Follow-Up with the Developmental Pediatrician

Today was one of our routine follow-up appointments with the Developmental Pediatrician, that is the doctor that specializes in disabilities and gave Zachary his diagnosis of Autism back in June of 2005. We see him every four months for testing of Zach and such. Zach has consistently over the course of the last year made improvements at each follow-up, so it's always a nice little pat on the back of reassurance that we are doing the right things, and it helps justify all that we have to put Zach through and all the money we're spending as well. So it's usually a very pleasant appointment. And today was no different!

The doctor has switched tests that he uses on Zachary now, as he has pretty much reached age equivalency on the prior test. The new test is a Preschool Language Skills test and it will carry through age 7. It measures both Expressive Skills (what he can say/convey) as well as Receptive Skills (what he understands). Zachary's Receptive Skills have always been much higher than his Expressive Skills. It's his use of language that is our biggest issue, with social skills next in line. Anyway, today he scored a 102, out of an average range of 95-105 for the Receptive Skills test! That put him at a 3 year 10 month age equivalency (he's only 3 years and 8 months old right now!!!) This means that he's understanding what is being said to him and/or asked of him right on target!

Next was the Expressive Skills test. While this wasn't quite as high, it was still impressive. He scored a 96 here. While this doesn't mean that he is anywhere near "average" in his speaking skills, he is able to get across the right answers to most of the test questions via pointing or using the one word label. He got some concepts that are advanced for his age, but yet misses many that he should know at his age. Such as: he knows the difference in a boy and a girl. But when you ask him about his or hers, or she and he - he doesn't know. And then there are things like knowing who has more, sequencing, and the concept of cause and effect. But some of that isn't totally age equivalent yet anyway. So there is obviously tons of room for improvement here, as we of course know since he isn't talking at age appropriate level, but it's still nice as I said before to be able to measure how far he's come at each 4 month appointment span. And then to celebrate his hard work. Our hard work. All the wonderful therapists and teachers hard work.

The doctor said that he wants to stretch the appointment span to 5 months now - which is great news!!! And he reassured us very enthusiastically that he thinks that the entire program that we have in place for Zachary is right-on, and that he is making very encouraging progress. So good to hear.