Jacob had an evaluation last week. One of those evaluations that helps determine what services he qualifies for. Maryland has a great home support program and so far we've had good experiences with his PT and OT. Now that he's getting older we are all venturing into speech/language territory (and yes, it's looking like Jacob's parents are going to have to learn sign so Jacob can learn sign but that's another blog post).
Anyway. On the surface these evaluations are quite simple. Government forms... lots of questions. Friendly special educators acknowledging answers with the appropriate Mm-hm. Occasionally asking Jacob to perform some task, etc. Under the surface they are a little painful. Parents aren't often put in the position of needing to be brutally honest about what their child can, or more importantly - cannot - do. See....the optimistic-parent-who-thinks-this-child's-skills-are-amazing spin on his capabilities does not score another therapist coming to your house. Being brutally honest about said capabilities, or lack thereof, does. So honest, Mom was. And score a home speech therapist, we did. So there.
The list of questions also was a reminder (for me) of some things we are supposed to be practicing. Stacking blocks is on that list and we haven't worked on that for awhile. So we tried some practice this weekend.
Jacob loved it. Not exactly.
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Lucky for Jacob, just about the time the block stacking became really intolerable.... the mailman came! And even luckier... she had a package for Jacob!
On initial inspection, that box contained a note on a piece of paper (PAPER!) which Jacob *thought* was the best part of the package.
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Little did he know what other treasures were inside....
W.O.W.
So many thanks to our friend who sent the treasures! Jacob loves them and will surely share with cousin Jonah... they are both going to have a great time with all the pop ups!
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