Meeting with Children First: Update

Last night, three people from Children First, who have been working with/assessing Kevin, came to share their initial reports with us: the primary partner (in charge of Kevin's file), the speech therapist, and the physiotherapist. Basically, their observations and concerns mirror my own. Here's a summary of what they said:


Speech Therapist's Report
"At the present time, Kevin has delays in all aspects of communication. He is not yet producing the typical repertoire of vowel and consonant sounds. . . . Kevin occasionally responds to his name, and follows some simple one-step directions. . . . . More information around Kevin's hearing acuity . . . is needed."


"Need: To provide support around developing Kevin's overall communication skills, in particular, prelanguage skills." In other words, she can't really help him until he starts making more consonant/word sounds. She is also anxious to get the results of his hearing re-test.


Physiotherapist's Report
"Kevin is delayed in the acquisition of his motor milestones. This is no doubt related to his low tone and lack of endurance of his muscles, which limits his opportunities for practicing movement to build strength and learn skills. Kevin demonstrates low tone throughout his body, evidenced by his sitting posture, inability to maintain upright positions, and difficulty reaching with arms. It is unclear at this time what the cause of the low tone and muscle fatigue is."


"Recommendations: . . . the need for further medical investigations . . . to identify the reason for his muscle fatigue and low muscle tone. . . . . We will focus on increasing strength and tone to enhance motor function; however, it is unknown how effective this will be without knowing the underlying cause of these issues."


Where we go from here:
Kevin will be going for his 18-month check-up/immunizations the week of February 15th (our doctor is away until then). Our Primary Partner from Children First is going to come to the appointment. She is going to present the reports to my doctor, and briefly explain our concerns. She will also suggest further medical investigations (blood work, developmental specialists) are needed for Kevin. Our P.P. is also going to request that Kevin be sent to a new pediatrician, as the one we currently have is not taking our concerns about Kevin seriously. (For example, he said Kevin is "perfectly normal" just because Kevin reached for a cookie! Plus, he's only seen Kevin 3 times, for about 5 minutes each.)


I am anxious to discover the "underlying causes" of Kevin's delays. How can we help him, if we're not even sure what's wrong?


However, I don't want you to get the idea that Children First only focuses on what's wrong. They also had plenty of positive things to say about Kevin: he's curious, has a good attention span, plays well one-on-one with adults, interacts well with others at daycare, and is starting to build some good basic skills now: animal sounds, crawling, pulling up to/playing in high kneeling position; stacking blocks; taking things in and out of containers; nodding and shaking his head; waving hello and good-bye; etc. Plus, they always talk about how cute and friendly he is with them. He is always happy to see his "friends" from Children First. :))