For those who haven't noticed yet, I added a few links to websites and articles on Developmental Dyspraxia and Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Both are nearly synonymous terms for the disorder that Ella appears to have. Dyspraxia is primarily a term used in the UK, and DCD in America, but there is some crossover.
As for the links, In general, I'd say:
If you want an easy to understand overview, read the NCLD article. For the most part it's very down to earth and practical.
If you want a bit more detailed and technical approach, read the wikipedia article.
If you're a medical professional, or want a lengthy discussion, you might find the DCD primer useful. It's primarily targeted at educating pediatricians, and is 5 1/2 pages of useful text. This article is a little on the older side, 1996, but it's still quite good information.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Teething pains...
Well, Ella's on another of her "how many teeth can come in at once" phases. Right now she's got 2 that have broken through the skin a little bit, another 2 that are swelling up to break, and 2 more that might be coming in, but it's hard to tell amidst the chaos.
So, Ella's got a good bit of the "teething grumpies", and it's been messing with her sleep. On Sunday and Monday she woke up for the morning at 4:30am and 4am, respectively.
For the most part it's been settling down a little, but she's still having bursts of "I want this, no that, no, wait, I want to stand and sit, and lay down all at once..." interspersed with sessions of "I want to sit on your lap and have you to read to me for 3 hours straight" and "I want you to walk me around the house in laps for 3 hours straight".
Fortunately, it's not really quite as bad as it sounds, but it's certainly bad enough that I feel sorry for my poor wife who has to try to keep her active and happy all day. (dear, you're the best!)
So, Ella's got a good bit of the "teething grumpies", and it's been messing with her sleep. On Sunday and Monday she woke up for the morning at 4:30am and 4am, respectively.
For the most part it's been settling down a little, but she's still having bursts of "I want this, no that, no, wait, I want to stand and sit, and lay down all at once..." interspersed with sessions of "I want to sit on your lap and have you to read to me for 3 hours straight" and "I want you to walk me around the house in laps for 3 hours straight".
Fortunately, it's not really quite as bad as it sounds, but it's certainly bad enough that I feel sorry for my poor wife who has to try to keep her active and happy all day. (dear, you're the best!)
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Ahh, the holidays have passed..
Yes, I know they passed a while ago, but it feels like they just ended recently because everything else has been so busy trying to "catch up".
In any event, Ella is doing well. Over the holidays her number of signs expanded to 3. She now does her own versions of "more" "finished" and "food/eat". Of course her versions are hardly ASL, but we've learned them.
Ella's independent walking continues to improve. She sometimes will shift directions mid-walk without trouble, and she can go up to 10 steps at a time (although usually it's more like 6) before she stumbles or won't try because it's too far. She's also gained enough confidence that she'll sometimes go to an inanimate object instead of another person. (she knows people will catch her if she falls, so she's more comfortable walking towards a person.)
In any event, I hope you all are doing well, and I hope to see all our local friends and family sometime soon.
In any event, Ella is doing well. Over the holidays her number of signs expanded to 3. She now does her own versions of "more" "finished" and "food/eat". Of course her versions are hardly ASL, but we've learned them.
Ella's independent walking continues to improve. She sometimes will shift directions mid-walk without trouble, and she can go up to 10 steps at a time (although usually it's more like 6) before she stumbles or won't try because it's too far. She's also gained enough confidence that she'll sometimes go to an inanimate object instead of another person. (she knows people will catch her if she falls, so she's more comfortable walking towards a person.)
In any event, I hope you all are doing well, and I hope to see all our local friends and family sometime soon.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Comments..
I've relaxed my comment settings a bit to allow anyone to post if you do the "captcha" jumbled-text-box thing. We'll see how this works and if it doesn't cause another deluge of spam posts I'll leave it that way..
Blasted spammers, ruining the world for everyone else who just wants to make information exchange simple.
Blasted spammers, ruining the world for everyone else who just wants to make information exchange simple.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Steady Progress...
Well, Ella's still not walking, but she's getting *really* close..
She's now to the point where she'll play the game where one of us helps her walk toward the other, then lets go when she gets close. She'll usually take one or two good steps then loose her balance (at which point we catch her).
