Global Delays

You may remember from a previous post that Cole was due for a multidisciplinary preschool team assessment with the Child Development Centre's Preschool Team back on August 2nd.  This appointment was and is a big deal for us because it would be the first time we would actually get an official Medical assessment and initial diagnosis for Cole's various identified delays.

The appointment went very well as Cole was having a good day.  Of course at these types of appointments I'm never sure whether having a good day is an asset, or, whether it would be better for others to truly see him at his worst.  I think after seeing the written report of our appointment, it probably didn't matter since the Pediatrician was clearly observant of what was atypical behaviour no matter what the degree it was presented.

The team seeing Cole that day was made up of a Developmental Pediatrician, a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist.  Here is what the Pediatrician had to say in summary about Cole:

Cole is a 3 year, 4 month old child referred for a developmental assessment.  Based on assessment today, his fine motor skills/visual motor skills were at a 27 month old level while his gross motor and problem solving skills were around a 30 month old level.  On the other had, Cole was certainly ahead with his letters, numbers, colours and shapes.  Based on our assessment today, Cole has a diagnosis of global developmental delay (language, cognitive, fine motor).  I suspect that he scored lower than what his true potential is in terms of his Cognitive Adaptive Test since most of the tasked involved visual motor skills.

From history, Cole has a number of atypical features in terms of his language development, communication, play skills and poor joint attention.  On the social communication questionnaire filled by mom he had a score of 21, which is significant.  I suspect that Cole does have autism spectrum disorder but have not made a formal diagnosis at the present time since I need more information around his social skills.  I suggested to the family that Cole be placed in a formal daycare setting for his social and overall development.

Diagnosis: Global developmental delay

The Pediatrician has recommended that Cole be referred for speech and language assessment as well as to a social worker for paper work and funding.  She has also recommended daycare for Cole as she had mentioned above.  After 2 or 3 months of being enrolled in daycare she would once again like to review Cole in order to make a better diagnosis about his social skills with the input of his teachers.

So indeed, it is likely that Cole does have autism.  But for now he has been diagnosed with Global Delays.  This primary diagnosis enables us to be approved for any programs and/or funding that may be available to help him with his needs.

So where do we go from here?  Step One:  Put Cole in childcare!  Stay tuned for a whole other post on this topic.

Playing Ketchup

Its been about a month since my last post.  There has definitely not been a lacking of stuff to blog about ... It's simply just been too busy.  Any extra down time I've had has been me taking a break from all the stuff floating around in my head.  There have been a lot of decisions and stuff to process through, plus 2 weeks of vacation.  So I'm attempting this week to play catch up on the blogging front.  There's just to much do say in one post, so I'll be chopping things up in their own little chunks.  Bear with me and please keep reading.  Who doesn't like Ketchup ... right?!

R.I.P.

Last week there was a funny smell in the house.  I could smell it between a couple of floors of our spilt level but in the same area.  After a couple of days Dave decided to extend the search.  We have a dirt crawl space that gets pretty creepy crawly, but that turned out empty.  Finally Dave tracked it to our furnace/storage area.  And sure enough there on top of the box of our packed up Christmas tree was a dead chipmunk.  How he got in, we don't know.  How he died is as much of a mystery.

I've been watching a whole family of chipmunks all spring and summer that like to hang out in our yard.  They come right up to our patio and can often be seen sitting on the pair of wooden planter boxes in the garden outside our backdoor in the morning (see picture).  I haven't seen them as much lately (though they're still there) but this could perhaps be why.

Dave did the removal since we all know that I don't do dead rodents.

Poor little chipmunk.  I'm too thrilled about having a dead chipmunk in my house, but I'm not sure having a live one running around would have been any better.

Rest In Peace Chipmunk

? - 2011

My Pollywog

Splash, splash, splash

Ready, set ...

... catch!

Family Mantra #8

Just say "NO" to eating Playdough.

That means you Miss Kendall.

That's right ... I caught on to your compulsion.  It goes something like this:

1) put playdough up to your nose and take a HUGE sniff.  We're talking one large inhale for at least 5 seconds.  Not sure if you can huff playdough ... but if so ... I think you may have a problem.

and then ...

2) in less than a blink of an eye, shove a whole wad of that salty dough into your mouth.

My husband said this would be a better post if I had some video of it.  It REALLY IS hilarious.  However, I was too busy trying to keep her from sniffing and then devouring a whole can of the stuff, and until she kicks the habit, I'm afraid any video will remain illusive.