Developmental Assessment

On Wednesday, August 12, Caden had a developmental assessment appointment at Sutter Memorial Hospital. They contacted us shortly upon our arrival home from the hospital in Stanford about setting this up. I guess they like to do these appointments for high risk kids and preemies and he will have a couple more over the next few years. I didn't really figure they would tell me anything I didn't already know about Caden. After all, we know he is developmentallly delayed, especially with his gross motor skills. But that is the reason he is receiving physical therapy and working with a developmental specialist.

First we met with a physical therapist and an occupational therapist where they did a standardized assessment of him. I don't have a copy of the report yet, but from what I can remember, he scored in normal ranges for cognitive ability. His fine motor skills were on the low end of normal and his gross motor skills were way below normal. Nothing too new there. But it was nice to have the confirmation that his cognitive abilities seem good.

After meeting with the PT and OT, we met with a Nurse Practitioner. She weighed him, measured his length and head circumference and just talked to me about his overall medical issues. She could clearly see that we are on top of all his issues and said she was impressed.

Then we met with a social worker, just part of the package deal. She had gotten a brief update from the people we had already seen and was aware of all the services and therapies Caden is already receiving. So, she just wanted to know how we were handling things and if we had a good support network. I didn't spend too much time with her as I told her we were getting all the help we needed and had a fantastic support network. Our meeting with her was very brief as it didn't seem she could find anything “wrong” with our family, etc. All she could say is that we seemed like we were being really proactive and doing a great job.

Overall, the appointment went fine. It was just a long morning for poor little Caden. But the assessments pretty much confirmed what we already knew so there were no real surprises.