, but maybe because we were gone for such a short period of time, the time difference made a bigger impact. We had a few showings of our condo this week, we are hopeful to get an offer soon!!
Michael has a few new things. He has 4 teeth at the top coming out, all at once.
He can wave bye bye and it's really cute, I will have to video it.
He really moves around now. He can push himself up on his hands and knees and then he doesn't know what to do with himself. He keeps looking down to his knees as if he is amazed that he is not on the floor anymore. He is not really crawling, but he pushes himself backwards on the tiles (it doesn't work as good on the rug). Also when he is in his walker, he only walks backwards. But he managed to get himself from the sliding doors all the way to our bedroom door and he had to pass all kinds of furniture to do that. I was amazed!!
On Wednesday July 9, Michael had is Early Intervention Evaluation. It went about what I expected. He is still behind on most levels and we have to continue to work (hard!) with him.
He is 18 pounds, 4 ounces. 28 inches long.
At the time of the evaluation he was 17 months (13 months adjusted), but they evaluated him as if he was 12 months for some reason.
So this is the summary of the evaluation.
In blue it's what they noticed. In purple it's what he is evaluated on. In green it's where they want him to be in a few months from now:
Using hands and body (Gross/Fine Motor skills)
- Sits independently and using his thumb and a few other fingers to pick up small objects
- 6 months (50% delayed)
- They want him to start crawling around the house to find his toys
- They want him to start crawling around the house to find his toys
- They want him to start using a pincer grasp to pick up small objects (I think he can already do that, but he didn't do it at the evaluation)
Eating, Dressing and Toileting (Self-Help/Adaptive Skills)
- Drinks milk from a bottle
- 4 months (67% delayed). No surprise here, as feeding is his major issue right now.
- They want him to start to tolerate solid foods without gagging.
Expressing and Responding to Feelings and Interacting with Others (Social/Emotional)
- Attends to social games and starting to wave
- 10 months (within normal limits)
- They want him to wave hi/bye consistently and clapping his hands. He is very close to their target. He loves to wave and he is trying to clap, he just doesn't know how yet.
Playing, Thinking, Exploring (Academic/Cognitive including pre-literacy skills)
- Looks for his toy when it is hidden
- 12 months (within normal limits)
- They want him to start pointing to body parts (eyes, mouth, nose, etc.)
Understanding and Communicating (Receptive and Expressive Communication)
- Responds to his name
- Says baba and makes sounds to get his needs met
- 10 months (within normal limits)
- They want him to respond to stop and no
- They want him to use 3-5 single words in conjunction with gestures (eg. pointing, pulling) to communicate
So, as you can see from the evaluation he is a little behind (way behind with the feeding!). Lynn, from the SHINE program asked me if I was discouraged by the evaluation (and mostly by her evaluation that put Michael in the receptive and expressive communication skills at 6-8 months). I told her that I really try to focus on the things that he is doing and not on the things he cannot do. Because I am truly convinced that Michael will do it all, just a little later than most children. If I look at Michael and I see that he is starting to push himself on hands and knees, I know that he will crawl soon. And he does need that little extra push by giving him therapy and working with him at home, but he will do it. You can see that this little man has the will power to do anything he wants!!!! And I am just sooooo proud of him!!!
The occupational therapist at Early Intervention suggested to feed Michael purees with my fingers. I did that and it worked pretty good. On Friday Michael had speech therapy and Becky was sooo proud of him, because he wasn't gagging. She almost started crying, that's how proud she was!! She is so cute :)
Here is a video of Michael 'eating'. As you can see he is not gagging for a change :)
1 comment:
Way to go Michael!!! Keep eating little buddy! How exciting, hopefully in no time you will be having to scrub that precious little face because of the huge amount of baby food all over it:-)
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