Next Steps

Today was Petey's (so nicknamed by Noah) hearing test that is part of three appointments evaluating his development in order to make a therapy plan, most likely for OT and speech therapy. In the following weeks, we will have two one-hour evaluations at our home where our early intervention service coordinator will assess him while he plays. The hearing test showed that he can in fact hear, which we knew but had to have confirmed as part of his evaluation. The service coordinator, however, did note that he has a concerningly short attention span. She thinks that while he can hear language, he is possibly not able to pay enough attention to language to learn to speak it. This will be evaluated further during our two upcoming evaluations.

Speaking of Petey's service coordinator, she asked me to clarify what country he is from because "he does not look Chinese." What this really means is that he does not look Han, which is the ethnic majority group that makes up at least 92% of China's population. Ironically, Matt and I have been talking about this recently because of his dark skin. There are 55 ethnic minority groups in China. Based on physical description and geography, we think it is possible that Petey has Mongolian or other ethnic minority influence. If any of you readers happens to be Chinese or is well-versed in Chinese ethnic groups, we'd love to hear your input! We are fascinated by this, simply because we are interested in anything and everything about Petey's background.

Here are some more pics of the brothers:

 

Thank you for Mickey, Aunt Sue!

~Allie