A few weeks ago, we had gone through a session with the child psychologist and he had evaluated that Ian's behaviour was still within the normal range, that meant, there was nothing for us to be alarmed about even when he appeared to be super active or lacking emotional control at times.
One interesting thing that he mentioned, was that when a child had thrown his tantrum, and if we gave in to him after he cried for a while, the next time he threw another tantrum, it would be elevated to the level that we had given in the previous time, as the child had known that our limit could be stretched that far and it was more effective to start straightaway at that level. Hence, it was a test of tolerance or endurance between the parent and the child, and to see which side would relent first. One way would be to stop the tantrum immediately by distracting the child. If not, then let the child stop on his own after crying it out (and nobody would know how long that would take).
We actually felt that Ian was getting more manageable as he grew more matured, and hence, cancelled all the other appointments with the psychologist and the occupational therapist. This afternoon, we saw the doctor for a review.
She said that as she had expected, there was nothing wrong that the psychologist could find with Ian. It was perfectly normal for a boy of his age to be very active, as long as it did not hinder his studies in school. (As his teachers had mentioned, even though he was running around in the class, he could still answer the questions that they asked him later on.)
She did an assessment for him, and said that on the language aspects, his level was just at 4 years old (since he could not answer where he lived, and did not know some of the body parts that she had asked). However, on the academics aspects, he had already reached the level of a 5 year old. She had tested him on pattern recognition, some vocabularies, some physical activities such as standing on one leg and walking in a straight line with foot touching foot, counting blocks, and following more than one instruction.
She recommended us to let him be exposed to a variety of fun activities and also mentioned that learning abacus was good for him as well. It was hard for a child of this age to be restricted to very academically based work and would be boring for him as well.
We had requested for a one year open date for the next appointment. If there was any concern again, we could always get an appointment with her within the one year window.
Showing posts with label Development Assessment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Development Assessment. Show all posts
Friday, March 30, 2012
Friday, November 25, 2011
Ian's Development Assessment
We had an early parent-teacher session in Ian's school, as we were not able to make it for all the scheduled dates in December.
Overall, the teachers were pleased with his academics and independence, and mentioned that he was quite advanced academically. Their primary concern was still his behaviour. Even though he knew that something was not to be done and could even say the consequences, he would still attempt to do it. The teachers also admitted that he fared better in a smaller group setting, but needed a lot of attention. He would also have sudden outbursts when the teacher talked to him on what he had done wrong, for instance.
As we had a review session with the child development doctor in the afternoon, we mentioned the above to her. She proposed to send Ian to a few occupational therapy sessions to manage his emotional behaviour, and in the meanwhile, to schedule for a session with a child psychologist.
Upon my request, she also did an assessment for Ian, but based on a 4-year-old guideline since he was only a few months away from hitting four. He passed most of it and the doctor said he had already reached the 4-4.5 year old level in most of the items.
We were contemplating putting him into another childcare centre, but due to our location, there were limited choices available. Hence, Hubby suggested looking into more enrichment classes for him at the time being, as he felt that Ian's progress had been slowed down since last year.
Overall, the teachers were pleased with his academics and independence, and mentioned that he was quite advanced academically. Their primary concern was still his behaviour. Even though he knew that something was not to be done and could even say the consequences, he would still attempt to do it. The teachers also admitted that he fared better in a smaller group setting, but needed a lot of attention. He would also have sudden outbursts when the teacher talked to him on what he had done wrong, for instance.
As we had a review session with the child development doctor in the afternoon, we mentioned the above to her. She proposed to send Ian to a few occupational therapy sessions to manage his emotional behaviour, and in the meanwhile, to schedule for a session with a child psychologist.
Upon my request, she also did an assessment for Ian, but based on a 4-year-old guideline since he was only a few months away from hitting four. He passed most of it and the doctor said he had already reached the 4-4.5 year old level in most of the items.
We were contemplating putting him into another childcare centre, but due to our location, there were limited choices available. Hence, Hubby suggested looking into more enrichment classes for him at the time being, as he felt that Ian's progress had been slowed down since last year.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Review of His Development
Hubby took the afternoon off to accompany us for Ian's appointment with the child development doctor. It was supposed to be a review since our last visit in Dec.
