Zia's Development

Last Tuesday, May 13, Judith and I accompanied Zia to a Developmental Pediatrician in Medical City. She is Dr. Jackie Navarro, referred by our pediatrician friend Dr. Ces Alinea.

Zia can speak words but we still think that she is not at par with her age group in terms of language development. Her tantrums are quite increasing maybe because she cannot express what she wants to convey.

So off we went to Medical City, I and Judith have to scrap our usual schedules to be able to visit Dr. Navarro. Developmental Pediatricians usually have long queues for appointments so when we were informed by her secretary that an opening is there, we took it immediately.

Zia is horrified in riding elevators. She would cry endlessly, would scream and would struggle inside the elevator until the ride would finish. When we parked our car in the basement, we had no choice but to ride a short 3-level elevator ride going up to the hospital lobby. As expected, struggle galore ensued. When we alighted, there was still a nine storey elevator trip going to the clinic. So being diligent and understanding parents, we took the stairs going up. PGH's highest floor is 8th, so I went up to a level even higher than PGH while carrying a sobbing Zia. Pogi points for me and Judith as parents. Of course, upon reaching the ninth floor, both of us were already dead tired.

Anyway, Dr. Navarro was very thorough with her evaluation with Zia. She performed a test called Griffith Developmental Test. It is a series of tests wherein the child does simple tasks, identifying various objects, shapes, colors, sizes. The test is quite extensive, almost an hour. Judith, after the test, told me that she was quite anxious while Zia was doing the test. Parang gusto niyang i-cheer si Zia na "Kaya mo yan , anak! Tinuro ko sa yo yan kanina!" I was quite impressed with Zia. She answered all questions, no tantrums. Even if she did not know the answer to some questions, she would still try to answer, sometimes just murmuring words.

The test revealed Zia has a borderline language developmental delay. For her present age of 3 years, her language development is at 2 years and 2 month stage. Good news is that she has no autism. Dr. Navarro's advise is to enroll her to a speech therapist, a hearing test, and more stimulation at home.

Of course, before going home, we have to do the compulsory visit to Jollibee. She adores that bee. And of course, anything that she likes, we tend to give. Hay...