Today I took the kids in for a developmental screening since it was free and I had some questions about Kate. For Kaden they tested his eyes, ears, teeth, and general development (like vocab, physical abilities, etc...) He was so funny. First of all, every time we would walk past the front desk (about 12 times in all) he would point at it and say "HOT!!" and keep going. Also, whenever we would be heading to another area for more testing he would think he knew just where to go. Usually he was wrong, but he was at least very confident-ally wrong!
He HATED the hearing screening. Oooooh BOY! I've never heard him scream bloody murder like that before! Needless to say, his hearing screening got postponed til he's a little older and more mature.
He was ok with the eye check...they basically just took a picture of his eyes to send off to be checked. It was a very bright flash but since they did it first he was pretty cooperative!
For his teeth, he looooved brushing the freakishly large denture looking teeth with a large toothbrush. And insisting that it was hat. When it came time for brushing his own teeth he was pretty sure that lady should not be poking inside his mouth! I was afraid he was going to bite her. He didn't, but she didn't get to look at all his teeth either.
He loved the playing part of the testing. What could be better than the FULL attention of a stranger? He was a little goof for most of it. If she wanted to know what color things were, he would tell her what they were. ("shoes!" "Boy!"...) but as soon as she decided to give up on colors and ask what things were called he was more than happy to tell her what color they were. She asked him to jump and he had to put a block on the floor and jump OVER it. It just isn't jumping unless you jump OVER something, right? He was a little irritated that I was preoccupied with Katelyn's part (they did both at once) and would ignore the lady working with him to come over and get our attention.
Then he found the hoop. And not a ball. And it was the end of the world. Until we subsitituted the duck. Crisis averted, barely.
Also, he told the lady who played with him that she was cute.
Pretty much the ladies were in love with him. I don't blame them. They said he's above average on everything they tested him on, so the only thing I needed to work with him on was treating him like he's 2 and not older. It is hard to remember sometimes that he's only 2 and just because he talks and jumps like an older kid, he still understands his "world" like a 2 year old!
Kate just hung out with us for most of it, but she did get to get out and "play" in the play room. She passed all of her "tests" with flying colors. To pass, a 3 1/2 month old has to get 18 points. She got 38. I think she passed.
The reason I had taken them in was that I had a concern about Katelyn's development. I had noticed right around 2 1/2 months old that she pretty much never looked to her right. I had begun to hang toys on just the right side of her and help her sleep on her right side. I wondered if I was crazy or if it was something to worry about.
Today they verified that she has a mild version of Tortocollis. They could tell that she had been much worse, because of the way her head is shaped, but because I caught it so young, her head will go back to normal (I can't even tell it's mis-shaped if that tells you how little it is!) as long as I keep doing excersizes with her. Basically, tortocollis just means that the muscle on that side of her neck is tight and so it is needing to be stretched out. Once it is good and stretched out she will be able to turn her head easily both ways. They told me tummy time and a certain way of holding her are the best ways to help it. As well as putting toys on her right side and a stretching her shoulder. If it goes unchecked, the pressure of always having her head to the left can deform her head and be a problem. Since we caught it early it is no big deal! I was happy to know I was not crazy, and that it is such a common and treatable thing! They think it is due to how she was inside the womb, and that even then her muscle wasn't stretched out.
Who knew?
I highly recommend going to have your kids checked if you can do it in your community. It is a lot of fun to see how they do, and how smart they really are! I learned a lot of neat tricks of how to get Kaden to brush his teeth better, and things like that. Plus, who doesn't love to show off their kids!
Wow, that sounds much better than the one here. Although I wasn't actually there that day, I don't think they were as in depth with Nathan. Sounds like a good deal though!
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