Parents As Teachers

We just finished up another early intervention meeting with our parents as teachers rep, Leanne. Today was a brief visit, aimed at testing Arabella for her fine and gross motor skills. Evan also received a brief hearing and vision test.

Arabella

I had to answer a brief questionnaire with such items as hears well, talks like other toddlers, can you understand the child, and walks, runs & climbs like others. Following those we tested her skills.

Communication - She scored 55 out of 60. When shown a picture she can point to the object she's asked to, without showing her first. She can imitate two-word sentences. She can carry out tasks that she asked without us giving her clues. If you point to a picture and ask her to name it, she can. She can say two or three words that represent different ideas together. And she sometimes uses words like "me," "I," "mine," and "you."

Gross Motor - She scored 55 out of 60. She can walk down the stairs if you hold onto one hand (in fact she can walk down the stairs all by herself). When shown how to kick a large ball, does she try to kick the ball by moving her leg forward? Yes and no. We demonstrated it and she walked forward and kicked it. Generally she imitates me & Adam stopping the ball with our foot and tries to put her foot on the top of the ball when asked to kick it, so she only received 5 out of 10 on that one. She can walk up the stairs by herself. She can run fairly well, stopping without bumping into things or falling. She can jump with both feet leaving the ground at the same time.

Fine Motor - She scored 40 out of 60. She can get the spoon in her mouth right side up so that the food doesn't spill. She can turn the pages of her board books by herself. She uses twisting/turning motions to try and turn doorknobs, wind up toys, and twist tops. In fact she's a pro at locking door. She can flip switches on and off. And where she's lacking: She cannot stack seven blocks on top of each other. She can do 4 or so and then she knocks them over or she knocks the stack down while grabbing for another block. She also cannot lace beads. She was given a lace and some lacing beads  and just couldn't do it herself. Luckily for her birthday she's getting a wooden lacing shoe so we can work on this.

Problem Solving - She scored 60 out of 60. She can draw a straight line on a paper after one is drawn for her. She can turn bottles upside down and empty all the crumbs out of them (which I still need to post a funny story about that). She pretends that objects are something else. She can put things back where they belong. If something is out of her reach she uses her step stool or a chair to obtain them. She can line of four or more objects (such as blocks) in a row.

Personal-Social - She scored 60 out of 60. She can drink from a cup, and put it down with little spilling. She copies activities we do such as wiping up a spill or combing her hair. She eats with a fork. When playing with her dolls or stuffed animals she pretends to rock it, feed it, change its diapers, and put it to bed. She is able to push her doll stroller and basically anything with wheels. She uses I more than Arabella when referring to herself. In fact, she has rarely spoke of herself in third person.

Essentially she is doing great, even above average.

Evan

Adam had to fill out some paperwork for his file. Then Evan was able to play with a can and some small balls. The object was to see if we would place the balls over the can and open his hand to drop them. He did it a couple of times, but not before banging the balls together, banging them around in the can, kicking the can, and leaning forward to yell/growl into the can. Then Leanne did a hearing and vision test on him. And he passed with flying colors. We also let her know that we are participating in the InfantSee program, and he in fact goes tomorrow for his first eye exam. She was excited to hear we had already planned that.

At our next appointment, in March, Evan will get his one year evaluation and Arabella will get a hearing and vision test.

I love my smart little babies!