This kind of thing has been going on for a while now, but she's really improving at it. Recently we were playing this game and when I let go of her and she stopped, balanced for a second or two, then started walking towards Karla, took 3 steps, then fell into her arms. Being able to start herself moving without throwing her balance off is a very good step.
Also, about a week ago when we were playing that game she tried to stand up without holding onto anything. She got herself on her feet with her hands on my lap, pushed off and stood herself up without touching anything. Of course, she promptly toppled over and I caught her, but that was a "risky" thing to do, and it was very good to see.
She's now to the point where she'll play the game where one of us helps her walk toward the other, then lets go when she gets close. She'll usually take one or two good steps then loose her balance (at which point we catch her).
This kind of thing has been going on for a while now, but she's really improving at it. Recently we were playing this game and when I let go of her and she stopped, balanced for a second or two, then started walking towards Karla, took 3 steps, then fell into her arms. Being able to start herself moving without throwing her balance off is a very good step.
Also, about a week ago when we were playing that game she tried to stand up without holding onto anything. She got herself on her feet with her hands on my lap, pushed off and stood herself up without touching anything. Of course, she promptly toppled over and I caught her, but that was a "risky" thing to do, and it was very good to see.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Developmental Pediatrician.
As some of you know, Ella saw a developmental pediatrician from UMMC on Friday (hence forth "the doctor"). She was extrordiarily patient, observant, and made every effort to be helpful. However, in her own words "Well, I'm at a place where I can pretty much only tell you what you already know".
She spent some time discussing with us, as well as observing for her self, Ella's current abilities and behaviors.
On the plus side, she was able to confirm many of our observations, and be a bit more specific than we could be. In general the highlights of discussion where:
Autism - Ella's not showing any signs of Autism at present. Her sociability is too high for that, and we already knew this much. The doctor was also able to point out that her chances of developing autism are quite low. According to her, normally children that are sociable, but develop into autism start off with some signs of abnormal social behavior. During her observation, Ella started off being cautious toward the doctor because she was a stranger. Over a period of a half hour, Ella warmed up a bit to her and started playing near her, letting her hold her hand for walking, etc. According to the doctor, that's very normal, and children "at risk" will tend to have either really short or really long warm-up periods. The doctor still can't be 100% positive that Ella won't develop into Autism, but it's unlikely enough that she admits her gut reaction is "no, not a concern".
Cerebral Palsy - This much we already knew quite solidly, but the doctor did point out that she has no signs of Palsy. Her reflexes and muscle tone are both normal. ( Muscle tone is a reaction thing, not a strength thing, thus related to neurological health. If you suddenly straighten a child's arm, leg, whatever they'll automatically engage their muscles to protect the joint from being jolted. A child without low muscle tone will react slowly or weakly. A high tone child will react much too strongly, or may stiffen immediately.)
Metabolic Disorders - Ella's not really showing any signs of metabolic disorders, no enlarged organs, etc. However, the doctor did say she would have Ella's pediatrician review the metabolic screen she had at birth (ie: the PKU, etc they run on the heel stick), and possibly run some additional screens if some of the ones of interest weren't in her test. This is largely a precautionary measure, and the tests are simple enough to run with a small finger-prick sample of blood.
Assessment - In the process, the doctor also performed a developmental assesment, which was a different assesment tool than the E-LAP that the county used, but I forget which one. In general she came up with Ella's gross motor skills now being around 12-13 months, and her communication is much further behind. That's a bit further along than we thought in gross motor (we've been thinking around 10-11 months), but otherwise no surprise to us. As mentioned above, her social development was age appropriate, as was her cognitive and fine-motor.
Dyspraxia (aka Developmental Coordination Disorder) - This is the "working assumption" of Ella's Physical Therapist, and the doctor agreed this is a reasonable assumption. At this stage she couldn't really rule out any other problems, but that is what is evident at present.
My motor disorder - For those that don't know (which most of you do) I have some form of mild motor disorder. Unfortunately, not a whole lot is known about my disorder, largely because it was detected but deemed to mild to worry about by the neurologist I saw as a child. I can tell you that my disorder primarily affects my fine-motor skills (as anyone who's seen me write or free-hand draw will know), but it does have some lesser impacts on my gross motor and hand-eye co-ordination (as anyone who's seen me try to catch a ball will know). Obviously, since I have some kind of motor disorder, this was a significant topic of discussion since Ella is showing signs of one.
