I have an over eager health visitor, I have tried to tell her to back off and it didn't work, multiple times... And I am not a terribly nice person, most people would back the hell off even if I told them thinking that I was being very subtle.
She sends me these giant questionnaires every month to complete for Fi's development. While I do think that they are a bit over the top, I have actually found them quite helpful. I just don't like the whole reporting on a monthly basis appropriate... Especially as she could have some delays, she is not even willing to look at the achon charts...
My gut feeling is that kids with HCH must be somewhere between the AH and the achon charts just like for height. It is clear to see why they would have a delay with gross motor skills, they have major "mechanical challenges": shorter limbs, larger head. Because they may spend longer time mastering the gross motor skills they could have somewhat delayed fine motor skills, the shorter arms also mean that they reach for things differently and the little hands don't help either. It is also often said that their speech may be delayed simply because they take longer to learn the motor skills. In addition to that there are the hearing problems and then the cognitive side of HCH which I will not go into now.
Anyhow, as pushy as the health visitor is, the questionnaires by themselves are not bad at all and I have found them on- line. They go all the way up to 5: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B23x_OlN3FTNYmE2NTY5NTctODY0OS00NzY5LWI4ZWQtZWM4ZDE3ZDBkNDFh&hl=en_GB
Fi is actually pretty much on target with all her skills now at 8 months, the only thing she doesn't do is rolling over from back to tummy... I am however not worried at all, my other 2 children could walk before they rolled onto their tummy, yea, my kids are not big on tummy time...
I also have and review time to time these 2 achondroplasia specific charts :
http://data.memberclicks.com/site/lpamrs/Achon%20development%20chart.Todorov%2081.pdf
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B23x_OlN3FTNNTVlYjEzYjgtYmIxZC00OTUyLWI5YmMtYTNhYzAyNmMzYTlk&hl=en_US
Enjoy, happy reading...
Petite yet fierce - Ramblings of a pathologically information hungry mother about hypochondroplasia, about rearing 3 girls in a foreign country and about all the random thoughts my sleep deprived and over-stimulated brain can come up with.
Our infant dev consultant used to give me those monthly questionaires for whatever month LH was at. I never actually filled one out, but I would read through it for an idea of what is expected at that age.
ReplyDeleteFor the other charts, LH was pretty average hitting those milestones. Like I told you, climbing stairs was his biggest challenge. And that hasn't stopped him from climbing everything else (he's constantly pushing a chair to the counter or island and climbing up). He does pretty well on the playground as well - he may use his knees to climb the ladder but he gets up.
Thanks again for posting all this information. I really appreciate it!
I'm having terrible flashbacks of my previous life! I used to administer these same questionnaires when I used to work for the Early Headstart Program. I'm glad that you have the sense to know that these questionnaires are not the end all. Evan still struggles with his speech and fine motor skills. And of course he will not be able to keep up with the gross motor--although he thinks he's a lightening fast runner!
ReplyDeleteEvan falls on the very end of the AH charts. I've never really looked at the achon charts (or at least not in the past few years), so thanks for posting the links!
That must have been a fun job Andrea... NOT... Dealing with nutcase parents like me...
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