Resilient

I’ve been busy lately, hence the little blog pause. Partly it’s because I’ve been waking up really early to go for runs before the kids wake up. After totally ignoring my New Year’s resolution to exercise for all of January, I decided that February was better late than never. I am amazed how much better my mood is when I get some cardio in. But it also means I’m kind of done in the evening and can’t wait to crawl into bed.

We got this report today in the mail about C. Usually I dread these reports, and I even called to complain last time because I felt blind-sided by their evaluations. Basically the report purported to assess C’s cognitive skills according to whether she could do a bunch of things that would require her to have typical motor skills. I was mad.

They seem to have taken it to heart because in this report, I could tell they saw the child and not just the disability. “C is a sociable young lady who was very calm and interactive… C has an inquisitive outgoing manner… C is a resilient youngster with a can-do, cheerful attitude.” That may seem like filler but I think it’s important for parents to read positive things about their child. These kinds of assessments can be incredibly stressful for parents and can have a massive effect on their expectations. And parental expectations matter. When couched in positive language, statements like “it is too early to predict her stages of function” don’t become scary – they become positive!

I am a bit of a mama bear when it comes to my C.