Children's Mercy Evaluation Team

We met with the evaluation team at Children's Mercy Developmental and Behavorial Sciences group yesterday for Preston's evaluation.

We spent a long and exhausting morning with the group of Doctors at Children’s Mercy Preston got pretty worn out, too. He fell asleep on daddy's shoulder while the Doctors went over their findings with us.They had a lot of work for him and a lot of questions for Mike and I. There is a LOT to take in and several areas of concern. The first being that he is moderately to severely speech and language delayed (DUH-lol).

They could see why they were looking at him for signs of Autism but really aren’t thinking that is what is going on. It appears to be several things. They won’t rule autism out at this point but he is not being diagnosed with it at this time and may never be-which is good! Their primary concerns appear to be Oral Apraxia and possibly dyspraxia. These are all things we will continue to work with the Occupational Therapist on. Speech Pathologists are who ultimately diagnose those types of conditions so we will leave that to LaQuita (our wonderful SP who also, by the way specializes in Apraxia!) at a later time. There also appears to be some attention deficit areas of concern. His attending is just not good-even for a 2 year old. We will have a big report to pour over. Lots of could be’s and maybe’s but I didn’t feel we got any real tangible answers. He also seems to be sensory seeking a great deal and will no doubt really do well with our direction from Carrie (OT). Since he is not pointing much and doesn’t know how to differentiate between different items-slow learner was also mentioned. We always thought he was a great problem solver and well above his age but truthfully he was right at about the age appropriate level for that.

They also noted that he has a lot of difficulty with transitions so that is something we will be working on, as well as always wanting to eat and have something in his mouth at all times. He has a lot of work to do. In fact we all have lots and lots of work to do.

To date he says when asked the following questions:

How old are you Preston? He replies "DOOOOO"
What does a kitty say? he replies "Mow. Mow." (rhymes with "how")
What does a puppy say? He replies "Aarrrrrrrrghhhhh"

He is saying mama and dada in a limited way
Sometimes says "Es dough" (Let's go)
He is a good mimicer but does not seem to initiate words himself.

Lately he signs "more" saying "mo-mo-mo-mo-mo" over and over and it pretty much equals "get it for me" not necessarily "more" of anything.....just get it.