Oh, Gross! (Motor)

As a former preemie, Oliver is submitted to periodic assessments of his development. Gross motor (big muscle skills like sitting and lifting his head); fine motor (small muscle skills like picking things up and clapping); and communications (smiling, laughing, chattering). While his fine motor and communications skills are tracking well, Ollie does seem to be lagging a little in gross motor. He doesn't yet roll back to front or sit unassisted, and the Early Childhood Intervention program says he should.

It's my opinion that Oliver is fine. Dr. P is equally unworried because Ollie is showing forward progress (he's not stagnating). Nonetheless, we all agree there's no sense in being arrogant. So in early June a physical therapist will put Oliver through some paces and determine how red the "red flags" really are.

Meantime, at day care and here at home, we're all working with him on sitting and rolling. At day care he has a special toy basket that they use to tempt him to sit up. Here, Daddy and Logan distract Ollie from his "exercises" with a book.


He's come very close to rolling back to front this weekend. I think we'll nail it.