I met today with our early intervention counselor, a speech therapist, and a therapist that specializes in general early childhood development. They were all delightful ladies that were, of course, immediately smitten with Andrew. They asked lots of questions, things like, when he cries does he go, waaaaaaaaa, or does he waaa waaa waaa ??? Hmmm, let's pinch him and see what he does. (actually he goes waaaaaaa which babies his age do - they waa waaa waaa later.)
Anyway, their assesment was that he was at a 2 1/2 to 3 month developmental age. My first question was - is that developmental age for Down Syndrome kids or all kids? The answer - all kids!!! Yeah, Andrew! Way to go. I thought he was doing great, but it was nice to hear an un-biased party tell me he was doing great. This still is not indicative of what his cognitive abilities will be, but I will take any good news I can get.
So physically and emotionally (according to some very long standardized testing) he is on target with his milestones. Now they will send another lady that specializes in general childhood / infant development to work with us each week. She will teach us stimulation exercises, etc. to hopefully help keep him on track with his milestones as well as catch it quickly when he starts lag.
I was confused at how he can be developmentally on target, yet still have poor muscle tone. They example they gave me was that, at rest, we all have muscle tone that holds us together. When we are at rest, our muscle tone around our mouths holds our faces in position, our mouths closed, tounge in place, etc. Andrew's tone is soft, which make him appear squishy (for lack of a better word). This, strangely, made sense to me. What we do to compensate for poor tone, is to strengthen the muscles themselves. Thus, the therapist. Thanks to our tax dollars, these therapists come directly to our home, so thank you to everyone who is paying taxes. I hope this makes you feel better come April 15th!
The learning curve that we are living on is steep and fast, but I am grateful for the wonderful people God has placed in our path to help us. One of the ladies here today had done BSF with my mom, so she was delighted to help a fellow Christian. I am amazed at how well Andrew is doing. I am amazed at how God has cared for us, for my children, my husband, and myself.
Psalm 111:7 "The works of is hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy."
Thank you Lord, for being faithful and just to us. You are so trustworthy.
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