Progress is progress, no matter how we quantify it

On Wednesday, Jonathan went for his annual Neuro-cognitive evaluation up at TCH. His first one was required as part of being qualified to get his CIs. At his first eval (when he was 6 months old), they determined that at all areas (social, gross motor, fine motor, etc) he was at the 1 month level.

This time they rated him on the 6 month level for Gross motor (crawling, walking, etc) and 11-12 months for fine motor (using hands, etc). While this is an improvement, it was discouraging to me. The use a standardized test that gives points for being able to do something. As with most kiddos, he didn't perform as well as he would have done if in his comfort zone at home. So, since he only put two wooden blocks in the metal tin instead of 4, he got only 1 point. When he took steps while I supported his trunk (hands under his armpits) instead of letting him hold my fingers and support himself, that didn't count.

After the 'performanc' testing, they gave me a scantron type questionnaire w/ yes/no questions about what Jonathan can and cannot do. I worked on it in the cafeteria in the clinical care building while trying to eat lunch. I was so discouraged at the end of the test. out of the 300 questions, Jonathan could only do less than 10% of the tasks. Granted, several of them were not age appropriate even without developmental delays. I was upset that the focus was on what he cannot do and not what he can do and how far he has come.

The truth is, he HAS come so far and he is making progress. Maybe it isn't as fast as we'd like, but...progress is progress! Thanks to everyone who has been listening to me vent and cry about this appointment. All of your encouraging words helped get me back on track :)
On a more positive note...here are two pics of Jenny and Jonathan playing. Jenny was watching Jonathan roll around on the floor, then propped him up in her lap to play in front of his mirror w/ music. It was really sweet.