Progress

Today we took Sweet'ums to her developmental screening. If you've been reading you know that this was a huge source of stress for me in the past few weeks and as you can imagine I'm very relieved to have it behind me.

It was so much easier than I had expected.

When we got there they took us to a waiting area and gave us a quick rundown on what to expect. Then, they whisked Sweet'ums away to begin her part of the screening.

While she was gone the other lady asked us about a zillion questions. Of course they were the types that you feel the need to explain beyond a simple yes or no and it took us forever, it seemed. They ranged from how she interacts (or doesn't) with other kids and what ages she prefers to be around, to her sleep habits, to what textures she eats or doesn't eat, to whether she has any peculiar fears and interests. She also went through an autism checklist with us while we waited.

Then, Sweet'ums and her testing lady came back out. Sweet'ums was directed to the little room across the hall to play while they talked to us.

Her eyes and ears seem to be fine. Obviously she's still young to test very thoroughly but it was apparently to Test Lady that she sees and hears plenty well enough. So she sits down and explains to us the evaluation she'd done. Out of a possible twenty-five points, my child got two.

TWO.

There were at least two things Sweet'ums attempted and didn't quite get. Her duplications of what she was supposed to do displayed understanding of what she was being asked but a minor failure in actual execution. For example, her vertical line was slightly tilted and so they couldn't give her a point for it. Her little block bridge she built from memory from one Test Lady built, showed her from behind a curtain, and hid again didn't have a gap between the two bottom blocks like Test Lady's did so she didn't get points for that either. Those are just the two Test Lady told us about--the others she didn't get points for I'm not sure if she attempted and failed miserably, or if she just didn't try. With her there's no telling. Test Lady couldn't get her to answer any questions or really respond to much of anything she did, except for when she pulled out a book and had her show her things in the pictures. She said Sweet'ums did say a couple things and the words she said were pronounced beautifully, but she just didn't say enough for them to get a good, solid grasp of her language skills. In an effort to engage Sweet'ums in talk and play she pulled out some bubbles. She said that Sweet'ums would dip the wand, blow on it, and dip it again, without caring too much whether she got bubbles or not. She'd smile if she got bubbles, but she wouldn't talk about them.

They're referring us for more testing, a developmental/psych evaluation and an evaluation with what she called the "autism team". She said they had somewhat different tools for evaluating and might be able to get a better grip on what Sweet'ums can and can't do. On the copy of the results sheet she gave me, it says we're being referred for further testing for "possible Asperger's". Questions Lady did mention that it could be a sensory issue too, so I guess we'll see.

We should be hearing from them soon about setting up the secondary testing. She said the next test should be within the next month, month and a half, so at least it's not a bad wait. And at least the first hurdle is out of the way.

Sweet'ums behaved wonderfully at least and didn't throw a fit or anything. She cooperated and didn't act afraid of the strangers testing her out of sight of Mommy and Daddy, so I don't think it was a bout of shyness or stranger-danger or whatever. I think she was just being Sweet'ums.

So that was today. How is everyone out there?