16 Month Adjusted Age Developmental Checkup

Today C and D had their 16 month adjusted age developmental checkup at the Whitney Clinic here in SF. This is a program that D qualified for by about 30 grams, and I got my insurance to get C in as well. While I would rather have a child who didn't come early and didn't need to be developmentally assessed, I am extremely grateful that such programs and opportunities exist for preemies.

We get a full written report and recommendations in a few weeks, but here is the lowdown:

Neurologist: At this point the neurologist looks for two major things--the parachute reflex (he flips them upside down to see if their arms naturally reach out to stop the fall) and the pincer grasp. These are the two greatest 'brain' developments after the first year. He did more tests, but the net is they passed. He also said the 'normal' age range for walking is 9-18 months, and since they were looking at D as a 16 month old (they look at adjusted until age 3), AND she was putting on a show, walking ALL over the place, he thought she seemed fine.

Pediatrician: Similar to an 18 month check up, only the beauty is they chart their measurements based on a 16 month old. Under this scenario, C hovers close to the 50th percentile in weight/height! (Don't even ask about the head circumference). D, well, the jury's still out, because this time she was measured at almost 30 inches...an inch longer than the week before! I'm not sure what to make of it--the measurement tool at this place was much better, but at the ped's office they measured her 3 times! So who knows...either way, she is still a peanut, but at almost 30 inches and 16 months old it paints a slightly better pic. Who knows.

Otherwise, some issues relating to their lungs (maybe asthma or a respiratory disorder) and skin (they have sensitive skin/eczema).

Developmental specialist: They run through a series of tests, some repeats of last time, some new. I was w/ D, A w/ C. D struggled more than C, especially when they asked her things like "can you point to the doll's nose?" D would point to her own. I'd like to argue that she doesn't play w/ dolls, and that if they'd asked her to point to the elephant or giraffe's nose she would have done better, but who knows. They scored the following:

C D

• Cognitive learning 22 months 19 months
• Receptive language 24 19
• Expressive language 19 19
• Fine motor skills 21 15
• Gross motor skills 15 14

What this all means is that they are scoring behind their adjusted age in gross (and fine for D) motor skills and ahead of their actual age in the more mental categories. This doesn't mean that C is smarter than D, it just means D is a little younger for her age, which we already sensed and figure it is all part of the preemie issue (identical twins also tend to have extreme parity in IQs). The only thing that surprised us was how well C did on fine motor, given that D always has much more patience for it. I think it was C's way of saying "just because I CAN do it doesn't mean I WANT to do it." Gross motor skills is also an interesting measure...ie. one thing that kept C's score low is that she can't walk down a flight of stairs on her own. But that is probably because we don't LET her.

All in all, we were very happy to hear that they show no developmental delays mentally and should eventually catch up physically.

And lest anyone think they are totally inept physically, I'm submitting these videos as evidence :-)