Early Intervention Update

The quick version on the early intervention evaluation: Amor Chiquito gets help for any area she is at least 5 months behind on. She is getting help for expressive language.

Longer version:
We’ll be getting the full report in a few weeks. This is what I remember.
Fine motor skills (hand/eye coordination): 17 months
Gross motor (using big muscles, walking, climbing, etc.): 19 months
Cognitive (problem solving, etc.): 18 months
Social: 21 months
Self care (spoon feeding herself, putting shoes on, undressing, etc.): 23 months
Language: 14 months

They said she shows signs of secure attachment. She played, explored, kept an eye on Abuela and myself, but felt comfortable with playing away from us, despite the fact there were strangers here. She observed the therapists for the first 10 minutes or so. Good sign. Better to be cautious. Eventually, she realized they were ok and so she interacted and played with them.

Overall, Amor Chiquito did well, but she could use some help with language. She has about 20 words. But she did not do some of the things that were asked of her, like naming a familiar object or identifying abstract pictures. Mind you, there were several things she did not do but she does do. For example, if you ask her “where is your ear, eye, mouth, etc.?” she does do it. But she did not do it when they were here.

These people told me research indicates that the fact we are a bilingual family should not affect her language development in the long run. I am uncertain about whether or not it affects her now, but, either way, I am confident that she will be fine in a few months. I have been seeing progress during the last month or so. I am sure we will see more progress once Geeky Entrepreneur and I learn what we can do better/differently.

One of the therapists who came last Tuesday will come see her once a week. I learned that, at this stage, it’s more about giving us, the parents, tips on how to stimulate her development, rather than about working with the child.

If we would like, we can bring her to playgroups where we can interact with other parents and she can interact with children her age.

I asked about their thoughts on preschool. The sooner the better, so she might be starting preschool September 2010. I was glad to hear that around here there are great preschools where you pay on average $200/month. Much better than daycare!

Thus far, I am pleased with how things are going. Having studied psychology, I knew a fair bit about the tests the therapists were performing, but I don’t know everything, of course. For example, I did not know much about what to look for as far as language. So, this will be a learning experience for me and I am looking forward to it because it will teach me how I can better help my child with language development.

Lastly, things are going well in the sleep department. Every night this week, except last night, she got up once. She got up twice last night. That works for us.

I know there is more, several stories about little Ms. Mischief, but I can't remember a thing right now. Bed time for me...

I'll leave you with this: I'm officially going crazy! I am starting to wonder if I want to do this again, if we want to try for #2! I say I'm going crazy because I just started sleeping better. Heck, we don't sleep great yet. My lovely husband, if you are voting no, stop showing me those adorable videos of when she was so tiny!