Thomas

[jeriendhal]

Took Thomas to the Kennedy-Krieger Institute up in Baltimore to be evaluated independantly of his school system.

Short Version: He's Developmentally Delayed, but we knew that already. Judging from his history and performance at the examination he's age the level of a two-year old (he just turned three). Tracy and I were impressed by some of the things the doctor had him do however, demonstrating some words and skills we hadn't seen before.

The Bad: Some of his fine motor skills and physical aspects (loose muscle tone, inward curved pinkies) are indicative of autism, but that isn't for certain. Overall he doesn't seem austistic, but he does have problems. Worst case scenario he might be slightly retarded.

The Good: He *IS* progressing, albeit slowly, and has really broken out in langauge development the past few weeks. We're doing everything we're supposed to be doing. The doctor recommended some blood tests to look for genetic or bio factors for his delay, but that's about it. We were modestly satisfied. We didn't hear anything we hadn't before, but on the plus side the news wasn't *worse*.

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Thanks for thinking about us. Every time we go see a doctor about Thomas' development our hearts our in our throats, but yesterday was a good day overall. It helps that he is making obvious progress now, and is able to communicate his needs to us much better than he has in the past year.