This time last year we were adjusting to parenthood, physical therapy, and the possibility of Seth needing a DOC band to correct his head shape. Seth is now 15 months old, in the 97th percentile and such a joy to be around. In the past few months we have been going through the process of having Seth evaluated for Physical, Occupational, and Speech therapy. I had to fill out a bunch of forms about Seth recently and after writing 8 pages worth of things he can't do and the things he does awkwardly, they asked me this question: What do you admire most about your child? It was one of those questions posed at just the right moment that it gets you on so many levels. Here I was
focusing on the negative and doing everything in my power to effectively
explain why we were referred to them in the first place and suddenly I
am asked to say my favorite thing about him, his best quality. Well, I
would like to share what I wrote. My favorite thing about Seth is that he never gives up. He is curious and outgoing and when he sets his mind to something, he works at it until he masters it. It is my greatest joy watching him do this, lately he has taken to learning to climb certain things and can now get onto every piece of furniture in the house including the kitchen table.
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| My happy boy, he loves water. |
Seth had his evaluations today and is 55% delayed in speech. The youngest they usually start speech therapy is 15 months but Seth is so delayed that his speech is in the 3-6 month range (he just started babbling). This means that he is not ready for speech therapy so in the meantime he will start a therapy called infant stim. This therapy will help develop his mouth muscles and comprehension and get him to the point where he can start speech therapy. The concern is even greater because of his family history, both Brandon and I needed therapy. Brandon along with all his brothers and my sister needed speech therapy and I had to go in to learn how to swallow properly.
Seth will also be needing occupational therapy for several reasons, the biggest being his spacial awareness, or lack there of, and perception but his scores were not high enough to qualify for the government program we are working with. They are going to try and petition an exception based on their assessment that he is "a danger to himself". I am not sure how I feel about that but after two split lips, a chipped tooth, walking off ledges, lots of goose-eggs, scabs and gagging (one of the things he needs to work on is chewing and realizing how much is in his mouth) I kind of see their point. He doesn't need physical therapy as most of his gross motor scores are off the charts awesome!
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| Seth got a major haircut. We all miss his blonde hair but things are so much easier now. |
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| Seth's first drawing, he gave it to grandma. |
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| He LOVES running down hills. |
