Children First Helps Out

Well, I have to say, Children First is really helping us out this time. I mean, they did a great job with Andrea, but her situation wasn't as complicated; she did end up walking in time to move up in daycare, and all we really needed from them was the assessment and information about how to get the orthotics for her shoes. We've got a lot more concerns about Kevin. Not to worry--he's okay--it's just that we have more issues to deal with in his case.

On Wednesday, our Resource Consultant (basically, the person overseeing Kevin's case) came out to our house, and the Physiotherapist came with her again. Kevin was still sick that day, so they didn't really get to do physio, but we had a great chat and made some plans, and they addressed the one thing that is an immediate concern for us: daycare. Daycare has been putting on the pressure for Kevin to be walking in two months, to move up the the Toddler Room.

Well, yesterday our Resource Consultant called the daycare, and having worked with them for a long time, she put it to them bluntly: quit putting pressure on Kevin and his family to get him walking. Kevin needs to work on pre-walking skills before we can even think about him toddling; he needs to build up his muscle tone and work on his foot/hip/knee alignment. Thankfully, the people at our daycare are very caring and reasonable. They have said that they are tentatively planning on moving him up March 1st (which gives us an extra month), and that if he's not ready, they will not force him to move up, or leave the daycare (thank goodness!).

In the meantime, the physiotherapist and the speech therapist will be visiting him regularly at daycare, and doing some home visits, too. In fact, the Resource Consultant and the physiotherapist are planning another home visit with us on December 18. Also, the speech therapist sent home a package of games/songs/suggestions for us to help Kevin practice with his voice. A lot of the things we are already doing, but there are a few new ideas in the package.

In terms of Kevin's communication, we are already seeing a big change in the past few weeks. He now waves hello and bye-bye without prompting, when he sees people coming or going; he tries to say bye-bye sometimes ("bah-bah"); he blows kisses when it's time for bed, or someone he likes is leaving (again, usually without prompting); he points at things he's interested in; he repeats some noises (growling, "ahh"--after a drink, "mmmm"--if something's tasty). We are trying to teach him Santa says, "Ho ho ho!" (he says "ha ha ha"). He also does Andrea's trick now, of going (crawling) over to the banister and giving someone a kiss through the bars, if they're arriving or leaving.

We also have a hearing test scheduled for January 20, and are looking into the possibility of blood tests to rule out any metabolic/enzyme problems (he does tire easily, but it's not a big concern--just a precaution--more to rule it out).

Well, now I can relax about the daycare. Maybe I can spend some more time getting Andrea to sit on the potty!