We had lunch first and here was a happy child, waiting eagerly for his fries at Burger King...
At the doctor's office, we relayed the feedback that we had gathered from his childcare and she did a quick assessment on him. She said he was pretty OK, but probably slower in expressive language development from what we had described. He was still largely in the parroting stage of language development, which happened to most toddlers when they were 2. But because of his earlier delay in speech, any language development problem might also show up more in the later stage of life. She also suggested that she paid a school visit to check on how he was doing in school. Guess we just had to wait for her feedback after her visit and see whether a further course of speech therapy was required. Our next review would be due in August.
We had lunch first and here was a happy child, waiting eagerly for his fries at Burger King...
At the doctor's office, we relayed the feedback that we had gathered from his childcare and she did a quick assessment on him. She said he was pretty OK, but probably slower in expressive language development from what we had described. He was still largely in the parroting stage of language development, which happened to most toddlers when they were 2. But because of his earlier delay in speech, any language development problem might also show up more in the later stage of life. She also suggested that she paid a school visit to check on how he was doing in school. Guess we just had to wait for her feedback after her visit and see whether a further course of speech therapy was required. Our next review would be due in August.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Development Assessment: 30 Months
We visited the speech and occupational therapists today. The occupational therapist explained the result of the profiling that we had completed last month. Ian fared pretty normal except for his auditory processing, which showed that he had a slightly higher threshold for noise tolerance, which meant we needed to put in more effort to catch his attention if we were talking to him. The therapist mentioned that he could be 'discharged' since we did not have any major concern.
The speech therapist also mentioned about discharging him soon, perhaps after a doctor's review. She was happy with Ian's explosive progress since our first visit just a few months ago. Ian could now attempt to join a few words together in his effort to communicate. And surprisingly, he could pronounce some difficult sounds such as "train" (the "tr" sound is supposed to be quite advanced for his age). She was also happy that he could recognise a specific vegetable such as broccoli during the play time. We pointed out that he is having difficulty pronouncing "fish" instead of "bish", and she told us that this was pretty normal for someone who just began to talk. But strangely, Ian could say "four" and "five" correctly.
After the next review, if everything is good, we probably could go for a review again in another 6 months.
At his childcare, his teacher also brought up that Ian's progress in talking was good. He was starting to imitate the words that the teacher said.
Both of us also found that he has become pretty talkative. Sometimes, he would wake up in the morning and talk to himself while he played alone. He also loves to praise himself "well done" for something that he has done.
The speech therapist also mentioned about discharging him soon, perhaps after a doctor's review. She was happy with Ian's explosive progress since our first visit just a few months ago. Ian could now attempt to join a few words together in his effort to communicate. And surprisingly, he could pronounce some difficult sounds such as "train" (the "tr" sound is supposed to be quite advanced for his age). She was also happy that he could recognise a specific vegetable such as broccoli during the play time. We pointed out that he is having difficulty pronouncing "fish" instead of "bish", and she told us that this was pretty normal for someone who just began to talk. But strangely, Ian could say "four" and "five" correctly.
After the next review, if everything is good, we probably could go for a review again in another 6 months.
At his childcare, his teacher also brought up that Ian's progress in talking was good. He was starting to imitate the words that the teacher said.
Both of us also found that he has become pretty talkative. Sometimes, he would wake up in the morning and talk to himself while he played alone. He also loves to praise himself "well done" for something that he has done.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Development Assessment: 29 Months
We had our second visit to the Child Development doctor on 27 August. The doctor was someone new to us because the previous one was away for this period. We had to go briefly with her Ian's development all over again.
She did a simple assessment of Ian by showing some age-appropriate pictures, asking him to stack some blocks, and testing his responses to what she said. The doc thought that he was doing OK, and told us to continue with the speech and occupational therapist, and then see her again in December.
On 31st, we visited the speech and occupational therapists. The former did an assessment for Ian to test where his language and comprehension skills stood. She showed him some pictures and he could answer most of it. However, she noted that he could not comprehend when she used words ending with the '-ing' form. Our homework was to reinforce his language and comprehension by spending some time on a daily basis, to play with him and teach him new things, by emphasizing and repetition, and by keeping our sentences short and precise.
