Early Intervention

Occupational Therapy?! That's ridiculous!!!

You talkin ta me?

Sitting in the chair like a big boy

Daddy got his hair cut just like me!

Yesterday we met with Anthony's Early Intervention Team for his initial assessment. Early Intervention is a service through Portland Public Schools for kids with special needs: your tax dollars at work! Anthony qualifies because he has Down syndrome. Plus, when you spend your first 3 months in the hospital, sometimes you need a little catching up!

The team consisted of an education specialist, physical therapist, speech therapist, and occupational therapist (no, we're not going to make Anthony get a job yet. At his age, occupational therapy is really the same thing as physical therapy- it probably involves things like picking up cheerios, etc). Anthony had a pretty good time- he got to be held and fawned over by a bunch of ladies, which he's missed since leaving the NICU, and he played with some toys. They gave us some general tips, such as encouraging him to turn his head more and other things to work on his neck strength. They will send us a full report, and then the next step will be to set us up with therapeutic services (such as physical therapy) on an ongoing basis. They will even come to our house and daycare if we want. We've heard good things about the program, and so far we agree that everyone seems great.

We are finding that it's important to keep all this in perspective, otherwise we could wind up going to therapists and appointments all the time. We need to make sure Anthony has lots of time and opportunities to just be a baby! As it is, he has a regular pediatrician, a developmental pediatrician and nutritionist, and now the Early Intervention Team. The goal of these services is not really to have Anthony reach his milestones faster (do any of you know at what age you got good head control, or started to crawl?), but rather to make sure we do all we can to help him reach his potential, and also to avoid the development of bad habits that could lead to orthopedic or speech problems later on.

Anyway, as you know, we think Anthony is perfect how he is. Here are some new pictures to enjoy!!!