4 Year Follow Up

On Tuesday, Summer had her 4 year developmental assessment at Sunnybrook. The NICU follow up clinic moved from Women's College Hospital to the Sunnybrook Hospial over the summer. It is a brand new area a the hospital - shiny, new and SO much more appropriate. The assessment room was nice and large and provided the space needed to do the gross motor part of the test. Much better than when we would see kids doing their gross motor skills in the hallway at WCH.

Since we were going to a new place, we gave ourselves lots of time to get there. It is a lot farther from Bolton for us and once we figured out where to park, the hour we had hoped to have to kick around was about 15 min... just enough time for Summer to have a snack, me to have a coffee and for us to find the clinic.

Laura, the OT conducted the Peabody Developmental Motor Skills assessment and she was observed by one of the Neonatologists on staff. Laura is delightful and Summer really responds to her manner. Skills assessed were: Scissor cutting, buttoning, lacing, building blocks, following directions, drawing, colouring, running, walking on a line, stairs, throwing a ball - several differnt ways, bouncing a ball, standing on one foot, tippy toes, galloping, skipping, - and probably a lot of other things I didn't realize were being assessed.

Summer did very well. She was attentive, persistent and polite. We are really proud of her.

Maureen, our PT, seemed pleased as well. Though, she always cautions us that there is lots to come, and learning disabilities are very common among kids like Summer. We will be able to assess for that at her 6 year appointment.

6 year... that is our next major assessment. On our way to our appointment we were wondering... what happens after Summer is 5? are we on our own? Maureen assured us that we have her for life - when we need her... very reassuring.

Summer and I are off to Orthopedic Lab today to have some adjustments made to her AFO.