Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Asher's "Early Steps" Update...

Early Steps is a program run through Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital which focuses on testing children's developmental progress and employing early intervention / therapies to improve low areas. The wonderful thing about this program is that it is state funded and it will pay the bill for treatments if you insurance will not! The ladies were all very nice and seemed well educated in each of their fields of study.

This is how Asher's tests results broke down: For grading purposes, the scale goes up to 115, but a score of 100 is average/good.

Using hands and body (Gross/Fine Motor Skills) - 95 Problems here relate to poor head control/strength which we can work on by adding more "tummy time" to his daily routine.

Eating, Dressing and Toileting (Self-Help/Adaptive Skills - 55 This one relates to the fact that he is tube fed and needs some oral motor therapy. We are seeing an OT next week relating to this and have been referred for 30 min a week for the next 6 months which is when he will be evaluated again.

Expressing and Responding to Feelings and Interacting with Others (Social/ Emotional ) - 95

Playing, Thinking , Exploring (Academic/Cognitive including pre-literacy skills) - 93

Understanding and Communicating (Receptive and Expressive Communication) - 95


Overall, he is right where he should be developmentally in a lot of areas....which is very reassuring.

He is still on the thin side when compared to other children his age, but when looking back to where he started, he is looking pretty good!!! Check out the meat on those legs!! ;) In fact, I think this will be the last time he can wear that cute little onesie that I like so much...it's about to bust at the buttons ;)

He is so precious when he sleeps...I just want to pick him up and squeaze him ;)

Well, that's it for now....gotta get Asher's morning feed started.

Blessings!
~Erika~

2 comments:

Dixiemom7 said...

AAW! I want to squeeze him too! Sounds like he's doing amazing!

fixedonHIM said...

Woo Hoo...Go God!! Look at those test scores...awesome!!

Asher is such a cutie pie and so blessed to have parents that STAND FIRM on the word for their family.