The Results!

Willa had her evaluation and it went really well. The two workers came to the apartment with a box of toys. It was fascinating to watch them work with her and to see what she could do. They tested everything: social skills, communication with gestures and with words, gross motor and fine motor, and cognitive. They are so good at what they do and so good at getting her to do things! She was so well-behaved and did all the good tricks that I know she can do. It was actually very exciting for her to see what new game they were going to pull out of the box next. They would demonstrate something like matching a color or matching a shape and then ask her to do it. She was awesome at everything, naturally :). 

She actually tested right on for her age for most things. Her speech was the only thing behind, and it is only a two month delay. Actually, her speaking is low, but her communication skills with gestures, eye contact, etc. was really high so that pulled the overall "communication" skill up to just a two month delay. She doesn't qualify for help, which is the best thing, but they did give me some tips to get her talking more. I started trying them yesterday and have already seen some results!

I am used to asking a lot of yes/no questions. They said to start giving her a choice and showing her the objects. For example, holding two pairs of pajamas up and asking, "Do you want pink or blue?" That gives her a chance to experiment and use the word in a non-stressful situation. I tried it with pajamas yesterday and she pointed, but I also tried it with milk and water and she made an "Ma" sound, which they said I should congratulate her on.

Another idea was while we read books or sing songs, if I suddenly stop right before a word that she knows, then give her time to finish the thought. I did this with the ABC book yesterday and she actually said "C" for the letter c. So, basically I'm just supposed to incorporate more of that into everything we do. They also suggested doing the singing in the car while I'm not looking at her to take some of the pressure off. I'm sure a lot of people already know about stuff like this, but they were new ideas to me that I really like. If she isn't putting two words together in about six months, they will come test her again. Overall, though, since she did so well on everything else they really don't think there is a problem. I'm wondering if she and Bridgette have been bad influences on each other. They are both delayed with speech and maybe playing together allows them to still get away with not using words. They're not being challenged as much as if they were with older kids. Bridgette has just started using more words, hopefully it rubs off.

One of the questions they asked was if she plays make-believe. Here is a picture of her from yesterday before they even came. She is doing Lambchops' hair. You can see in the first picture that she is using the squirt bottle, in the second picture she is using the comb. 

She was really advanced in a few things, her social skills were at a 33 month level, and shockingly her motors skills were advanced. I'm the biggest, clumsiest, klutz around, so I'm not sure how that happened. Her gross motor skills are a few months advanced, but her fine motor skills tested at 40 months! That's like 3 1/2 years old! They said that could be why her speech is slower - because it is easier for her to do things herself than to form the words. In the bath, instead of saying bubbles, she will hit the water until it forms a bubble and then she will point to it. They have to keep testing until the baby can't do the task anymore, so they were pulling out tests that they said they don't normally do. For one of the skills, she was the only girl they have ever seen who was able to do it.

I am really happy about the motor skills. I don't want any of our kids to go into the liberal arts in college. It's a shame, because the most intelligent people I have ever met at BYU or IU or USC were in the liberal arts, but they are also the people with the worst jobs or long-term employment stability. I really just want Willa to be good at spatial ideas and reasoning so that she can get a math-oriented career like engineering. Ryan tells me that I can't get too caught up in this, but I think I will have a hard time if our kids choose a liberal arts major. I'd be fine with a minor, or even a double major if one of them was science or business based. Of course, I'm probably jinxing myself by writing this down. It will be just my luck that Willa will be an English major, which is definitely the very worst and lowest denominator of all liberal arts. I would definitely be better if she choose Classics, Philosophy, Literature, or Humanities. English majors are like the bottom dredgings of a pond - there are even statistics that show that some large percentage of English majors are only there because they couldn't get accepted into another program, whereas a professor once told our class that Comp Lit students always come from the top 3% of admitted university students at BYU.

 I'm thinking that it's time to start harp lessons. Three is the age, and if her motor skills are ready, then what's stopping us :)? I had the harp out yesterday and was playing taka taka jump jump for her. I got excited because I thought she had started to imitate the hand position in the air, but then I realized that she was just making the gestures for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star because she really likes me to play that for her on the harp while she sings along. Baby steps.