Elias Developmental Evaluation

Sorry for the late update! Today was a big day for Elias in terms of showing off what he can do. This developmental evaluation is used as a baseline for the NICU follow-up program and to develop a plan for the infants & toddlers program, both of which Elias will be enrolled upon discharge. This service provides free of charge resources, in home, to aid in long term NICU babies overall developmental process. It helps to catch up on deficiencies and reinforces strengths. This can be Occupational, Physical, Speech Therapies or other types of early interventions necessary to ensure Elias is performing and adapting with his medical needs. This is an exciting program that is now starting to be implemented around the country. His developmental coordinator is the creator of this evaluation, so as usual, Elias is in the best possible hands. We are extremely fortunate to be where we are, without a doubt.

Overall, Elias did not "pass" the evaluation, but that is to be expected considering how long he has been in the NICU. Most of the reasons that caused him to fall short are feeding related. Considering he has always been fed through a feeding tube and now the G-Tube, this was an obvious deficiency, but one easily overcome with occupational therapy. Elias did however surprise her with areas she expected to be weak for medical reasons. His strengths are particularly strong in the areas of social interaction, which was no surprise to us. All you have to do is watch him smile. He was giving them out left and right to her as she played with him. She told us that it is amazing how bright his smile is first off, but that considering his medical and length of stay, you would expect to see a significant deficiency in this area. She made us feel very good by explaining that only us as parents could have made this such a strength. She was amazed at how he responds to us, both physically and vocally. It was a very reassuring experience and wonderful to receive the acknowledgment that we made the right decision to be at his bed side as often as possible. There are some people out there who have thought we should have gone back to work sooner because there was not a lot we could really do. Well, this proves it had a positive impact, not to mention self satisfying, and we would recommend it to any parent who has to endure a long term NICU stay. Elias also did well with tracking and following horizontal and vertical, but could not quite track in a circle. The biggest surprise came with the testing of neck usage skills. we know Elias has a strong neck, but he has not really sat up, straight up and certainly not without support. The test involved her sitting him straight without neck support to see how his neck and shoulder muscles react. Do you know amazing little boy held his neck up. We expected to see it flop forward. That was amazing to watch and her reaction again was very surprised. The whole evaluation took about 40 minutes with Elias then another hour to answer questions and discuss the findings. We will be getting a report on the evaluation along with a plan to further stimulate and aid in his development soon. We will certainly share this with everyone when we receive this.

Elias really enjoyed the time. It was stimulating, filled with different activities, and pushed his limits. While he did not pass the evaluation it identified the key areas to focus and showed there is not as much delay as you would expect. It also revealed what I'm sure everyone is going to say they already knew :) That he has some wonderful strengths that are atypical of a child in his circumstances. We enjoyed the opportunity to have Elias evaluated and apparently he did too. We walked away with a lot of answered questions and concerns diminished. So Hip Hip Hooray for Elias doing a magnificent job today!