As I noted before, this has been a crazy week. We had an invited speaker come to the department which took up some of my very limited discretionary time the last couple of days and tomorrow is our graduate student interview weekend. Ugh. Anyhow, I wanted to update on Alaina's developmental evaluation, though I've been feeling bitter that I can't really recall the few paragraphs I had written previously.
The bottom line, as I said in the last post, is that she's doing fine overall. She scored average to above average in all areas, except motor. She did such a great job. I was proud of how well she behaved, especially given that she had not had a nap that morning. She was mostly pleasant and happy, though she got hungry toward the end. It was truly interesting for me as I watched them assess her and ask me questions. Although they used different instruments than I have administered (Battelle Developmental Inventory and Early Learning Accomplishment Profile), I was still able to have a sense for which area they were assessing and how well she was doing. Apparently I gave myself away as a psychologist (or educator) when I noted her joint attention. Oops.
There were two assessors, a Child Development Specialist and a Speech-Language Pathologist. They loved Alaina. The child development specialist said, on several occasions, "Man, you can't get anything by her!" because Alaina is so observant. That's a weird thing to feel proud of. ;) They also both said she should "be in a magazine" because of her cuteness. We are just waiting for Baby Vogue to contact us. Here she is practicing her Zoolander "Blue Steel."
For those of you guys who like data, here is her actual information. Just like in my former developmental reports, I feel like it's important to note that "these are based on a
developmental evaluation and the results do not suggest that Alaina is deficient in any way, nor are these
results predictive of later child and adult functioning. At this age, these results are only
indicative of delays that may be improved."
Now that that's out of the way...The assessment was broken into 5 broad areas (adaptive, personal-social, communication, motor, and cognitive). She was within the typically developing range in all broad areas. Adaptive development is fairly limited at this age but includes things like holding a bottle, feeding self finger foods, etc. She was squarely average in this domain. The Personal-Social domain looks at social development. They liked how Alaina showed a (strong) desire for social attention, gestures to be picked up, and discriminates between familiar and unfamiliar adults. Again, she was just on the high end of average in this domain, particularly for adult interaction. Alaina was again on the high end of average cognitively, doing a nice job physically exploring her environment, searching for hidden toys, (sometimes) being able to occupy herself, and showing good attention and memory. In terms of language, her receptive language was a little below other areas (other than motor), though still within normal limits (Standard Score = 9). They said they believed this was due to her ear troubles. Given that she is starting to recognize words and sounds, I was a little surprised because I thought her receptive languages skills seemed pretty high. But this is why you don't test your own children. :) Her expressive language skills were a strength, with her results being a standard deviation above average. Her fine and gross motor skills, on the other hand (pun was noticed, but not intended), were a standard deviation below average (though still in the typically developing range). The gross motor is due to her lack of crawling, inconsistent rolling, inability to pull self up, etc. However, they also noted that she appeared to have the physical capability but indicated they feel she is simply "laid back" and not motivated. Which is pretty much what we all think. And I am okay with that. She is learning on her own and I know she will get there when she is ready. So, the data suggests that she has a 30% gross motor delay. In order to qualify for services, she would need a 50% or greater delay. They suggested waiting two months and seeing if she became more mobile. I fully anticipate she will.
They also completed a pediatric middle ear screening by drawing the tympanogram--this screening examined canal volume, admittance peak, and pressure peak. The screening did show possible middle ear fluid, consistent with what we have been told by the pediatrician and ENT. They also recommended ear tubes. While we do not know that her motor skills are slowed by this, it could be a contributing factor (it could also contribute to receptive language troubles, though again, her skills are largely average). So we have an appointment in Stillwater for ear tubes on February 18th. We were given an option of having the tubes placed here, under general anesthesia, or to go to Oklahoma City for the procedure completed under local anesthesia only (which would require Alaina to be in a papoose restraint system). Although the idea of her being placed under general anesthesia is a bit nerve wracking, I think we are more comfortable with that. Chad has been in contact with several providers and my insurance company though because it seems there is an approximate $5,000 difference (before insurance) if we have it completed in Stillwater vs. Oklahoma City, with Stillwater being exorbitantly more expensive. Clearly we wouldn't pay that much of a difference but it could be as much as a few hundred dollars more to have it done here. If we go elsewhere, it will probably be longer before she is seen and in the meantime, I think we will have to take her back to the pediatrician because I really believe she has another (double) ear infection. The fun never ends, right?
Seriously though. She is really stinking cute. Fortunately for all of us.
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