Early Intervention Evaluation

Alivia and I met with the Early Intervention specialists this morning to determine if she needs and is eligible for their services. It was interesting to watch them perform the evaluation--they would give her different things to play with and watch what she did with them. They also tried to get her to walk, talk, crawl, eat, and other basic activities. They took her premature birth date into account and evaluated her at the 14 months level (her gestational age) rather than her calendar age of 16 months. Their findings were pretty much what I expected. Basically, Alivia is doing fairly well verbally, but needs developmental assistance in most other areas.

She seems to be having lots of problems with her ankles turning in and her toes turning out, so they have recommended that we get high-top shoes for her with thick, hard soles--exactly the opposite of what is recommended for most babies learning to walk. They also want her to be evaluated for shoe inserts. They seem to think she may have a small amount of hip displasia, too, which contributes to the problem. They are going to set up a once-per-week physical therapy appointment for her, as well, to try to work on getting her walking correctly.

Alivia is also missing most of the fine motor skills that she should have by now She still rakes with her fingers to pick things up and doesn't like to help much at meal times. All of these things can be attributed to her spending that first year in a crib in the orphanage. The children there just don't get the stimulus and the opportunity to develop anything beyond the most rudimentary motor skills--and she was barely at that level when I got her. At 12 months she was unable to sit without support. She's come such a long way--but we still have a long way to go! They will be providing us with an in-home visit twice a month to work on this kind of thing.

The scariest part of their determinations today was that Alivia is having some cognitive difficulties. Again, this may be entirely due to the environment she lived in for her first 12 months, but there's also the possibility that it's a symptom of fetal alcohol effect or fetal alcohol syndrome. They are advising Alivia's doctor to request a geneticist see her for further evaluation along that line. If it is FAE/FAS, there is nothing that can cure or repair the damage--all we can do is try to work around it. Since she doesn't display any signs of an uncontrollable temper, hopefully the damage will be limited to some mild learning disabilities.

In general, I'm very optimistic about her situation at this time. She's a very strong, focused and determined child and I know that we can do whatever we need to do to help her to succeed.

This coming weekend we are supposed to be going with Justin and Gil to watch a medieval battle reenactment. That should be quite the experience for Alivia... I'll try to get some pictures and post them here!

Jeana