16 month check with MCHN

When Kimi was still in Sydney, it has been a regular activity for him to visit the Child Health Nurse a few days before or after his monthly birthday. But, he did not visit them for his 16th month. So, I booked him right away for an appointment with the Maternal and Child Health Nurse to re-establish his records in Geelong and discuss a few things with the MCHN on what activities he is expected to be doing now until the 18th month. The MCHN tried to do an 18 month old assessment. But, Kimi were not doing some of the things being instructed to him. The nurse informed us that it might still be really early to expect them from him especially the things that we have not done with him yet like putting blocks on top of each other, make-believe games of pouring a cup of tea or drinking, etc since he is 6 weeks short to 18 months.

So many things can be learned and acquired in a matter of 4-6 weeks especially with toddlers who are always at their feet exploring their world. I was, however, concerned about his speech development. He can say a few words he wanted to say like mama, tata, baa baa, ba-bye, jay jay, ba waw (for his wiggles CD), and dede for his milk. But, if we ask him to repeat what we are saying he can't do it yet. He can't be bothered to even say his name. On a ligther note, he understands instructions in both English and Filipino and responds to them pretty well. If he wants to say something he usually signs and demonstrates it to us although there are limitations to this.

His motor skills are developing quickly as expected of boys. He can go up an adult chair, sit still and stand up quickly without any assistance. He can run, run and run and go up and down the bed or the sofa. He knows where to turn off the TV and the computer, tinker with the remote control and the mobile phone. At the moment, he learns what he wants and dismisses anything that does not interest him. I know babies develop at their own pace. We need to expose and stimulate him further to learn and discover the skills at his own time. It is needs a lot of patience.
To start off, we bought a 7-in-1 set of wooden toys for him to stack up, group, and sort. He quickly did the stacking up. But, it did not interest him to do it for a long time. I am lucky if I sustain his interest for 10 minutes before he wanders around the house again or asks to do something different like read a book, piggy back ride, or sing and dance depending on his mood.

We also started to introduce him to washable colored pens and crayons but he still tries to put the crayons on his mouth so we are really watchful that he does not swallow them.

Since he learns a fair bit from watching his DVDs, I am now on the look for DVDs that could assist his speech development. I found them really expensive and I am not even sure if they will work fine with Kimi so I am now waiting for something to come up on ebay in the next few days. Otherwise, I will be forced to buy a brand new one to trial. I just hope they have a money back guarantee, which I doubt.

Sometimes, we ran out of new things and activities to stimulate him. Do you have any suggestions that we can do before his 18 month check in September?