Early On Evaluation

Last Saturday Justin was evaluated by Early On's physical therapist. Unfortunately I wasn't present for the assessment so I was excited to get a copy of the therapist's report today. Justin was evaluated in the following 6 areas:

Fine Motor Skills - assessed at 3-5 months since he's not transferring toys from hand to hand, does not have complete thumb opposition on objects, use pincer grasp with objects or poke at items with his index finger

Gross Motor Skills - assessed at 6 months since he's not sitting unsupported or attempting to get into a crawling position

Cognitive Thinking - assessed at 6 months since he's not not able to find partially hidden objects, uncover his face from underneath a blanket, bang objects or rotate a bottle to drink

Communication - assessed at 6-8 months as he's vocalizing emotions and consonant sounds, can locate a sound source, but not yet imitating sounds or combining consonants & vowels

Social/Emotional - assessed at 6-8 months as he laughs and smiles during physical play, smiles at his image in the mirror, and smiles spontaneously, but not yet reaching for image of self in mirror or participating in pat a cake and peek a boo games

Adaptive - assessed at 3 -5 months, mainly because we've just recently introduced solids and sippy cups so we're still working on drinking from a cup, picking up spoon and trying to feed himself

Keep in mind that this evaluation was based on Justin's actual age and not adjusted for his prematurity, so overall Justin's doing pretty good. But we were still recommended for early intervention services (i.e. physical/occupational therapy, speech/language services, nutrition). These services are provided through our school district so we have to wait for them to come out and perform another evaluation, which according to the Early On Coordinator will take about a month.