Mommy and Daddy were up early this morning, eagerly awaiting the earliest peeps from Charlotte so that we could push the morning routine along quickly, as our assessment at the satellite office in Ajax was at 9 am.
Charlotte played with a little boy while we waited in the waiting area for our appointment.
Dr. MacDonald introduced herself and invited us to come to her office; she was quite surprised to see that Charlotte was quite willing to lead the way down the hall to an office she had never been to before, leaving Mommy and Daddy behind to pick up all the stuff. Charlotte passed by many open doors, stopping at the social worker’s office to say “hi” before receiving a cue from Dr. MacDonald that her office was next door.
Upon entering Dr. MacDonald's office, Charlotte went immediately to the toys, as expected and as children do—-she was quite taken with a tea set and poured many cups of tea for Daddy and the doctor. Charlotte has never played with a tea set, so it was quite remarkable that Charlotte knew instinctively what to do with the tea pot and cups. These toys were not set up to beg her to play with—-they were just in a box of toys on the floor. The doctor took note of this behaviour and commented many times about Charlotte being quite well-adjusted and bright/clever. This interview was fast-paced and exhausting for Mommy—-the doctor observed Charlotte and interacted with her while asking us lots of questions and dialoguing with us. Mommy was forewarned about the pace of this assessment, so we brought the video camera along, but didn’t end up using it. Mommy feverishly tried to write notes while at the same time answering the next question posed by the doctor and responding to Charlotte’s requests to be lifted up on Mommy’s knee and to get snacks from the diaper bag. We then returned to the waiting room to wait for the next stage of the assessment.
A few minutes later, the social worker and speech pathologist came to take us to another room. Charlotte quite willingly took their hands to walk down a different hallway to a large playroom, again with Mommy and Daddy in tow. Again, these professionals were quite surprised at how confident and social Charlotte is. As we got closer to the room, Charlotte wanted to hold Mommy’s hand as well, but realized having only 2 hands that she would have to drop the social worker’s had to hold Mommy’s. We all entered a large room—-Charlotte immediately went to play with the occupational therapist, the speech-language pathologist, and the physiotherapist, while Mommy and Daddy sat in the chairs that were against the wall to chat with the social worker. A student-in-training sat off to the side, observing. Mommy kept waiting for someone to escort Mommy and Daddy to another room to observe the team working with Charlotte, but that wasn’t to happen. While the team observed and played with Charlotte, making notes and completing assessments, each of them took turns asking Mommy and Daddy questions while tweaking their tasks and activities with Charlotte.
Early in the assessment, the occupational therapist took Charlotte for a walk up a mock staircase, which slightly annoyed Mommy, as we’ve been encouraging Charlotte to climb up the stairs for safety reasons, despite the occasional attempt to walk, but not successfully; however, we understood that the therapist was testing Charlotte’s gross motor skills, which she passed with flying colours. Occasionally, Mommy was asked a question that she really had to think about, particularly the ones when asked by the speech-language pathologist to rate things that Charlotte has exhibited or said on a scale of 1-5. This team was very good.
Early into this 1.5-hour session, Mommy sensed that Charlotte is on track for her age and that the team really didn’t see any cause for alarm. One by one, each professional summarized her findings, put away the toys she used for her testing, and then left the playroom. This part of the assessment was now over and the professionals were now to confer with the main lead, Dr. MacDonald. We returned to the waiting room for a snack and a rest. About 20 minutes later, we returned to Dr. MacDonald’s office to receive the final results of the assessment:
1. There is no rehab/physiotherapy for bowing of the legs; however, they expect that with continuing the enriched diet, vitamin D supplements, and massage that Charlotte’s leg will correct themselves to near normal (whew!); as a matter of fact, in the last few weeks, Mommy has seen some improvements in the degree of bowing of Charlotte’s legs. This information was very comforting to hear from a specialized professional.
2. Charlotte’s physical abilities are in the normal range for her age and she has good fine motor skills.
3. Charlotte’s language is well within the range expected for her age; she is already exhibiting skills expected to be seen in the 21-24 month range, even though she is just 21 months old today—-this is excellent news. In the last few weeks, we, too, have seen quite an increase in the number of words that Charlotte says.
