Three for Three

It seems that three for three is the bane of our existence at the Hobbs house. Three pregnancies, three boys. And now, three boys, three sets of special needs. Yup, that's right, Hayden qualifies for early intervention services. I was mildly concerned about his late walking and lack of words at his 12 and 15 month check-ups. To be on the safe side, the pediatrician recommended a visit with the county early intervention. We had a screening in the first of April and then a full evaluation today for Hayden. In the intervening six weeks between screen and evaluation, Hayden made a ton of progress. He started pointing, said more words, and cruised along the furniture. Even though other children his age or younger were doing so much more, I talked myself out of any delays he might have. Our other kids (this should have been a clue) were always a bit slower developmentally and he was doing a lot better than Grant ever did at his age. So I was completely unprepared for the final numbers to come in.

Hayden has a 25% delay in basically every area they tested and they even adjusted his age one month due to his prematurity. Anything at 12 months is considered a 25% delay. His walking was at 11-13 months, so he qualified for services on that alone! He also has 25% delays in expressive language, adaptive skills, fine motor skills, cognitive, and social emotional skills. The specialists were glad to see that he is delayed the same amount in these areas. The only thing actually on target is his receptive language, or what he understands.

My reaction: You have got to be kidding me. I cannot believe we are going through this again! But oh yeah, he was off the charts for spatial relationships, like we haven't heard that one before! Seriously, when she got to the part where she asked Travis what he did for a living and then knowingly nodded her head I almost laughed...so tragically funny. We get it! Our Hobbs/Welsh genetic quagmire only produces children with some sort of developmental/speech delay but strengths in mathematical/spatial relationships! Yeah, of course he can stack nesting cups on a 19-24 month level...he's a HOBBS!! You're just lucky he's not counting yet! It's no wonder we thought Hayden was normal, he's normal for us! I had to leave early and Travis got to answer the dreaded "how would you compare him to typical 17 month olds that you know?" He answered with "we don't really have experience with typical 17 month olds and of those that we know, he's way behind." I laughed when he told me. Sigh....

So ANYWAY, we have a list of homework including: helping him recognize himself in a mirror, identifying animals and their sounds, teaching him to accompany toys and sounds (car + vroom), helping him walk by pushing things around the room, identifying facial details, scooping, drinking from a cup, etc, etc, etc. Meanwhile, we're on a waiting list for services, typically a couple months long. Then he will have a couple in-home therapy sessions per month to teach us how to help him overcome his weaknesses. Then he'll be tested in a year or so for the same program that Blake is in now to see if he qualifies for preschool. The one bright spot, apparently having a good job and three children puts us on the low-income scale around here and we won't have to pay the $100/hour the therapies cost. Woo Hoo!