Doing Assessments in the Baby Room

On this trip, not only did I get the opportunity to see parts of China I hadn't seen before, and meet new friends who are just as passionate about orphans as I am, I also got to meet and interact with dozens of kids.  One of the ways was through the assessments we did.

I'm not a child development specialist, but I've been parenting for a quarter of a century, and I've been around a lot of kids during that time.  We took some 3 on one time to see each child and get an idea of what they could do.

Things like copying a + sign or a circle, stacking blocks, identifying colors, etc.

It was a low pressure environment designed to get a feel for whether a child was on target with their peers or not.

I love the way each advocate or nanny would cheer on the child they were helping to assess.

And I loved the opportunity to capture photos of the kids shining.

We hope there will be files coming soon for some of the kids that we did assessments on.

When that happens, each child will get their own advocacy post, letting families know all about them and how they can be adopted.

This little boy has Apert Syndrome.

Because his hands are fused, he couldn't complete the fine motor activities we were looking at.  But we still got to dress him up and love on him.

And we took some pictures just in case they decide to make a file for him.

My darling Finley showed totally age appropriate stranger anxiety and did the toddler, "You not the boss of me!" thing.

Stack the blocks?  No, thank you.  I'd rather eat them.  Isn't she precious?  I'd scoop her up in a minute if I could.  Our agency director feels she'll probably be placed domestically in China, since her "special need" is such a non issue.  I keep telling myself that's a good thing; she won't lose her language or her culture.

Puffs bring out the fine motor skills in just about everybody.

I loved the way certain advocates clicked with certain kids.  We all tried to love on everybody, but there were pairs that made you smile.

Some kids struggled with certain tasks, and it was hard to tell whether it was from lack of ability or lack of exposure.

I really hope our agency gets files for some of these kids soon so they can find families.

And this little love muffin?  Spent the entire morning in Shannon's lap while we did the assessments.  Such a precious little doll baby!


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