Let's Do This

I met with Stevie's case worker from the Regional Center for the first time.  She was nice.  We went over a lot of information.  Too much for my brain to remember it all.  The things that stood out were Stevie's scores on his evaluations.

He will be turning 18 months in just a couple weeks but he is only performing at a 10-month old level overall.

There was a range between all his scores that brought them to that conclusion.  For instance, with his Communication Development (words/gestures/understanding), he is only performing at an 8-month old level.  His Gross Motor Skills, he's at an 11-month old level, but his Fine Motor Skills, he is only at the level of a 7-month old!!  Quite a shock to me, but it does make sense.  Especially with his vision limitations.  (I'm not going to lie, when they told me that, I felt defensive and guilty.  But that's for another blog post.)  They also tested his Cognitive Skills, Social Development and Adaptive Development, etc.

So the big question is what's next?

By the end of the month, we should be starting 3 different therapies.  Infant Stimulation therapy will be once a week.  Vision Therapy will be once a week.  And Physical Therapy will be once a month.  The therapists will come to our house and work with Stevie for about an hour.  The case worker told me that she is finding people who will be a little aggressive without making the kid hate them.  I like that.  I don't mind working him hard.

We'll be on this track for about 3 months and then evaluate his progress.  If he is making good progress we'll keep to this schedule.  If he is not where we want him to be, we will increase each therapy session to 2x's a week.  Which would mean he'd have therapy almost every single day.
So I'm hoping we will see a lot of improvement quickly!

We also set some goals for Stevie.  So over the next 6 months, he should be able to:

Say single words
Sit through a meal without spitting
Understand no-no
Play independently
Feed himself
Explore his environment
Stand independently
Walk
Run

If he has reached these goals in 6 months, we will set new goals.  If not, we will talk about where he's at and refine these goals.

Yay for me!

So there you have it.  A lot of new things in the works.  I am really looking forward to seeing how they work with him.  And what new things he will learn.

Most people wish their kids were babies longer.  And I know in the future, looking back, I will wish the same.  But babies are a lot of work.  Especially when they are 28 pounds.  I think its safe to say, at this point in time, we are ready to move on to the toddler stage.  A whole new set of adventures.  But it will be a good thing in so many ways.