At the time, she and I talked about how Jack's walking had largely improved since I met him, but how he ran with his arms extended for balance. And how he had recently learned to put rings on the yellow cone, and go up and down stairs holding an adult's hand, but he still lacked a pincer grasp, and he couldn't lean down and pick things up without falling over. At the time, she indicated that if evaluated for Early Intervention that day, he would qualify for both physical and occupational therapy. We discussed how I fully expected him to continue to improve quickly over the coming weeks, but if he didn't continue then I should push for OT services with someone who is also skilled in gross motor development. She gave me some exercises to do, and off we went.
In the meantime, I had been trying to get Jack enrolled in Early Intervention. At first, they qualified him based on his severe hearing loss. Except, after we saw the audiologist we realized that he didn't actually have severe hearing loss, and therefore no longer qualified based on that. And so we had to start over with a thorough evaluation of several different developmental areas. When I filled out the questionnaire, he failed every single area.
Two weeks ago, Ms. Teresa came out to do the evaluation. This was 10 days after the questionnaire. Two weeks after we saw the OT. And he did totally awesome. His walking - while still not developmentally at 21 months - had improved even further, and we have no reason to think it won't continue. His grasp has gone from a full hand grasp to a fingertip grasp. Still no two finger pincer, but it will come.
He did things that I had tried to teach him only days before, but at the time he hadn't figured out. He could put long pegs into the tiny holes on the first try. He could put wooden shapes into the puzzle. He could drive the Little People car. He could sit on a riding toy and push with his legs.
In other words, he is learning even faster than I thought.
But of course, there is one area in which he did qualify for Early Intervention - speech. But that is a post for another day:)
Posts (so far) about Jack's cleft/developmental/IA issues:
- Let the Appointments Begin!
- Appointments, Part 2: Audiology
- Appointments, Part 3: Plastic Surgeons
- Appointments, Part 4: The Dentist
- ENT (and probably more audiology)
- Speech (even though this is part of EI, it will get it's own post)
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