Doctor, Doctor, Am I Sick? — Mommy Moments

Last Wednesday, my daughter and I went for her neurodevelopmental assessment re-evaluation to check on her progress and I was happy to hear a confirmation straight from her doctor that she is improving wonderfully. I personally see these wonderful improvements with her but hearing the feedback from an expert is such a welcomed feedback. It’s not just me her teacher and therapist who could testify to her progress that all happened in six months. I am hopeful that with continued help from all of them she will gracefully leave the low-functioning autism spectrum.

When she was assessed six months ago, it was devastating for me to hear how bad my daughter regressed. She was 6 years and 6 months old then but she was assessed as having a developmental age of 9 1/2 months to 1 year and 9 months old child.

Back then she used to put all the things she touches in her mouth and she has excessive drooling, she haven’t done a task she was asked to do and was completely restless and very much nonverbal.

Today, using the Griffiths Mental Development Scale, Tasha’s neurodevelopmental abilities ranges from 12 months – 2.8 years with noted gains on all domain: locomotor (gross motor), personal social, hearing and speech (language), eye-hand coordination (fine motor) , performance (nonverbal).

Now there is a notable gain on all domain. I am so proud of her achievements! Imagine in a span of six months a noticeable progress. Her strength is seen in the nonverbal domain and weakness in the language domain.

Her doctor now recommends speech and language therapy that will focus on her communication skills.

Other recommendations were as follow:

1) Continue occupational therapy interventions to further improve her working behaviors, fine mother and daily living skills.

2) Continue special education program to address her educational needs and provide socialization with other children her age.

3) Encourage follow up of therapy interventions at home.

4) Engage in other activities at home:
*outdoor play: pedaling a bike, standing on 1 leg, kicking of ball.
* looking at picture book, labeling objects
* coloring, folding and cutting of paper
* threading of macaroni beads
* manipulative toys

5) Follow-up with child neurologist to monitor and adjust her medications as needed.

6) Developmental review after 6 months to monitor her progress.

Oh while visiting maybe you want to check out the EVENTS FOR MOMS this May and hope to see you there especially at the Moms Expo at Power Plant! 🙂