The ECI team came to our house to do the evaluation. I had my grandma come over to entertain the girls so that I could be with Tripp. The girls were in the playroom and we were in the living room with the therapists. It took him a few minutes but he came out of his shell and started to play with the women and their toys. They did a few little games with him to try to get him to make sounds and it worked! He mostly said "yayayayaya," but they said that for his corrected age that's fine. (Technically he's only 12 months old if you adjust his age to account for his prematurity). They could hear the girls talking in the other room and mentioned that they were very talkative (WHAT?) so that might be an issue for him. Also, boys tend to be slower talkers. The occupational therapist said that by watching him she thinks he has the personality of an observer, which might be why he isn't speaking much. His cognitive reception and attention span scored at the level of a 20 month old, so that was very impressive! It turns out he does not need any kind of therapy, he just needs some one on one time with Mark or me, away from his loud-mouthed sisters, to play and read and observe. They kept saying that he's very charming and once he figures out the word "mine," he will say it constantly. Any time they tried to take a toy from him he resisted more than a normal 12 month old would resist (this is due to his sisters stealing his toys so often).
We should be done with the developmental pediatrician and ECI unless we have any other concerns that come up. Hopefully we don't have to see them again!
