9 Months, 2 Weeks, 2 Days

Henry's evaluation went well this morning. He did qualify to receive services through the early intervention program, and they recommended that he meet weekly with a physical therapist. His meeting consisted of a lot of questions from the nutritionist, and many "tests" disguised as games from the developmental and physical therapist.

Their consensus was that he has a scattered level of development. In some areas he's quite strong (like small motor, stationary, and congnitive related development). In movement, especially related to his shoulders he's behind. They pointed out how he holds his arms stiff against his side unless he really needs to use them (especially his right arm) and seems to have a hard time interacting with objects. They noted that his particular area of weakness seems to be his shoulders and that he seems downright uncomfortable trying to really extend and raise his arms. He does do these things but he appears to really think about his motions before executing them and he comes back to a braced stiff position afterwards.

They said that because he is quite motivated to engage with his world, toys and people, and manages to do so fairly effectively, they think he'll really benefit from physical therapy to strengthen his shoulder and arm muscles. They also recommended developmental therapy once a month which will be focused on teaching us infant massage and then checking back with him to see if he's any more able to tolerate us manipulating his body. We'll be checking in with the nutritionist once a month as well, to get new ideas for getting his weight up and to make sure that he continues to gain well.

It was a lot of information all at once and Henry seemed pretty overwhelmed at first (as i'm sure i did). He settled in by the end of the visit though and i think gave a pretty good idea of his real "skill level" by the end of the visit. I'm sure it will take a few weeks to get everything set up and running, but we were pleased with the visit and look forward to seeing the individual therapists work with him.

Here's a picture i took this evening of Henry getting ready to eat a snack JT has (Trader Joe's Fig Bars, Henry's new fave!) Henry is holding his arm braced at his side in the picture like the therapists noticed right off the bat.