Dex went today for his routine check-up at “Our Children’s House,” which is an extension of the Baylor system that does all types of physical therapy for children. I believe all the children that spent any amount of time in the NICU are referred there. We’ve been going every 3 months since he was born, just to check his development and make sure he’s on track and catching up with his age group. They evaluate him and tell us at what level he is doing several tasks. They play with him, watch his movements, watch him eat, listen to him talk, watch him interact, etc.
Specifically, there are three major areas, and there is one lady in the room that evaluates each: oral, motor, and sensory processing skills.
Dex is 12 months old this month, however, is evaluated with the realization that if he were born on time, he would only be 8 ½. When he was younger, at 6 months, he was doing things at a 3 month level, when he was 9 months, he was at about the 6-7 month level. Now that he’s 12 months he “performed” as follows:
Feeding – 11 months (he ate his first solid food today! We’ve been cleared to let him eat anything mushy and soft. She said to have him eat pieces of what we eat, to train him so we don’t have to make chicken nuggets or fish sticks every night J He actually chewed the Puff he was given perfectly, like he’d done it a million times before!)
Fine motor & Sensory processing – picking up blocks - large and small, pulling pegs out of a rack, using his thumb and first finger to pick up and examine things (like a Puff, for instance), reaching for things, following objects, keeping his hands at midline when playing with toys, crawling toward an object, social interaction with parents/others, focus/attention span – 9 to 11 months (depending on which subgroup, but I won’t go into all that!)
Large motor (?) – crawling, transitioning from sitting to crawling, crawling to sitting, standing – 7 months (he’s just now starting to scoot around, but will get his knees under him sometimes… they gave him credit for an “army crawl.” He also doesn’t pull himself up on things yet, although he tries, and when he stands he will get on his toes to lock everything to stabilize himself. We will have to work on that J)
So, overall, I would say a very good check-up! He’s starting to catch up to his real age, which is exciting! He should be completely caught up by 2 years. They see absolutely no signs of any issues, and we don’t have to go back for another 6 months. By then, they said he should be standing and walking! What??!! Aagg! Where has the time gone?
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