So Early Childhood Intervention came on Tuesday to assess Ben's progress in verbal, social, and motor skills. The main reason they came was for verbal, but they always do all three when they come. Anyway, they told us what we already knew. Ben is just fine. Praise God.
For social and verbal skills, he scored like a 17 month old. For fine motor, he was a little behind (this includes drawing, etc), but for gross motor, he was way ahead (his baseball skills). For cognitive, he actually scored like a 22 month old. So basically, he is aware of everything and knows a lot for his age, something else we already knew! :) They told us to try to spend more time letting him draw and color to work on his fine motor skills. The problem is right now he has no interest in it. But we'll keep trying. For verbal skills, they told us to make sure Ben is looking at us when we talk to him. They said he is very focused and intense when he's doing something and tends to not look at people. They said that a child's verbal skills develop a lot by seeing your lips move. Very interesting. Anyway, because Ben was a preterm baby, a small delay is expected, so they weren't worried at all. They said that he does animals sounds that a lot of 2 year olds don't do, and they expect him to develop drastically in the next couple of months.
I can't wait! But I also want everything to slow down! Today, he said "hot" and "nose" for the first time. They told me his vocabulary will be expanding daily. Crazy! Since my last blog entry, he also started saying "mo" for remote when he wants to watch his shows, and he uses it adamantly!
He's also started a nightly wrestling routine with his dad. It is priceless. He jumps on Hector like he's trying to pin him. I'll have to get it on video. For such a mellow sweet kid, he's one mean wrestler. Hector has the marks to prove it! :) He's 100% boy, that's for sure!
I'm just as thankful as ever for my awesome men. And I'm extra thankful tonight that our concerns about Ben's development are now layed to rest. To God be the glory!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Look Who's Talking!
Last month I took Ben in for his 18 month check up. Everything went great, except the doctor was a little concerned about how much he was talking. She asked me how many words he was saying. I said, he says "gugar" for sugar, "ba" for ball, and ocassionally will refer to me and hector as ma ma and da da. But that everything else was either that strange sound he makes in the back of his throat or "da". I asked how many words he should be saying, and she said 15-18. Needless to say, he was not even close to that.
So she recommended we have someone from Early Childhood Intervention come out to do a home assessment of his verbal skills. She said while they were there they would also assess his motor and social skills. I'm not at all concerned about motor, but verbal and social I was definitely curious about. She said that if they found that Ben needed any speech therapy or any other support, it would be free through AISD. So we set up an appt that was supposed to happen last Thursday. But Ben was really sick all week so we had to reschedule it for next Tuesday.
Well, I guess he doesn't like the thought of being assessed, because since his 18 month check up, which was almost 4 weeks ago, his vocabulary has expanded a bit. He now says "no" "mo" for more, "ba" for bat, "uice" for juice, "yaya", "nana", "sassa" for Savannah, "uh oh", "bye bye", "side" for outside and "be" for Fresh Beat Band. I'm tempted to cancel the appointment, but I'm going to keep it just to see what they think. It's so cool to see how quickly he's developing. It's also freaking me out a little!
So she recommended we have someone from Early Childhood Intervention come out to do a home assessment of his verbal skills. She said while they were there they would also assess his motor and social skills. I'm not at all concerned about motor, but verbal and social I was definitely curious about. She said that if they found that Ben needed any speech therapy or any other support, it would be free through AISD. So we set up an appt that was supposed to happen last Thursday. But Ben was really sick all week so we had to reschedule it for next Tuesday.
Well, I guess he doesn't like the thought of being assessed, because since his 18 month check up, which was almost 4 weeks ago, his vocabulary has expanded a bit. He now says "no" "mo" for more, "ba" for bat, "uice" for juice, "yaya", "nana", "sassa" for Savannah, "uh oh", "bye bye", "side" for outside and "be" for Fresh Beat Band. I'm tempted to cancel the appointment, but I'm going to keep it just to see what they think. It's so cool to see how quickly he's developing. It's also freaking me out a little!
For the Love of Baseball
OK, so Ben has taken his love for baseball to a totally new level. We were at Hector's softball game a couple of weeks ago, and he was just as plugged in as ever. He watched the the whole game. When they were finished playing, Ben insisted that Hector give him a bat and let him hit the ball. He did that for about 20 minutes until Hector had to pick him up and put him in his carseat... with the bat.
Hector went out with the guys, and Ben and I went home. For the next three hours Ben reenacted the softball game. Everything around him was either a ball or a bat. At first I didn't realize what he was doing. He started swinging his shape sorter around and kept hitting his shapes with it. Then when we got in the bath, he used two toothbrushes as a bat and his bath toy as a ball. I would hold the toy like a tee ball, and he would hit it out of my hand. This went on for almost an hour. When I made him get out of the bath, he picked up his recorder, as a bat, and used a megablock as a ball. I don't know how his arms weren't exhausted!
Well that was a couple of weeks ago, and he's still at it. He's used batteries, sticks, forks, pens, you name it as bats. It's like he sees everything through baseball eyes! Every time we go outside, he wants to play. He actually tried to hit weeds out of my hand today! We've been to two more games since then, and he's just as plugged in. Everyone thinks he is so cute! They can't believe how advanced he is. We're looking at putting him in a class called Lil' Sluggers. They start teaching kids the fundamentals of baseball at 2! We'll wait and see if he loves it then as much as he does now! If so, that class will be a must!
Hector went out with the guys, and Ben and I went home. For the next three hours Ben reenacted the softball game. Everything around him was either a ball or a bat. At first I didn't realize what he was doing. He started swinging his shape sorter around and kept hitting his shapes with it. Then when we got in the bath, he used two toothbrushes as a bat and his bath toy as a ball. I would hold the toy like a tee ball, and he would hit it out of my hand. This went on for almost an hour. When I made him get out of the bath, he picked up his recorder, as a bat, and used a megablock as a ball. I don't know how his arms weren't exhausted!
Well that was a couple of weeks ago, and he's still at it. He's used batteries, sticks, forks, pens, you name it as bats. It's like he sees everything through baseball eyes! Every time we go outside, he wants to play. He actually tried to hit weeds out of my hand today! We've been to two more games since then, and he's just as plugged in. Everyone thinks he is so cute! They can't believe how advanced he is. We're looking at putting him in a class called Lil' Sluggers. They start teaching kids the fundamentals of baseball at 2! We'll wait and see if he loves it then as much as he does now! If so, that class will be a must!
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