Bright's Development

Most everybody who reads this blog knows that Bright was very malnourished for the first year of his life. And with that type of severe malnutrition there are often long-term side effects. We didn't put Bright in a box. We didn't assume that there would be issues. But we were informed and knew it was a possibility.

When Bright came home we saw his physical development improve by leaps and bounds. At 17 months he could stand (if placed in a standing positition) but couldn't roll, couldn't crawl, couldn't sit up from laying down, couldn't walk. By 20 months he was walking, and could roll, and sit up. By 24 months he added crawling to his repretoire and we haven't looked back since! He is completely on target for motor skills (gross and fine).

We kept waiting for Bright to have a huge congitive catch-up, but it never really happened. We didn't want to rush him by going to early intervention services before he had a chance to "get there" on his own, but it became clear in the last few months that our sweet boy just wasn't getting there.

Early Intervention Services came today to do an extensive evalutation on all of Bright's developmental skills. We didn't want to get the news we got, but we expected it. Our little man has significant delays in speech and congitive processing. In order to qualify for services you have to have one 50% delay or two 25% delays. Bright had three 50% delays and five 25% delays in the various areas they tested. His congitive skills are where he is struggling the most--which makes sense considering the malnutrition.

Bright is 31 months old. In most areas he is more like a child a year younger. Is it just a coincidence that he had a year of malnutrition and is behind by a year? Hmm...

There is no way that his body wasn't harmed by the lack of food. We know for sure that a child with that level of malnourishment loses brain connections needed later in order to reach their full potential. It's just a matter of whether Bright would have been a very intelligent child had everything gone right in his life, or if he would have been a more "average" child if everything had gone right. In the end, that will determine whether he will be more "average" as a learning child, or will always need the services of special education.

I have had peace about Bright's future from the very start (well...as soon as we felt like he whould live). Once I saw he could smile and love I knew that the rest was just details! He will be who God meant him to be. I have no doubt that he will grow up and be the man that the Lord intends him to be.

Bright learns. It seems like it just takes him hundreds of hundreds of tries to learn something new, where a typically developing child might learn it in dozens and dozens of times. But his accomplishments are no less exciting when he reaches them--maybe more so! For the first time he is trying to count. Now..he just says nonsense words when you put your fingers up...but at least he "gets" that there is some sort of sequence that he wants to know! And hey! He's also finally starting to recognize that there are colors. He's got some of the color names memorized now. We're just so proud when he looks at an orange shirt and says "Blue!" because hey! It's a color!

Bright is bright, no matter what the tests may say. =-)

Anita