Developmental Assessment

While I understand that this really has nothing to do with his cranial banding, it is related to his overall development, so I am sticking this in Alvin's blog. That, and I am filling the normal blog with Alvin's medical issues, so, Alvin's blog is going to be all about him.

So, anyway, Connecticut's Birth to Three program sent an RN and a teacher to the house today to do a developmental assessment on Alvin to see if he qualified for developmental services. They test in 7 different areas: Adaptive, Cognitive, Communication (both Expressive and Receptive), Physical (both Gross and Fine Motor Skills), and Social/Emotional.

Adaptive development is sometimes referred to as self-care or daily living skills. The child may use skills that he or she has already developed, or it may be necessary to acquire new skills.
Adaptive development refers to the ability of the developing child to care for him or herself in age appropriate ways. Mastered skills progress in the area of feeding, for example, from feeding self through scooping up food to using two fingers pinched together to pick up food, and later using a spoon or fork.

Cognitive Development involves the mental and intellectual growth of the child. Like with other areas of development, cognitive development occurs in stages. From the very early sensorimotor stage in early infancy where a baby learns about his or her environment through the senses, to the capacity for abstract thinking found in the formal operational stage of adolescence and adulthood, children progress through these stages depending on level of maturity, experience, and other factors such as interaction with caregivers. Mastery in various tasks of learning, memory, reasoning and problem solving are evidence that a child's cognitive development may be on target.

Expressive Communication involves sending a message to another person to make something happen. Receptive Communication is receiving that message and making it happen.

Physical Development is a person's capacity to move their body depends upon the development of motor abililties. These abilities, or skills, involve the use of large body movements (gross motor skills) and those that require small movements (fine motor skills).

Social Development is the process of development in which a child learns the skills, rules and values that will enable him or her to form connections and function among family members, peers and members of society. Emotional development involves the ways children understand, express and learn to regulate their emotions as they grow.

So, now that you know all that. Let me show you how Alvin ranked in each of those.

Adaptive----- Severe Delay
Cognitive----- Low Delay
Communication:
Expressive----- Severe Delay
Receptive------ Low Normal
Physical:
Gross Motor---- Moderate-Severe Delay
Fine Motor----- Severe Delay
Social/Emotional-- Low-Moderate Delay

So, what does this mean you ask? It means that Alvin is now going to have an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, and a speech pathologist added to his already impressive list of providers. It also means that he is eligible in every way to praticipate in the Birth to Three program. Hopefully we will be able to help work some of these severe delays into low normals. *cross fingers*

Thank you to all those who keep reading and keep this poor sweet boy in your prayers.