April 15, 2009
When Liam had his 12 month check up I had some concerns about his development. For example, he could not get himself into a sitting position by himself, he could not pull himself up, and he army crawled. My ped reassured me that he was fine and would catch up.
When we first moved to Michigan I signed up for a developmental survey every three months through the county (Mike thinks that it was for poor people) but I thought it was a great idea. At his 9 month survey I wrote down some of my concerns and someone contacted me. It took about 4 months but someone came out to the house. Erin came to the house today to do a play assessment on Liam. It was very laid back but allowed her to assess his development.
She found that his upper body strength is definitely weak. His gross motor skills are at a 7-8.5 month old level with holes up to a 12 month old. That means that while some of his skills are a 12 month level a lot of his skills in gross motor are delayed. She found that he is army crawling instead of traditional crawling to compensate for his weakness. She also said that he pulls up using only his legs. She taught me a bunch of tips to help him relearn the right way of doing things that will help him build his strength.
We discussed that he does not clap yet and when he waves it is a sloppy whole armed wave, she explained to me that it all ties into his upper body weakness. She was encouraging in the fact that once he starts to gain strength everything will quickly fall in line and he will catch up soon.
After the appointment I was kind of upset. I did not want to hear that anything was wrong with my sweet outgoing and happy boy. I want him to be the strongest. I do realize though that we are lucky we caught it early so that we can help him now when the problems are small. A physical therapist will come out to the house once a month to check on his progress and we will bring him to a group meeting once a week for some pointers.
Since the appointment we have been working hard and encouraging him. He has really started to crawl in the traditional position and every time he falls down I hold him under the hips to help him. He is such a happy little guy which makes everything that much easier.
