Testing, testing, testing...

Allan had his final Bayley assessment today. This is a test that they give to assess how he is developing physically, cognitively and socially/emotionally.

You may recall that this is the same test that Allan decided to fall asleep during back in January of 2007. It should probably go without saying that his scores weren't that high on that round.

Big Al kicked a** and took names today, though. He is behind on his speech and motor development (we didn't really need a test to tell us that), but he scored "average" in cognition and social/emotional development. The woman giving the test was the same one who has tested him every time and she couldn't have been more thrilled.

So how do you know what Allan knows? Well, they have a series of tests -- give him a puzzle with three shapes and see if he puts them in the right place, and, if so, how long it takes him. Take the pieces out, turn the puzzle around and see if he can do it again (Allan, being Allan, didn't like this part and kept trying to turn the puzzle around the 'right' way). Next there is a bigger puzzle with nine spots -- 5 blue squares and 4 blue circles. See if he can put them in the right slots and how quickly he can do it (Allan, being Allan, got 6 of them and then decided that he would rather collect all the blue circles in a stack). Next he had to stack blocks (this one I remembered and had been practicing with him for). Of course, the blocks they gave him were smaller and slipperier than ours so he didn't get as many as he can at home (only 4 as opposed to 6) but he did it once with his left hand, once with his right and one time used both hands which was something I hadn't seen him do before. Part of the test had to do with showing him puzzle pieces (only two) and demonstrating how to put them together to make a ball. He couldn't quite get it, but, in fairness, the table was rather slick. He also had to pick up Cheerios and put 10 of them in a bottle (one after the other) in a certain amount of time. And then put pennies in a piggy bank (a little unfair because it was hard for him to pick them up. He did demonstrate his dogged determinedness, though, by refusing to give up and chasing the coins all over the table until he succeeded.) He liked the part of the test that involved putting a rubber duck on a spoon handle, hitting the bowl of it and flipping the duck through the air. You could almost see the thought flash through his mind "FINALLY. Finally, they show me something that makes this all worthwhile!" He wasn't able to duplicate the trick, but he was giving it all he had. Griff takes the test next week and I'm pretty sure he'll nail it in one. Although I am pretty sure that we don't really want them learning how to catapault things off of a spoon, regardless of the fact that it will help them pass the test.

The tester also noted that Allan is very expressive ---- then went on to say that he has a wide variety of expressions for irritation. Yes, yes, he does. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree on that one.

Part of the test involved interviewing me and I had such a hard time with it. Does Allan understand household rules? Hmmm, hard to say. Pick up your clothes? No. Don't hit your brother? Yes. Does he comply? Not always. Hard to fit that kind of answer in to "always", "sometimes" or "never." Can we make this an essay question? I do much better with those.
Does Allan use soap when he washes his hands? No, but, then again, based on what I have witnessed in public washrooms, that makes him no worse than lots of other people. Oh, yeah, and there is the part where He.Can't.Reach.the.Sink. Much less turn on the faucets and get the soap. But we'll put that on a list to follow up on.

All in all, though, we are delighted with how well he is doing. And we are looking forward to seeing how Griff does next week. It is hard for me not to want to go home and practice with him, but that would be a little unfair to Allan, I suppose. We'll see how Griff does based on his own native cunning....