Appointment with Psychology

We finally got in to our long awaited developmental assessment!  For months we have been trying to figure out how to go about this.  This Dr. works on the feeding team but also does her own thing in her practice.  She wasn't contracted with my insurance and thought I should just try to do a developmental assessment through the school district.  Whitney doesn't go to a public school and I'm not planning on sending her for a year or two more.  So I didn't really know how to go about doing it that way.  I've also asked our pediatrician and our therapist if they can refer us to a developmental pediatrician.  They didn't know of any or even what that was it seemed like.  They just did a very simple text that wasn't good enough for CHOC needed in depth eval.  The feeding program team needs to make sure Whitney is qualified  for their program with this developmental assessment.  So I finally called our insurance company and they decided to try to work around it with us so that we could see the psychologist at CHOC, because she is the one who know what's good for the feeding program.  After more weeks of seeing if they would accept each others offers and getting special permission for this, we got it approved!



So on Sept. 29th we had our appointment.  Around 9am, I took Cameron to a baby sitter's house.  He actually had lots of fun this time!  He ate and played and napped happily.  Whitney and I got to CHOC around 10am.  I tube feed her some baby food that morning and then some more in the waiting room.  She was feeling good and happy to be there.  I wanted to be in the room with he,r at least at first, and make sure Whitney is doing good.  The Dr. let me stay in the whole time though because I wasn't distracting Whitney at all.  We got right down to business.  Whitney told us that she was going to listen to directions and be obedient.  :)  She was pretty proud of herself for answering all the the questions that the Dr. asked.  She drew some lines, put together puzzles, organized some blocks, and answered a ton more questions.  I thought she was adorable and did a great job.  Although I wish I could have prepared her a little more for the kinds of questions the Dr. asked because they were kind of difficult.  The Dr. gave the same mellow response to all of Whitney's answers, even when they were wrong.  I really wish I could of told Whitney the right answer instead of her thinking she got it right when it was actually wrong.  But I guess that would have taken an extra hour, haha.  The Dr. went through all the questions really quickly and didn't leave much room for Whitney to talk.



So this assessment was to make sure that Whitney would do well in the Feeding Program and for her "teachers" there to know how to help her best with where she is developmentally.  The psychologist says that Whitney is smart and focused and should do great in the program!!  She also noticed that Whitney's conversations seem a bit one sided and scripted.  We both agree that after she is monitored in the feeding program, then we can decide if she needs testing for social behavioral skills.  Honestly I think she is good there, kinda like Daddy and I.  I'm a tad OCD and anti-social, :).  Although I did have a big imagination and loved to pretend.  Whitney doesn't do that well with her toys or friends.      She's been pretty sheltered social wise since she was about 3 years old, had anxiety meeting new people and going new places, been in the hospital way too many times to count right now, and doesn't have any older siblings to learn from.  So I think with more experience and time she will be more social and have more friends.  Even if she doesn't, she seems very happy and is a very smart, kind, beautiful little girl.