Visit to Dr. Davoli at JHU Kennedy Krieger International Adoption Clinic

Yesterday we took Lukas for is initial developmental evaluation at the Kennedy Krieger International Adoption Clinic. The staff there were all wonderful and Lukas hit it off very well with Dr. Davoli. She assures us that he seems to have attached to us nicely and is in excellent condition. Her official assessment is that he appears to be at 21 months for language skills and 30 months for cognitive skills which she felt was perfectly normal for his background. So basically, she has him at about a 2 1/2 year old which is about where I thought he was at. She feels very confident that he will catch up within about a year to year and half. As for his stature she said we should know by 6-9 months if he is small from being in the babyhouse or if he is genetically small.

We were allowed to stay in the room for the assessment. She started out with some simple tasks with pegs and blocks and he started doing them before she even told him what she wanted him to do. So he sailed through the cognitive tests for toddlers. They did some drawing tasks and he was a first for her. She drew a striaght line and asked him to do the same. He drew his perpendicular to hers instead of parallel. She tried several times and he always did the same thing. He was better at circles.

She told us we were doing a good job and to keep doing the things we were doing. Reading, talking, music and interacting with him to help his language skills. She did recommend that we consider signing him up with Child Find in Carroll County to work on catching him up on his language skills. It is Federally mandated that children with disabilities or at risk for learning disabilities get free Early Childhood Intervention services. I believe it is part of the "No Child Left Behind" program. She felt the 3 yr old class was appropriate for him but that we might want to supplement with resources from Child Find to help get him up to his actual age level in language and development.

We go back in January for a follow-up visit and to see how he is progressing.

Lukas made another milestone over the weekend by being able to ride his trike in the court area by himself. He struggles a little getting it moving going up the slight inclines but insists on doing it himself. For now we have removed the push stick but will still need it if we go for a ride through the neighborhood due to the big hills.

Thanks for following along,
The Robeys