Developmental Follow-up

Charlie had an appointment for a developmental follow-up at the hospital today. His corrected age is about 6-months right now (actual age is 7 1/2) so they wanted to be sure he's on track with other 6-month babies.

On their scale 85-115 is considered normal. He scored 102 on their mental tests and 94 on their motor skills tests. Basically this means he can pick things up, he has problem solving skills, social skills and memory. What he needs to work on are his movement skills and his ab muscles.

Basically there were 2 things he couldn't really do that they expected him to do. He couldn't really hold things in both hands at the same time. He always dropped the 1st toy and focused only on the 2nd. This seams like something that will correct itself when he gets out of the eating everything he can grab stage though. It's hard to eat 2 toys at once.

The other thing he couldn't do very well was balance when seated. He got credit for being able to sit, however when we put a toy to his left or right he'd fall over trying to get them. So our job for the next few weeks is to encourage him to sit and strengthen his core muscles so he can lean over and return to the seated position.

We got to weigh and measure him today as well. He's up to 17 pounds 8 ounces and he's 28 3/8 inches.

Overall the therapist was impressed with his progress and told us he was one of her favorite babies when he was in the NICU. The compliment seemed genuine too, not like she says that to all the parents :)