At the beginning of April, Cooper had a speech evaluation. The speech pathologist said that he failed the evaluation, but not enough to qualify for services. She said he measured three months behind on both his receptive (understanding what you tell him) and expressive (talking) communication. This could be easily explained by the months of fluid on his ears, and then the intensive physical therapy he has been undergoing for his motor delay. She gave me some recommendations of what we can do to help his speech develop.
In the last six weeks, his speech has blossomed. Every day he has new words. Walking to church today, he pointed at a tree, "Tree!" He said "thank you" today for the first time. He has started using two word sentences. I cut a piece of cake the other day for a snack, and he looked at it and said, "Cake! Bite please!" He watched me make my fried egg with toast and cheese this morning, and said, "Toast? Cheese?" with such a tone of intense betrayal since he was eating mini-pancakes for breakfast, and toast and cheese are two of his favorite foods.
He is picking up new nouns about as fast as I can teach them. I expect to hear him say, "Go put that back" and "Come back here" any day now. And hopefully, "I love you."
Showing posts with label cooper parenting delays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooper parenting delays. Show all posts
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Monday, December 15, 2008
Life with a toddler
I think I can officially say that I am now living with a toddler. Our physical therapist warned us that we were going to spend an awful lot of energy to get Cooper to walk, and at least once a week we would wonder why in the world we ever wanted the kid to be mobile. It's amazing the things he can get into now.
His favorite place: on top of the kitchen table.
He's also figured out that he can scoot chairs and get to the knobs on the stove, the crock of cooking utensils on the kitchen counter, and the answering machine on the phone.
Also, he will let me know when I am done watching TV. He just walks over and turns it off.
He walks. And walks. From room to room. From place to place. Back and forth. And when he's done walking, he drops down on his bottom and says, "Boom."
Cooper walks.
And all the mess, and rearranging, and kidproofing is totally worth it to be working at the computer and to see my baby walk into the office and say, "Hi!"
His favorite place: on top of the kitchen table.
He's also figured out that he can scoot chairs and get to the knobs on the stove, the crock of cooking utensils on the kitchen counter, and the answering machine on the phone.
Also, he will let me know when I am done watching TV. He just walks over and turns it off.
He walks. And walks. From room to room. From place to place. Back and forth. And when he's done walking, he drops down on his bottom and says, "Boom."
Cooper walks.
And all the mess, and rearranging, and kidproofing is totally worth it to be working at the computer and to see my baby walk into the office and say, "Hi!"
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
It just occurred to me
We spent yesterday traveling to a large children's hospital to have a consultation with a pediatric surgeon about Cooper's diastasis. The surgeon doesn't think it needs to be surgically corrected, and does not believe it is contributing to his developmental delay, contrary to the opinion of the physical therapist. He says that this condition usually corrects itself by the time they are five, and his really is not that bad. So, yay for them not chopping open my baby, but I am now confused about what my therapist is thinking, and whether or not he knows what he is talking about. That will probably be another post.
Because it just occurred to me that I hadn't been making any plans for Halloween because I didn't want to be disappointed if we were in the hospital for Halloween, and now I need to figure out a costume in nine days.
Because it just occurred to me that I hadn't been making any plans for Halloween because I didn't want to be disappointed if we were in the hospital for Halloween, and now I need to figure out a costume in nine days.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Drive by parenting
I took Cooper to story time at the library this morning. After the stories, he was crawling around in the bean bag area and one of the other moms looked at him and said, "You need to learn to walk." I'm not sure how to respond to comments like that yet. I'm still new to this land of having a child who is officially delayed.
That's right, Cooper has a delay. He has a gross motor skills delay. He's almost 18 months old and can't walk or stand independently. I've spent the last month in and out of medical offices and hospitals of one flavor or another getting various assessments and procedures done, and at this point am looking forward to weekly physical therapy appointments for the foreseeable future, a major surgery, wanting to sue my pediatrician for malpractice, finding a new pediatrician, and trying to cope with my baby going under general anesthesia again, this time for major abdominal surgery. That minor problem he was born with that his pediatrician seemed so unconcerned about for so long has contributed to a major gross motor delay, and left Ben lagging further and further behind where he should be, and now I have mothers at story time looking at my baby judgmentally and telling him he needs to learn to walk.
I don't know why this is okay. I'm not sure why when it comes to parenting it's okay to comment on someone else's abilities. I wouldn't walk by someone's desk at work and say "You need to learn how to type faster." I wouldn't tell the check-out boy at a grocery store, "You need to learn how to bag groceries better." Why would you tell a child that they aren't performing adequately? I know he needs to learn to walk, but giving me, or even worse, my baby, the stink eye, is not going to help the matter. So, mothers of all you perfect children out there, why don't you do the rest of us all a favor, and just shut up? Trust me, we're doing the best we can. The daily climb up life's mountain is hard enough as it is without you dumping bricks of hate in the diaper bag. Thanks. Love and kisses.
That's right, Cooper has a delay. He has a gross motor skills delay. He's almost 18 months old and can't walk or stand independently. I've spent the last month in and out of medical offices and hospitals of one flavor or another getting various assessments and procedures done, and at this point am looking forward to weekly physical therapy appointments for the foreseeable future, a major surgery, wanting to sue my pediatrician for malpractice, finding a new pediatrician, and trying to cope with my baby going under general anesthesia again, this time for major abdominal surgery. That minor problem he was born with that his pediatrician seemed so unconcerned about for so long has contributed to a major gross motor delay, and left Ben lagging further and further behind where he should be, and now I have mothers at story time looking at my baby judgmentally and telling him he needs to learn to walk.
I don't know why this is okay. I'm not sure why when it comes to parenting it's okay to comment on someone else's abilities. I wouldn't walk by someone's desk at work and say "You need to learn how to type faster." I wouldn't tell the check-out boy at a grocery store, "You need to learn how to bag groceries better." Why would you tell a child that they aren't performing adequately? I know he needs to learn to walk, but giving me, or even worse, my baby, the stink eye, is not going to help the matter. So, mothers of all you perfect children out there, why don't you do the rest of us all a favor, and just shut up? Trust me, we're doing the best we can. The daily climb up life's mountain is hard enough as it is without you dumping bricks of hate in the diaper bag. Thanks. Love and kisses.
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