The session with the occupational therapist did not go as smoothly though. Perhaps it was Ian's nap time then, and hence, Ian was quite uncooperative. The therapist began by drawing out a simple timetable to show Ian what he was to expect - a few minutes of table work (matching game), followed by a physical activity (which Ian loved), followed by table work again (drawing and colouring), followed by another physical activity (which Ian loved), and table work again (geometric stacker). Ian could hardly pay attention at the table, until it was getting a bit frustrating to get him to complete his task towards the end.
Anyway, some quick statistics of Ian which the nurse took during our visit:
Weight: 14.5kg
Height: 94cm
We were glad that he had passed the 14kg mark convincingly this time!
She did a simple assessment of Ian by showing some age-appropriate pictures, asking him to stack some blocks, and testing his responses to what she said. The doc thought that he was doing OK, and told us to continue with the speech and occupational therapist, and then see her again in December.
On 31st, we visited the speech and occupational therapists. The former did an assessment for Ian to test where his language and comprehension skills stood. She showed him some pictures and he could answer most of it. However, she noted that he could not comprehend when she used words ending with the '-ing' form. Our homework was to reinforce his language and comprehension by spending some time on a daily basis, to play with him and teach him new things, by emphasizing and repetition, and by keeping our sentences short and precise.
The session with the occupational therapist did not go as smoothly though. Perhaps it was Ian's nap time then, and hence, Ian was quite uncooperative. The therapist began by drawing out a simple timetable to show Ian what he was to expect - a few minutes of table work (matching game), followed by a physical activity (which Ian loved), followed by table work again (drawing and colouring), followed by another physical activity (which Ian loved), and table work again (geometric stacker). Ian could hardly pay attention at the table, until it was getting a bit frustrating to get him to complete his task towards the end.
Anyway, some quick statistics of Ian which the nurse took during our visit:
Weight: 14.5kg
Height: 94cm
We were glad that he had passed the 14kg mark convincingly this time!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Ian's Development
It was highlighted by the PD in late Febuary that Ian might have to undergo a development assessment, because she noted that he did not talk much during those visits. After a long time, we finally got an appointment with NUH via a polyclinic's referral.
Today, we went without Hubby to Jurong Medical Centre for the appointment. It was the furthest place that I had driven alone without a guide. We set off very early at 9.30am, and to my surprise, even though I had driven very slowly, we reached there within 30mins. But it was lucky to arrive early, because the super limited carpark was full. We waited for around 15mins before someone moved. By the time we reached the clinic, it was just in time.
The nurse took his weight (13kg) and height (92cm). He had lost weight. :(
The doctor interviewed me on the milestones of Ian. Just a summary for record:
The diagnosis was that Ian's overall development was ok, except that he should be talking more than present. At his age, he should be able to say 2 words together. We will need to bring him for a hearing test, and also a session with the speech therapist.
Today, we went without Hubby to Jurong Medical Centre for the appointment. It was the furthest place that I had driven alone without a guide. We set off very early at 9.30am, and to my surprise, even though I had driven very slowly, we reached there within 30mins. But it was lucky to arrive early, because the super limited carpark was full. We waited for around 15mins before someone moved. By the time we reached the clinic, it was just in time.
The nurse took his weight (13kg) and height (92cm). He had lost weight. :(
The doctor interviewed me on the milestones of Ian. Just a summary for record:
- Able to say more than 50 words.
- Unable to say 2 words together. (However, now I just remembered that he can say "I want".)
- He cannot say 3 syllables eg. "banana" becomes "nana", "W" is pronounced as "double" without "u".
- Able to point out the things he wants.
- Able to stack more than 6 blocks. The doctor asked him to do a live demo and he managed to stack all the 10 blocks.
- Able to recognise all the uppercase alphabets.
- Able to recognise simple shapes and colours.
- Able to hold a pen and draw circles. (Sometimes, he managed to draw straight lines.)
- Understands his body parts.
- Able to read certain words, eg. body parts, farm animals
- Able to count to 10 and recognise the numerals 1-9.
The diagnosis was that Ian's overall development was ok, except that he should be talking more than present. At his age, he should be able to say 2 words together. We will need to bring him for a hearing test, and also a session with the speech therapist.
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