OT Eval

I was a little hesitant about taking Caleb to see this new OT. Like Cora mentioned in my comments, Children's likes to test, test, refer and test some more. I have put my foot down several times in the past because I felt they wanted to do unnecessary testing/referring...sometimes for teaching purposes, sometimes for statistics. I also know that comparing Caleb to Isaac is like comparing apples to oranges. Not only because Isaac has the "advantage" of being full term but also because every kid is different. That being said, as Isaac is getting older and doing more things, we are definitely seeing things that Caleb does/doesn't do that have caused us to be more and more concerned. It's so hard for us to judge what is "normal" 3 year old behavior because we've never had a 3 year old before. So, we decided it wouldn't hurt to see what this therapist had to say. If she didn't think he has any issues, great. But at least we were checking into the things that have really started to worry us.

I decided that I wasn't going to tell her any of our concerns until after she had done her "testing." She hadn't talked to anyone from his feeding team yet, nor did she know anything about him (imagine that...another one who doesn't read charts!!) I really did like her though and felt she was pretty thorough with her eval. Thankfully, Caleb demonstrated several of the things that we have been worried about while we were there.

At the end, she told me that he is actually doing quite well for all that he's been through (which we already knew). But, she definitely has some concerns as well. She is a bit concerned about his inability to focus on a specific task, but also noted that 3 year olds are busy and curious so she doesn't want to label him as ADD/ADHD at this point. Same goes for his inability to do independent play, and constantly needing attention/redirection which could be red flags, but also could be his age. She's pretty concerned about his extreme anxiety/anxiousness to unfamiliar and sometimes familiar situations, but is hopefull we'll be able to work through this with some type of therapy.

She didn't add up his scores from the testing, but did note that he doesn't really have a strong "base" with his skills. It's kind of hard to explain, but normally with this type of testing, you give the child certain things to do which get increasingly harder. You stop testing at the point at which they can no longer do the skill and that is the "age" at which they are functioning. Well, with Caleb, he still cannot master some things that a typical two year old can (so the testing should have stopped there), but he CAN draw a perfect circle and cut a straight line (which obviously a two year old can't do). Ironically, this is the same issue he had when he was tested as a baby...for instance, he couldn't sit up by himself, but he could pick up tiny objects and put them in a cup.

She also feels he is "globally delayed" which is not something anyone has suggested before, but she didn't really want to get into specifics until she added up her scores and looked at "the whole picture." I asked her if there were things I could do at home with him instead of bringing him to Children's for therapy. I told her that I do not want to bring him there weekly because A) the germs, B) he gets so anxious any time we are there, and C) I cannot bring Isaac with us and I don't have a babysitter for him. (Although I did leave him at my friend Kelly's house on Monday when I took C for his eval and he did fabulous. This was the first time I've left him with someone other than Joel or our parents and even then he cries when I leave. She told me it took him 45 minutes to realize I was gone. He had a lot of fun his his friend Anna, who is 3 weeks older than him....he didn't want to leave when I went to pick him up 2 hours later!)

Anyway, the OT told me that I am every therapists "dream." Apparently most parents want to bring their kids in weekly so they don't have to do any work. She told me she had no problem with me being his "therapist" at home. He has another appointment in 2 weeks and she'll tell us her official testing results, her opinions and the plan. Can't wait!! (read sarcasm....)