Early Intervention

Our pediatrician has recommended that we pursue an Early Intervention (EI) evaluation for Finn, just to get him up to speed on a few things.  I'll preface to say that although I'm looking forward to having EI's support, overall I think he's doing well and I have no doubts he will develop beautifully.  But Finn is super laid back and content, his nature isn't to rush headlong into new challenges with blazing energy.  He strolls placidly through life, taking things as they come.  This disposition, combined with an extremely chatty and active older sister who does a lot of activities for him, predisposes him to not necessarily tackle all milestones as expeditiously as others.

There are two areas that EI will address:  1) speech and 2) upper muscle tone/movement coordination.

I don't think they will actually do a whole lot with his speech.  He's technically behind a little from where the piece of paper at the doctor's office says he should be, but not by much.  At 16 months he says "Mama" and "Dada" consistently, but that's really it.  A couple of times here or there he's said other words, but not regularly.  I don't envision him being a big talker for awhile.  First of all, Zoey talks NON-STOP so he can't get a word in edgewise.  But in good news, he understands what we tell him.  If we ask if he's hungry, he walks over to his highchair.  If we ask if he wants to take a nap, he walks over to the stairs that lead up to his room.  He points to what he wants.  He brings you his cup if he wants a drink.  He waves goodbye when people leave.  So he knows what's going on and he communicates in other ways, he's just not a talker yet.  I'm honestly completely ok with that, the talking will come.

Now, the physical aspect he actually does need some help on.  Here's the problem:  Finn never crawled.  He went from sitting to walking.  As soon as we put him on his feet as a baby, his legs were very strong and he was able to cruise around on furniture very early on.  He always HATED being on his belly.  Well, it's become clear that by skipping crawling he also skipped out on learning some necessary movements and transitions.  At 16 months he doesn't transition from laying to sitting or from sitting to standing.

At first, we didn't even realize there was an issue.  In the morning when we would go in to get him from his crib, he was never sitting or standing.  He was just contentedly laying there, playing with his blankie or toys until we picked him up.  When he would be walking through the house and fall on his butt, a lot of times he wouldn't fuss and would then be happy to sit and play, so he didn't really get himself back up.  That didn't trigger us to think anything of it.  The times he would fuss, one of us would pick him up, not realizing that therefore he wasn't getting the pulling-up skill.

Since we've realized that he actually couldn't go from laying to sitting or from sitting to standing on his own, we've been working with him and doing a lot of encouragement.  I've seen definite improvement in his core muscle strength and his upper body strength.  But EI will evaluate him and give us very specific things to help him along.

Both the pediatrician and the EI intake coordinator said they really don't feel like there is anything "wrong" outside of the fact that he's a bit lazy/laid-back and just hasn't been using his muscles (mostly upper body) to his full potential and needs some help understanding how to get through the transitions.  I'm looking forward to Finn's formal evaluation, which will be February 9th.  At that day, the folks from EI will come and check him out to find out if he definitely needs the services and if so, what exactly he needs and how to proceed.  If they don't think he needs the formal program, then they may just give us some exercises to do at home.

Now, in awesome news, Finn's fine motor skills blow Zoey's out of the water.  Finn has been able to use utensils since before he was 1.  We're STILL trying to get Zoey to use a fork.  Finn has been very intuitive with stacking blocks and putting things together.  He's very interested in coloring and drawing, whereas at this age Zoey just ate the crayons (and the wrappers).   It's so interesting to me how they work on and excel at different skills at different times.