Wednesday, August 29, 2012

2 Year Old Developmental Assessments


Cade and Camdyn had their 2 year old developmental assessments last week.  They are almost 2 1/2 now, but we just got aroud to the testing.  They were tested at their actual age of 29 months.  For some reason, "they" (whoever they is) have decided that at 2 years old they no longer adjust for prematurity as if somehow they have now gained back the 4 months in which they shouldn't have even been born and should be "caught up".  That term has always bothered me because full-term kids aren't expected to do any "catching up".  I digress.

They both did well considering they are being compared with 29 month olds rather than 25 month olds.  Last time they were assessed it was still on their adjusted age so they scored higher in all areas.  The assessent took 3 hours, so towards the end, they were both done.  When the tester asked them, "Can you show me the picture of the kids who are swimming?", Cade looked right at her and told her, "no" even though we both knew he understood the question and knew the answer.  Camdyn waved her hands signing "all done" and said "all done"! 

With what they were willing to do, they scored average in most areas.  Cade and Camdyn scored below average in gross motor skills.  I plan on having a physical therapy evaluation done, but I don't anticipate that they will need much physical therapy, if any.  Cade did score above average in fine motor skills.  He was determined to string the beads, and he accomplished it.  The only problem was that he was so fascinated with stringing the beads that is all he wanted to do.  As expected, Camdyn scored below average on expressive speech.  I have seen a lot of improvement in the past few weeks.  I've heard from other preemie parents that once they start pre-school that their language skills take off.  They are starting a two-days/week mother's day out program in a week, so I am hoping to see a lot of improvement.  They both are still receiving occupational therapy twice a month.  I think it really showed in their assessment that it is working because both of their highest scores were in fine motor skills/problem solving.  Camdyn will continue speech therapy weekly.  Hopefully, the physical therapy evaluation will reveal that they do not need PT, but we will see how that goes. 

Since posts with no pictures are no fun, here are some pics to show how they are doing exactly what 2 year olds do:


like enjoying lollipops

like getting into your mom's jewelry


like cuddling with your big sister on the couch


like fighting over whose turn it is to wash your hands










1 comment:

Marcie said...

I definitely agree about the catching up idea. In terms of development, it seems to only make sense that they be compared to babies of the same adjusted age.