CDSA Evaluation

(Side Note: I'm trying my hand at basic blog design. I've been playing around with Photoshop for a few days and have managed to create my entire blog, by myself! I am justalittle proud, and I'm surprised by how much fun I have doing it. There are still a few things I would like to add but, so far, I'm pleased with how everything has turned out. What do y'all think? Any suggestions/feedback?)

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On Monday afternoon, the Children's Developmental Services Agency came out to our house to perform an extensive assessment on Ethan. They are the group of people who coordinate early intervention services here in North Carolina. We've had a very positive experience with our caseworker, as well as Ethan's therapist, so I had high hopes that this evaluation would go well, too.

I won't bore you with all of the details that the special education teacher in me thrives on, but the gist of the results is that Ethan is a developmentally-appropriate 14 month old boy!! Take a second to think about that....

The same boy who spent the first 2 and 1/2 months of his life laying in a hospital bed, with very little opportunities to reach crucial developmental milestones...

The same boy who's heart eventually just gave up after having to work so hard...

The same boy who has learned to cope with 1 functional hand, while the other has been casted or braced for the better part of his life...

The same boy who has received sedation more times in his first year than you and I probably have in our lives...

THAT boy is considered developmentally on-track, and I really don't think I could be more proud!

He did lose points in a few areas. The first was in his ability to take 2-3 steps at a time. Although, had the evaluation team come out the following day, he would have earned them! Ethan is getting more and more confident on his feet and will take 3-5 steps at once towards me or Jeramie. It is SO exciting, and he realizes that he's doing something good. Once he falls on his bottom, he grins so big and starts to clap his hands. It might be the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Ethan was also "docked" because he isn't able to get on his hands and knees. The evaluators felt this was a very unfair part of the test for him, given his orthopedic defect and his amazing ability to compensate for it, but the test is the test. So, he lost a big chunk of points there.

Lastly, they would like for us to monitor his language development. They feel as though his receptive language (understanding what others say) is right on track, if not above average, but they would like to see his expressive language develop a little more. They are happy with the amount of words he has in his vocabulary, but they would like for him to use more of that "baby Chinese" style of talking. He isn't considered "language delayed" by any means; they just gave us something to keep an eye on.

All-in-all, it was a very encouraging assessment! I am so in awe of how far God has brought Ethan. He has so many things stacked against him, yet he continues to soar. I really hope that, one day, he can stand in awe of his story, too.