My OT called last week and was so pleased to share Andrew's final test results. We knew he did well as we watched him go through the testing, but she had some scoring to do on his written work and so we didn't know the exact number at the time. But I'm really excited to share results. I couldn't be happier.
When we first started OT she gave Andrew the Drawing Test of the WRAVMA (Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities). The child "copies designs which are developmentally arranged in order of increasing difficulty. Andrew scored in the third percentile for his age. When he started, he couldn't draw an oval....
(The child is supposed to try to meet the lines perfectly when drawing the shapes, just as in the illustration).
His drawing at discharge....
Isn't that amazing?!
Of course, there would naturally be development just with school over the year and practice, but I was so pleased with this.
Here's another example....
(This is one of the more difficult shapes).
The scoring is very picky and you can see he lost points for overshooting the lines, but even so, this time he scored in the 87th percentile! 87th!!!!
He is still struggling with writing. His OT said that writing is actually a really complicated task. And even though we're seeing some improvements he will have to practice and there's the Executive Functioning piece (the "planning organizing") that andrew really struggles with (and I know this isn't uncommon in young kids, it's just to a different degree in ADHD...Andrew had no school supplies left at the end of last year. None. Not even the pencil box survived. He lost his daily school planner this year. I haven't checked to see how his supplies are surviving. During baseball this year he has lost both his hat and his glove ~ never to be found. They might as well give him his own personal hook in the lost & found at school because it's pretty much his second closet. I could go on, but you get the idea, this is all Executive Functioning stuff & the stuff that threatens my sanity at times). And you can see it in his writing ~ the spacing and inability to plan for how long a word might be, how much space it will take up, etc. So his papers look like this....
(Sorry for the blur on the bottom, I didn't have my aperature set correctly). Even the variance/lightness and darkness shows his inability to modulate pressure with his pencil. (oh, the things I've learned!)
He struggles a lot when there are open spaces. This was supposed to be a map.
There were more tests that she did (mostly motor skill related) and all of them that Andrew scored "below average" in before, he is now either average or above!! I was SO happy. I can see it in his movements as well. He is so much more coordinated and it's like his body responds to what his brain is telling it to do faster, without this sort of newborn puppy look to him where it takes a while to get himself all going in the same direction.
The great thing about these tests is that these were things we did not practice. (Of course he does writing daily in school) but the exercises we did were all different. So what this suggests is that his brain is more integrated, both sides are communicating better and he his a strong foundation to build on.
I feel so fortunate that while we worked really hard for these results, we got them. We're able to build from here. There are kids and families who work even harder for much smaller achievements. For a child to simply do tasks of daily living. Hoping that they might only be able to function independently someday. My awareness of families with kids with special needs has grown greatly and the efforts these families have to put forth daily...I feel so fortunate that our challenges are so small in comparison.
I'm so proud of Andrew and the achievements he made this year. It feels so good to feel like we can move on from this and build on what he's accomplished. Onward and upward!
