Reflections - Love That Shot Challenge

Lillie's Developmental Evaluation

We took Lillie for her first developmental evaluation yesterday. Two therapists (one speech, one occupational) played with her for about an hour. Lillie did great and we found out she is not significantly delayed in any area (we kind of figured that already). She is "at risk" for becoming delayed in a couple of areas where she didn't score quite as high.

Her "Receptive Communication" skills were a little low. We know she can hear, but she isn't making the connection between sound and meaning yet, she isn't "looking for the source of the sound." They want us to get her hearing checked to rule out a physical hearing problem. The other area she had a lower score in was "Adaptive Self-care"...she got a lower score here partly because she isn't eating solids yet. The therapists said that's not really fair because she is getting the best nutrition possible and that shouldn't count against her, but it sort of does on the test (standardized testing is already affecting her). Since she does have a "week latch" the therapist gave me some exercies to do to strengthen her face muscles and get her ready for the spoon. She also taught me the correct way to introduce the spoon so we don't form bad habits from the start.

Not surprisingly Lillie scored very high on social skills, particularly adult interaction. She loves attention and she prefers people over toys!

She was within normal limits in every other area. Her "Fine Motor skills" scored on the low end of normal, and the therapists recommended occupational therapy once a week to help with fine motor skills and hearing skills. If we lived anywhere else, a therapist would come to our house for this. But they have no home-bound occupational therapist for Sumter County!! They have one Sumter County therapist, but apparently she isn't occupational, not sure what she is. So we don't know yet how far we'll have to go. We should know in a couple of weeks. I will be placing another call to the "boss" of the therapists though and seeing if I can pull some strings (we're friends with her parents and I spoke with her before the evaluation). Not likely, but I'm gonna try.

DIYDish

www.diydish.com



This is a cool new site about how to "do-it-yoursel" crafts!!! Looks like it's going to be fun!!!

"To celebrate the launch of this new show, our friends at Janome are letting us give away TWO (yes, TWO!!) dream machines! Someone is going to win the Janome 350e EMBROIDERY machine and a second person is going to win the Janome DC4030 SEWING machine! Now how cool is that?!"

Down syndrome update

Thanks to Lacey, I now know that I was wrong about the types of Down syndrome. I've corrected the posts below. All Down syndrome is Trisomy 21. The 3 types are Nondisjunction, Translocation and Mosaicism. I have a call into the doctor's office to find out what type Lillie has (again). Apparently the nurse I spoke to before doesn't have a clue what she's talking about!!

Update: I looked at the report when we were at Dr. C's last week. It doesn't say which type, but it says that all cells have the extra 21st chromosome, which rules out Mosaicism, and it doesn't say that the 21st chromosome is linked to another chromosome, which rules out Translocation. So Lillie has Nondisjuction Trisomy 21...the most common form of Down syndrome. Now we finally know!

Trisomy 21

Lillie has Trisomy 21, the most common type of Down Syndrome. The doctor's office called yesterday to confirm it.

Update: We still don't know what type she has. All Down syndrome is Trisomy 21. The most common is nondisjunction. The other two are Translocation and Mosaicism. I have a call in to the doctor's office to find out what Lillie has.

Another Update: Lillie has Nondisjunction Trisomy 21...the most common form of Down syndrome.

National Down syndrome Awareness Month

October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month. Our beautiful Lillie, born September 26, 2009, has Down Syndrome. In honor of her, I thought I'd tell you all a little something about Down Syndrome. You can learn more by visiting www.ndss.org.

Down syndrome occurs when an individual has three, rather than two, copies of the 21st chromosome. This additional genetic material alters the course of development and causes the characteristics associated with Down syndrome.

There are 3 types of Down syndrome. We do not yet know which type Lillie has. The nurse called and confirmed a positive diagnosis, but Lillie's doctor (who can actually understand the report) is out of the office for a couple of weeks, so we're waiting to learn more.

All Down syndrome is also called Trisomy 21. Here are the 3 types of Trisomy 21.

1. Nondisjunction is the most common type of Down Syndrome (95% of cases). It is caused by an error in cell division called "nondisjunction." Nondisjunction results in an embryo with three copies of chromosome 21 instead of the usual two. Prior to or at conception, a pair of 21st chromosomes in either the sperm or the egg fails to separate. As the embryo develops, the extra chromosome is replicated in every cell of the body.

2. Mosaicism occurs when nondisjunction of chromosome 21 takes place in one-but not all-of the initial cell divisions after fertilization. When this occurs, there is a mixture of two types of cells, some containing the usual 46 chromosomes and others containing 47. Those cells with 47 chromosomes contain an extra chromosome 21. Mosaicism accounts for about 1% of all cases of Down syndrome.

3. Translocation accounts for about 4% of all cases of Down syndrome. In translocation, part of chromosome 21 breaks off during cell division and attaches to another chromosome, typically chromosome 14. While the total number of chromosomes in the cells remain 46, the presence of an extra part of chromosome 21 causes the characteristics of Down syndrome.

The only way to know which type of Down syndrome Lillie has is through a chromosome study (blood test). That's been done, and we're waiting on the Doctor to let us know what the results are.

Pictures of Lillie

Taken this morning...