Tuesday 15 May 2012

Developmental Paediatrician

Today Tiddler had an appointment with the Developmental Paediatrician. I went on my own with T, unsure of what it would entail but reckoning on a 15mins with possible immediate discharge.

2 hours, several Braxton Hicks and a few more grey hairs later, we emerged from the appointment with T beyond tired and me fighting back the tears.

Ironically, the appointment went quite well...it was very detailed, with the Paediatrician taking a lot of history and then observing her accomplish various tasks: drawing, identifying objects, building block towers etc etc

She more or less hits the spots that she should, finding herself in the 15-18mth bracket for most aspects apart from communication which she was a bit more advanced, and cognitive and personal care or something like that which she is more like 12 mth level. It was a very interesting process to observe, she casted objects like a trooper, totally refused to build a brick tower.. It was reassuringly typical behaviour...

They did express concern as to her attention span... Which is woeful and incredibly incredibly exhausting so I was glad that this was picked up on as I felt validated. I have been trying to tell people how difficult it is to manage her as she will not stay on a task for more than 2 minutes, if you are lucky!

Her head banging and casting behaviour was also picked up on again and the basic upshot is she is getting referred to our Local Authority Educational Psuchologist to be assigned a pre school teacher. I have been trying to get T into this system and had been told before that because she was without a diagnosis this was unlikely. Thankfully, now she has been seen by the Paediatrician they have a Statutory duty to notify the local authority.

So a positive appointment all in all but there is no way I am flying solo with appointments like that again. It's impossible to manage bump, bags and very wriggly non walking toddler without a pushchair... Again... Not allowed in the building... We have heard that somewhere before...