Two Girls and Ethan: Evaluation - A gentle giant...????

Yesterday was Ethan’s evaluation at school.

Overall I am very pleased with his results.

I don’t have the actual evaluation with me so I am not able to relate the actual testing on here just yet. Hopefully I’ll have it later today and correct any information that is wrong.

Ethan is also evaluated yearly through ECI and at the Down Syndrome Clinic here in Houston, although we skipped our last appointment. Everyone has different views on the DS clinic, I do believe it offers great resources to other families but not necessarily to us. In my own experience they are able to evaluate our children and offer referrals. Well, I don’t find their evaluations very helpful since I feel they don’t see Ethan often enough to accurately tell me his strengths and weaknesses and as far as referrals our pediatrician has been very helpful in providing us with any other specialist (although we still need an endocrinologist –but it tough getting an appointment at Texas Children’s). Then again, Ethan doesn’t possess many health complications where we might have to be seeing more doctors, if that was the case maybe the DS clinic would come in more handy. Regardless I know the Ds Clinic has an awesome caring staff and a great valuable resource to the Ds community and we are very lucky to have a facility as such here in Houston.

And as far as his ECI evaluations, I do find them to be more accurate than the Ds clinic but not as thorough as it could be. The Rise school definitely provided a great evaluation with every concern answered before I even asked it.

They see my little guy every day, they see him on his bad days and on his good days, they know of all the great things he is able to do. His lowest mark was in the communication area, they evaluate him in different areas in communication so he ranged from 9 months to 17 months and I would totally I agree. He is not talking so that definitely puts him at a younger age developmentally along with the fact that he only has a handful of signs. He is very willing to learn and I know as long as we keep introducing signs he will keep picking them up, and hopefully real words will come in eventually. He can’t quite point to all the body parts (nose, mouth, feet and hands might be the only ones he knows) but I strongly believe we’ll get there sometime next year.

His adaptive skills were also on the “lower” side (not as low as 9months though, I believe 12 months if I remember correctly) but I already see him improving daily in that area. He is a great self eater and drinker and he is starting to attempt to dress himself, he might not be able to take off his shirt on command but he can definitely take off his bottoms and diaper in a split second. One of his goals is to give his empty plate to an adult when he is done eating, well he just (like in a matter of days) started to put his own empty dish in the sink. I think his adaptive skills will sky rocket in the next few months. He has become so independent in certain areas that it is frightening. He refuses to eat in his highchair now and likes to sit at his little table all by himself –DO NOT go near him while he eats, he needs his space. He'll even point me away.

His motor skills are pretty awesome and his fine motor skills still need some adjustments, although his pincher grasp is (apparently) something to brag about! One of his goals is to walk backwards… I guess Ethan has decided that he does NOT want to show his teachers and peers how well he can moonwalk. The kid walks backwards on a daily basis at home as he tries to walk away from me after being naughty. He finds it hilarious –and who am I kidding, so do I! I actually tried to get him to do it this morning for his teacher, but of course he was being a little stinker. They will be changing his goal now since he has already mastered that task.

I was most impressed that we are all on the same page and that no one is overlooking anything that he is or isn’t doing and that I completely agree with their findings. Sometimes as a parent you might second guess yourself and question whether you are doing something right or wrong, but when a team of people tell you the same thing then that offers some peace of mind.

And I am completely ok with the lower developmental age rankings, I know it. I accept that it is what it is and I cannot help Ethan unless I can fully be ok and understanding of his developmental delays. This is how we will overcome it, by working on his delays rather than dwelling on it. And that is simply my approach, it doesn’t make it better or worse than anyone else’s approach. I know some people become sad when they hear where their child is developmentally and it is ok to be sad. My husband actually told me he was a little sad when he heard how low he “scored” in the communication area. And it is OK. But we can’t dwell on those negative feelings, instead we are going to take that information and overcome those hurdles. (ok hunny… Ethan is badazz, and you know it!)

He is an awesome kid and they all agree he is super cute and charming but that I already knew! He was also described as a gentle giant –I laughed at that one, there is no gentle giant at home. Rough and tough is all we get at home. From what they said they have some pretty high goals for Ethan especially for the classroom that he is in. Ethan aims to please so he will get there -when he feels like it.

I truly believe in my heart that Ethan is destined to an amazing level of greatness… My super amazing child.

Because I am SO crafty…

I don’t know what happens sometimes, but sometimes I feel soooo crafty. Just the other night I stayed up till midnight making the girls hair bows… and a Christmas tutu…. A tutu for who… ??? I don’t know, I just wanted to make it and Ethan was happy to model it the next day. Hilarious.

But I also made these other Christmas ones: