I went to the pediatrician today for Ennio's 3 yr old check-up. The doctor took her time and spent almost one hour examining Ennio and talking to me.
Stats:
Nederlands
Lengte: 105 cm (6 cm gegroeid op 6 maanden)
Gewicht: 20 kg!!! (1,5 kg bijgekomen op 6 maanden)
English
Length: 41.5 inches (he grew 2.5 inches in 6 months)
Weight: 44 pounds 2 oz. (he gained over 3 pounds in 6 months!)
For length, Ennio is off the charts! He is a very tall little boy! His weight is proportionate with his size. He's in the 93th percentile for weight.
His hemoglobin levels were checked (through a fingerprick) and at a reading of 10 were too low. (The normal range of pediatric hemoglobin levels in children is 11 to 13 gm/dL. Anything lower than 11 gm/dL indicates anemia or low red blood cell count.) The doctor said Ennio's anemic and prescribed an iron supplement which he will have to take in 2x/day. She will test him again in 3 months from now and if it is still too low, then he will have to have bloodwork done.
Another topic on the agenda was Ennio's
speech and language delay and his
overall development in general. I've been postponing putting this on the blog and it is one of the reasons that the blog is now password-protected as I feel this is a sensitive and very personal issue to our family. Ennio's language and occupational services through Regional Center stopped when he turned 3 years old. He was offered assessment testing through LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) to see if he would qualify for special services through the school district. I had the IEP meeting (Individualized Education Program) about two weeks ago where the results were discussed and I must admit that I was a bit overwhelmed. I was faced with a panel of 6 "experts" (a psychologist, speech therapist, occupational therapist, service coordinator, special education teacher and general education teacher - all women!) They all agreed that Ennio is showing delays in some areas (mainly: language, and on the social-emotional level: following instructions and poor eye-contact), but they could not put a diagnosis to it. He's just too young at this age, for them to be able to do so. Is it autism, an intellectual disability or just plain lack of concentration? It's all possible, but too early to tell. I, for one, do not think that there's any intellectual problem. Ennio's a smart boy: he knows all his planes :-), his colors, shapes, body parts, and he's even starting to recognize letters. He counts to 10 and often counts backwards when he's playing with his space shuttle:
8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... BLAST-OFF! It's true that he doesn't make a lot of eye-contact, but that is especially the case with strangers. Once you have gained his trust, he will walk up to you and give you a hug, even call you by name and take your hand! He does this with his teachers at the Montessori pre-school where he's at, with us, and with his favorite people (his former speech therapist Elena, "buddy Jason", "auntie Pamela", etc) His teachers at Montessori, by the way, see no special concerns and were surprised to receive phone calls from the "experts" asking for their opinion. One of the teachers even said:
"What do you mean? There's nothing wrong with him!" :-) :-) :-)
Anyway, the expert panel still agreed that Ennio is developmentally delayed and that he would be eligible for the following services: a Monday through Thursday program in a Special Education classroom at a public pre-school in our neighborhood from 8:00 AM to 10:20 AM after which they would put him (alone!) on a school bus to take him to his Montessori school. During class hours, he would also receive 30 minutes of speech therapy and 30 minutes of occupational therapy per week.
OK, I agree on the language delay and the fact that he doesn't follow instructions well (for example, he always runs away and doesn't come back when you call after him, which is hard to deal with when you're out!), but I was still a bit shocked at the proposal of the Special Ed-program. I did go visit the classroom, observed the kids and spoke to the teacher, but I don't feel that this is the right place for Ennio. The emphasis is on structured activities and following directions (the kids were not allowed to walk around, but had to sit on their chair and listen, and the teacher kept saying
"sit on your chair" and putting them back when they would run off). I believe more in the Montessori approach, which is why Marcus and I have decided to not accept LAUSD's services but to stay with the full-time program at his current Montessori school (after also talking to the principal and teachers at Montessori). I hope we're making the right decision!
One thing that is unfortunate, however, is that he won't have any speech/language therapy anymore... And without a formal "diagnosis" of a medical condition, such therapy is not covered by our health insurance. In consultation with our pediatrician today, who also believes that Ennio would benefit from further speech therapy, we may have to have Ennio tested once again (sigh!!!) by a developmental pediatrician from the Boone Fetter clinic at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles... just to get a diagnosis... and get the insurance-covered services. OMG, it looks like this is a never-ending story, and sometimes it really frustrates me, because Ennio is such a sweet, little boy and I don't like all these grown-ups having all these theories about him and about how he "should" be. He is who he is and that's fine for me!
I guess we'll let everything sink in for a little bit, and then see what's up next...
Update 22 May 2014: I was contacted again by the Preschool Special Education Coordinator who asked why I had not returned the signed IEP Agreement. I explained that we were not interested in the program offered, for various reasons. I also said that it was too bad that Ennio would now not be able to benefit from speech therapy anymore... upon which she replied, that that IS a possibility, to have speech and occupational therapy at our home school (the school around the corner from where we live!) Great!!! (and...
Why couldn't you have offered that to me in the first place... is what I thought!) The coordinator changed the IEP accordingly, I signed it right away and returned it to her. Ennio will have 30 minutes of speech and occupational therapy per week as of next school year. The school year is ending in the beginning of June and starting again mid-August, so his therapy should hopefully start sometime around that time! In the meantime, I will further investigate the possibility to have a speech evaluation and therapy sessions through our private insurance. Not sure if it will work, but...
Wie niet waagt, niet wint!