Ella is affected a bit differently than me, as mine is primarily fine motor and Ella's is primarily gross motor. However, my fine motor wasn't really noticeable until I entered school and was doing more complicated things like writing, crafts, etc. Also, I had no obvious gross motor issues at her age, as I was walking at 10 months.
Follow-up - The doctor wants to see her again in 6 months to see how she's progressing.
So, at this point, we only have some confirmation of things we knew, and possibly some additional metabolic screening. But a little confirmation is better than nothing at all.
She spent some time discussing with us, as well as observing for her self, Ella's current abilities and behaviors.
On the plus side, she was able to confirm many of our observations, and be a bit more specific than we could be. In general the highlights of discussion where:
Autism - Ella's not showing any signs of Autism at present. Her sociability is too high for that, and we already knew this much. The doctor was also able to point out that her chances of developing autism are quite low. According to her, normally children that are sociable, but develop into autism start off with some signs of abnormal social behavior. During her observation, Ella started off being cautious toward the doctor because she was a stranger. Over a period of a half hour, Ella warmed up a bit to her and started playing near her, letting her hold her hand for walking, etc. According to the doctor, that's very normal, and children "at risk" will tend to have either really short or really long warm-up periods. The doctor still can't be 100% positive that Ella won't develop into Autism, but it's unlikely enough that she admits her gut reaction is "no, not a concern".
Cerebral Palsy - This much we already knew quite solidly, but the doctor did point out that she has no signs of Palsy. Her reflexes and muscle tone are both normal. ( Muscle tone is a reaction thing, not a strength thing, thus related to neurological health. If you suddenly straighten a child's arm, leg, whatever they'll automatically engage their muscles to protect the joint from being jolted. A child without low muscle tone will react slowly or weakly. A high tone child will react much too strongly, or may stiffen immediately.)
Metabolic Disorders - Ella's not really showing any signs of metabolic disorders, no enlarged organs, etc. However, the doctor did say she would have Ella's pediatrician review the metabolic screen she had at birth (ie: the PKU, etc they run on the heel stick), and possibly run some additional screens if some of the ones of interest weren't in her test. This is largely a precautionary measure, and the tests are simple enough to run with a small finger-prick sample of blood.
Assessment - In the process, the doctor also performed a developmental assesment, which was a different assesment tool than the E-LAP that the county used, but I forget which one. In general she came up with Ella's gross motor skills now being around 12-13 months, and her communication is much further behind. That's a bit further along than we thought in gross motor (we've been thinking around 10-11 months), but otherwise no surprise to us. As mentioned above, her social development was age appropriate, as was her cognitive and fine-motor.
Dyspraxia (aka Developmental Coordination Disorder) - This is the "working assumption" of Ella's Physical Therapist, and the doctor agreed this is a reasonable assumption. At this stage she couldn't really rule out any other problems, but that is what is evident at present.
My motor disorder - For those that don't know (which most of you do) I have some form of mild motor disorder. Unfortunately, not a whole lot is known about my disorder, largely because it was detected but deemed to mild to worry about by the neurologist I saw as a child. I can tell you that my disorder primarily affects my fine-motor skills (as anyone who's seen me write or free-hand draw will know), but it does have some lesser impacts on my gross motor and hand-eye co-ordination (as anyone who's seen me try to catch a ball will know). Obviously, since I have some kind of motor disorder, this was a significant topic of discussion since Ella is showing signs of one.
Ella is affected a bit differently than me, as mine is primarily fine motor and Ella's is primarily gross motor. However, my fine motor wasn't really noticeable until I entered school and was doing more complicated things like writing, crafts, etc. Also, I had no obvious gross motor issues at her age, as I was walking at 10 months.
Follow-up - The doctor wants to see her again in 6 months to see how she's progressing.
So, at this point, we only have some confirmation of things we knew, and possibly some additional metabolic screening. But a little confirmation is better than nothing at all.
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