We
began the week by seeing a 7 year old little boy with ADHD for his
second assessment. Such an intelligent, gentle little boy caught up
in a whirlwind of his own hyperactivity, but definitely calmer than
his first assessment and his attention definitely easier to capture.
Sometimes it can take time to slow hyperactive kids down, but I feel
we are making progress.
On
Tuesday we saw a 4 year old little girl who has PVL and developmental
delay. Today was her 7th assessment and although she still has
significant problems, she is streets ahead of that 1 year old I first
saw who was locked away within herself. She is using her vision
beautifully to explore her environment, understanding more language,
making choices, crawling on all fours and we are not far away from
standing. Like me though, she is totally motivated by food!
On
Wednesday we welcomed a 4 year old little boy for his 9th assessment.
He has a diagnosis of severe cerebral palsy and was forecast not to
live. Yes he still has many problems, but he is absolutely streets
ahead of where he would have been and is thriving. His visual and
auditory cognition have risen to where they will soon be at the top
of the developmental profile, - he can sit, can stand with support
and his tactile processing issues are resolved, as is his inner
anxiety. His muscle tone is much improved and we now have 3 words of
speech, (with many more to come I think). There is a massive
difference in his awareness of and engagement with his environment
and the people in it. It has taken a while and a great deal of hard
work, battling against epilepsy too, to achieve all this, - but look
how far he has come in comparison to that initial prognosis, which
was as bad as it can get!
On
Thursday, we welcomed a 7 year old little girl back for her 3rd
assessment. Her diagnosis is cerebral palsy and CVI. Today I watched
her visually steering her hands, taking the top off a pen and
replacing it with great precision, which is great because hand
function is also a problem. Visually and auditorially she is now
'switched on' and has visual and auditory abilities at the top of the
profile, is trying to get herself into the 4 point crawling position
and has an expanding vocabulary of words. A super assessment with a
highly intelligent little girl.
We
finished the week by meeting a great new family with a 20 month old
little boy who has no formal diagnosis but what the medical people
feel looks like developmental delay / cerebral palsy. He is such a
bright gregarious little chap, I could have stayed there all day with
him. Again, a little one with huge things going for him despite his
developmental problems. A lovely way to end the week.
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