Watch me eat!

One of the gaps in Tian's skill set was that she was never given the opportunity to feed herself. I suspect that they just had to shovel the food in with all the kids at the SWI and also, probably didn't want to deal with the mess of self-feeding. So our baby has been clueless about the concept that she can actually pick up food and put it in her mouth. We've really been working on this...and have a breakthrough. Here are some photos of her with a large piece of cracker. The funny thing is she will only pick up really large pieces of food and gnaw on them...once it's gets too small she won't even try. But we are so happy to be making progress.

I should probably also update you on her appointment with Early Intervention. She had her assessment last week and it was very interesting and the staff were SO nice. I highly recommend doing this for anyone who has adopted. Even if your child doesn't qualify for services, you'll learn a lot from the appointment about where they are at developmentally and how you can help in areas they may be a bit behind in.

Interestingly, Tian's fine motor skills, which I was most concerned about, tested about average for her age. I was really surprised at this because she doesn't self-feed and struggles to grasp some things. However, while there she demonstrated a pincher grasp between her thumb and middle finger which was a surprise to me. However, they felt she was behind in both gross motor skills and problem solving for her age. She has "low muscle tone," particularly in the hip area. I'm really not worried about this because she has made such progress in the short time she's been with us. Also, with problem solving, I think it is a matter of experience rather than skill. A lot of the activities she needed to do where things like reacting to a mirror or putting blocks in a cup. I think she is capable of this, but was a bit overwhelmed with all the "stuff" at the assessment and carefully watching the new adults. She also hasn't had the opportunity to do many of these tasks yet. In the end, they decided that she qualified for the services of a occupational therapist. She will be seeing one once a month.