4. Mommy’s concerns about attachment issues can be put to rest according to the social worker; he feels that Charlotte needs to work on discriminating appropriately—-she really is far too social with total strangers, wanting to be picked up and kissed, which causes Mommy great angst. The social worker also strongly encouraged us to encourage Charlotte to attach to a favourite doll or blanket or stuffed animal to encourage nurturing—-this is not something that she would be very familiar with in an orphanage setting, which we knew before travelling to China, despite sending Charlotte a cuddly bunny blanket a couple of weeks before we arrived in China. I don’t think she had the toy long enough to understand what it was. Charlotte has exhibited attachment to blankets and stuffed toys when she gets up in the morning, usually carrying these items around with her during the morning routine, but then they are forgotten about later in the day. Sometimes, at bedtime, she will motion for a favourite blanket to be put on her—-for the longest time it was one blanket in particular, but now she has a few favourites. Charlotte has received dolls, but doesn’t gravitate to them in her toy box like you think a little girl would; she prefers toys that stack, likely Daddy’s influence from early days home from China. However, during the assessment, Charlotte spent a lot of time nurturing and playing with the toy doll, which surprised both Mommy and Daddy. Dr. MacDonald also strongly urged us to get Charlotte enrolled in a pre-school program, even if just for a half-day a week to give Charlotte an opportunity to socialize with other children. She was quite pleased to hear that Charlotte plays well with her cousins who are 7, 9, and 12 years old.
The 3-hour assessment over, Charlotte was ready to return home for lunch—-she had eaten quite a few snacks during the final leg of the assessment. While waiting for Mommy to make lunch, Charlotte opened a gift she received in the mail from a cousin of Mommy’s in the States. Once Daddy got the bunny out of the package, Charlotte immediately hugged it and clung to it, giving it kisses. I think this may become the item that Mommy encourages Charlotte to attach to, as it is small enough to carry around without being too small to easily loose. After lunch, Charlotte was ready for a nap, or maybe it was Mommy who was ready for Charlotte to take a nap; either way, Mommy wished she could join Charlotte, but she had work to do. Charlotte had difficulties going down for her nap; after she drank her bottle she began to fuss, but likely because she was 2 hours past due for her nap and she was trying to wind down from the assessment, as was Mommy.
Two hours flew by and Charlotte was awake, rejuvenated, and ready to play with Daddy, while Mommy continued working. Sadly, Charlotte has taken to ripping some of the flaps out of some of her books—-these are her favourites, so we’re perplexed why she is being so destructive. Perhaps she is mimicking Mommy’s behaviour when she reads her magazines. Mommy has noticed in the last couple of days that Charlotte does get a little aggressive when she gets really excited. These books will have to be put away for a little bit before Charlotte does any further damage to them.
To celebrate Charlotte’s 21st month birthday, we had Chinese take-out for dinner, which Charlotte toyed with at first and then enjoyed once Daddy started feeding her; again, she played the game where Daddy puts the fork of food in Charlotte’s hand, she then puts the food in her mouth, and then she passes the fork to Mommy who passes it to Daddy to load the next forkful of food. Charlotte was quite content to sit in her highchair and play stacking hands for some time after dinner. It was during this time that Charlotte added a few new words to her increasing vocabulary list: “more,” “milk,” “down.” We also played Charlotte’s version of Simon Says. Charlotte, tired of being confined, wanted to get out of her highchair, so Mommy and Charlotte went upstairs for our night routine: bath, stories, and bedtime. Just moments before 8 pm, Charlotte was tucked into bed with her bottle; Charlotte waved “bye” to Mommy and Daddy as she watched the lighted objects move across her ceiling. Good night, sweet angel.
I don't think that I realized Charlotte had a bowing issue. Our first daughter had a bowed leg due to a growth defect-one leg stopped growing. Sounds like things went well at all of her appointments. It's hard to sit there when they don't really want you to talk (because they want her to answer/demonstrate) so I understand your restraint with the stair climbing.
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