Four Fischies: Play? Play!

We are hearing this phrase about fifty times a day now. C has finally hit his stride with speech. We were worried that he was delayed and because of the scary circumstances of his birth, we were afraid there might be a problem bigger than personality at work. So at the beginning of the year we made an appointment, at the suggestion of our pediatrician, to have him evaluated through a local early intervention program. We made the appointment in late January but wouldn't have our first meeting until March.

Of course he started talking almost immediately after making the appointment! He went from rarely even saying one word to using two and even three word combinations by the time our first meeting rolled around. The social worker we met with assured us that this was actually quite common and was so super nice about the whole thing. We all decided to proceed with the assessment, which included a second meeting with the social worker and also a pediatrician for a more comprehensive evaluation, two weeks later. We were concerned that the timing of these appointments, right in the middle of our move, would give a false sense of what C was capable of, since major events like a move can push a child temporarily backwards. However, by the time the second appointment came C was using four and five word combinations and talking almost non-stop. Would they think we were crazy for being concerned? Would they hate that we wasted everyone's time?

The second meeting was as easy and beneficial as one could hope. The doctor had T ask C to do a series of tasks, they also watched him play on his own and how he interacted with T and B, and how he interacted with them. At one point B had to go potty, so C was actually left alone with the doctor and the social worker and was completely mellow about it (much to T's relief). In the end the verdict was better than we could have asked for, although what we knew to be true deep down: C is very, very smart. His expressive speech (what he says) is at the level of an average two year old (which is wonderful considering he only started really talking a couple of months ago) and they were very impressed with his receptive speech (what he understands) and his social skills (including how well he can communicate without words). They said that he is most likely sensitive and cautious, which explains why he has held back or been slightly later in some skills (like eating solids, crawling and speaking). But once he feels confident in a new arena and more comfortable with new sensations there is nothing holding him back. Its almost comical, the examples of this: with food, he completely refused all baby food and exclusively breastfed until 11 months old, at which point he ate an entire slice of pizza and also used utensils; with crawling, he was slow to crawl and once he did he didn't have much interest in walking around furniture or holding onto our hands because crawling was faster, then one day he got a push toy and pushed it across the room...the next day he took three steps, the day after he was fully walking (at 9 months old). I'm sure this little story of talking as soon as we made an EI appointment for him will go down in history with the other stories. Lesson learned: never underestimate him. He will do it all in his own time.

They said that his delay in speaking was probably pronounced because he is "so advanced everywhere else." They also praised T's parenting skills and overall just made us feel wonderful about life.

*We don't have good pics of the new digs yet, but here are some more recent photos of two Fischies at play.

very serious job