Big Developments

One year ago, Rex left the orphanage an angry, frustrated, shut-down toddler goliath trapped at an infant developmental stage.  Once home, he was evaluated for his development using the Denver II on August 15, 2011 at 29 months old with the following results:

Gross motor – 16 months

Fine motor – 10 months

Social-emotional-personal – 6 months

Language – 9 months (this was later amended by a speech pathologist to 6 months)

He was basically like an ill-adjusted 9 months old all around, except that he could walk and had an enormous physical strength and iron will.

Eleven months later, eleven months of having love from parents, of living in a safe home with nutritious food, well-fitting clothing, quiet sleep, opportunities to explore and learn, eleven months of intense therapy with qualified professionals and our son was evaluated again on July 16, 2012 with the same testing tool.  He is now 40 months old and scored:

Gross Motor - 30 months (+14 mo)

Fine Motor – 24 months (+14 mo)

Social-emotional-personal – 18 months (+ 12 mo)

Language – 17 months (+ 11 mo)

The second test administered on 7/16/12, the Vineland, showed that Rex’s raw scores in the areas of communication, daily living skills, and socialization have tripled while gross motor has doubled from the 8/15/11 results.  His composite score has moved from the 50s into the 60s based on a mean of 100, so he’s inching up there, slowly but surely.

In June, one of Rex’s board-certified therapists updated yet another developmental assessment on him. She had done the initial evaluation in January but did not tell me because she said the results were too depressing.  This test looks at a child’s basic language, life, and learning skills from birth through the end of first grade.  To describe the test, imagine 25 columns (or towers) each representing a different area of development.  They are made up of bricks which symbolize specific skills.  A brick gets colored in once a child has mastered the skill.  There are a total of 1484 bricks to be acquired.

Six months ago, Rex only had 34 bricks under his belt.  That’s just over 2% of the total.  As of last month, he has gained 73 additional bricks, making it 117 mastered skills.  That’s almost 8% of the total.  We have seen the greatest gains in eating skills, gross motor and fine motor, receptive language, requesting and cooperation.  Keep in mind, too, that some of the towers aren’t even applicable yet (things like classroom routines and spelling) and that Rex has four more years to get all the bricks colored in to be on target. 

Based on the results of all three tests, Rex has now left infancy solidly behind and is full steam ahead into toddlerhood.  He's like an almost two-year-old across the board, so handle accordingly.

To some parents of neuro-typicals for whom things come naturally or quickly, who are stars in their classrooms and on the athletic fields, and who will take the nation’s elite universities by storm, this may not seem like much.  But to me, the mother of a child with special needs and a grim prognosis who I realize is still quite delayed, this means everything.  Rex’s hard work is paying off as is Craig’s and mine and that of his wonderful therapists.  We’re so proud of you, son.