1 year check up

August 28, 2011

1 year check up

Finn and William had their 1 year doctor's check up the other day, including more injections but they both coped well with that (infact William seems not to even feel them). i wanted to record the results here so i can refer back to them in future if needed (and incase anyone else is interested):

Finn
Finn surprised the doctor by running into the room and immediately pulling things off his desk to pile up on the floor and investigate! He was his usual cheeky self during the examination and kept grabbing for the doctor's stethoscope, babbling away to him (including several words in context such as "Hi!", "ball", "down" (when he wanted to go and play), "no no", "Woo woo" (William)  and "Mum"), playing several of his favourite games such as peekaboo, pattacake, finding hidden toys under a cloth, building and knocking things over and rolling a ball back and forth. He took part in all the tests willingly and with his usual sense of curiosity and left the doctor's room looking like a mini version of our house (i.e. like a whirlwind had torn through it!).

The results were:
He is fine for height, weight and head circumference.
His vision and hearing show no signs of any problems.
He is at a 16-17 month level in his physical development.
He is at a 15-16 month level in language skills.
He is at a 13-14 month level in his cognitive development.
He is at a 15-16 month level in social skills.
He is at a 12-13 month level in his emotional development.

William
William remained calm and cooperative throughout the tests, which i was relieved about. He hadn't had any big seizures that morning so he was fairly alert and able to demonstrate to the doctor what he could do, with some help from me and plenty of encouragement from Finn! As expected, William remains delayed in all aspects of his development, but he has made progress since the last time the doctor did a formal check up on him, which is good news. The doctor definitely noticed an improvement in William's visual skills as he was looking at things much better than when he last saw him, but he said that his visual impairment is likely to have affected the other aspects of his development as babies rely so strongly on their vision to make sense of the world. He has referred William for a more detailed visual assessment with a specialist in a couple of weeks' time. William also has an assessment with the speech therapist coming up and a review of his medication with the epilepsy doctor soon, so there might be some changes to be implemented. One slightly worrying thing is that William exhibited some of the early indicators of autism during the check up, but the doctor said those could be due to his disability instead, although his particular syndrome is strongly correlated with autistic spectrum disorders. He said it would become clearer during the course of the next year whether William is likely to have autism or not and we can take him for a formal assessment when he is 2. Anyway, i'm not going to worry about that just yet.

The results were:
He is fine for height, weight and head circumference.
His vision has improved, but needs a more detailed assessment by a specialist.
His hearing is fine but he doesn't use it in a social way (e.g. responding to his name, turning towards someone's voice) and he has sensory sensitivities to certain noises.
He is at a 3-4 month level in his physical development.
He is at a 2-3 month level in language skills.
He is at a 1-2 month level in his cognitive development.
He is at a 2-3 month level in social skills.
He is at a 2-3 month level in his emotional development.

i am very proud of both my boys for everything they have achieved this year!