Christina had her first official evaluation by two occupational therapists. They rang the doorbell just as she was waking up from her nap. I chatted with Jennifer, who was Michael’s caseworker and now Christina, while the therapists observed Christina. I worried about how it would go. It had been two years since Michael’s first eval, and although I “knew what to expect”, I wanted their reassurance. I wanted them to tell me, “Your child is normal.”
Unfortunately, they’d moved the eval from the morning to the afternoon, which was NOT Christina’s best time. According to her, here were three unfamiliar women in the house with their pads and pencils, who watched every move she made. No, the toys didn’t interest her at all. Christina escaped down the stairs to the living room, so we all moved downstairs. When she realized this, she decided to pitch a fit. SIGH. Luckily, the therapists understood; they’d had experience with cranky children before.
Still, they were able to determine some major points in the limited time they were at the house. “Just by seeing what she’s doing now, we think that she has more delays than just the speech. We want to see her next week.” So I arranged a speech eval and another observation next week. I smiled as I escorted them to the door and told them I looked forward to working with them. After all, this is all for Christina’s benefit.
And after I closed the door, I tried not to cry.
At least my suspicions were confirmed and now we can do something about it.
But it still hurt to hear it.
I have two children who aren’t “normal”.
I need time to process this before I can face it again.
[tags]kids, children, parents, special needs, evaluations, normal, pain, processing, [/tags]
Photo graciously provided by are you my rik?, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
4 responses so far ↓
Christy Koury // Aug 16, 2007 at 10:11 am
Thank you for sharing this story, Ms. Dameron. It is brave of you to open your life and the lives of your children to the world, and I commend you for all that you are doing for them. I pray that all goes well for both Michael and Christina.
Slouching Mom // Aug 16, 2007 at 11:07 am
I’m sorry. Hopefully at the next evaluation she’ll be less cranky, and they can get a more accurate assessment of where she is…
She is and will always be Christina, whatever the label.
Green SAHM // Aug 16, 2007 at 1:31 pm
That’s rough. We had to get my son evaluated recently, but so far it only appears to be a speech delay, not comprehension or anything else. I was pretty sure, but the whole thing is so intimidating!
My son is intensely shy, and it took most of the evaluation for him to warm up to the evaluators, but we were lucky and he was in a really good mood for it.
Emily Jackson // Sep 30, 2007 at 10:25 am
No, you don’t have two normal children, you have two very special children. And know that while most parents expect and treat “normal milestones” in a passing flurry, each milestone for your children will be amazing and wonderful, just as they are. Kids do amazing things, and I’m sure both of yours will also.
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