Delays in Fine Motor Skills

• By 1pair-n-1spare
• Posted November 6, 2009 at 11:19 am
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Chandra,

I think the hardest thing in the world is for a mother and/or father to hear that their child is not progressing the way they should for X age of development.

BUT this is why IFS and EI programs exist. To help your daughter overcome and circumvent these issues. There aren't a lot of micropreemies that come out of the NICU without having to have interventional therapies of some sort to sort out. And I haven't met the Mom of a 24 weeker or even 30 weeker who didn't have some sort of gross and/or fine motor issue to work on.

Accept that this is something that can be overcome or circumvented and then get the proper help in as soon as possible. That way she can start "pumping iron" so to speak, and get past these issues if possible. Try not to see this as a stumbling block but rather a step up for your daughter not only to catch up, but surpass expectations.

Good luck, if Amanda is as smart as you say she is (and I am sure she is), this is gonna be easy-peasy for her.

Lisa

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• By chandralynn
• Posted November 7, 2009 at 7:01 am
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Lisa,
Thank you for your advice..As strong as Amanda has been with gettting rid of medicine and oxygen-I guess I was just expecting her to just fly by any kind of help with anything physical-she is a living breathing miracle and up till now it seemed like she wasn't accepting the fact that she was so tiny at birth, and she was gonna do it all on her own anyway. I am glad we have access to IFS, and I will try to let it work like you said.

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• By 1pair-n-1spare
• Posted November 7, 2009 at 9:14 am
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Chandra,

I always considered EI a "step up" for Julia, Catherine, and Tricia that my friends' kids never had the opportunity for. Sort of like private school... not everyone can get in, and when you do, you are given opportunities that you never knew existed.

I would check to see if they have any infant massage courses... it was a great way to bond and myself and my children all loved doing it.

Lisa

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• By mygirlsmom
• Posted November 8, 2009 at 8:48 pm
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Chandralynn-
What you're experiencing is something so many of us go through. For us (30 weekers) our girls were doing pretty well with gross motor, but as they got older, both us and their pediatrician began to notice delays in fine motor, and that's when they were evaluated by EI. EI is such a great resource to help with these types of delays. But what I wanted to tell you also, is that I was very disheartened when it was brought to our attention that they were several months behind, even for their adjusted age. But after I sort of digested the information, I began to relax a little and tried to enjoy them for the amazing progress they had made so far. It's hard to do sometimes, but I've been trying to do the tasks the therapists gave us, and sometimes we see progress, and sometimes we don't. But these people at E.I. can really help, like Lisa said above. To answer your question, yes, these delays are very common for our babes, but it still can hurt regardless. Good luck with your sweet miracle. I'm always amazed by the stories of the 24, 25, 26 weekers on this site - what an accomplishment and it says a lot about you, getting her so far already.

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• By wall-e_fans_mom
• Posted November 9, 2009 at 2:57 am
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I wouldn't let it get to you too much. As long as you're seeing therapists and such. As far as I know its fairly normal for preemies to be more delayed than tehir adjusted ages. While my 26 weeker didnt have any big pros with motor skills his speech has been another issue. At 19/16mos adj his speech is still at a 10-11 month old range. He understands words it seems but cant really vocalize them so much ( I know this because of the tantrums the words 'no' and 'danger' send him into ;)
I was given a lecture at his 1 1/2 year check up by a speech therapist who insisted it would be in his best interest if we stopped trying to raise him bilingually. I ignored her advice and instead started concentrating on doing everything I could to help the developement of his skills, and so far he's made some progress :)

You mention that she can't sit up yet, have you tried and baby chairs like the bumbo? They help develop the muscles used for sitting. My brother in law actually bought us one as a gift my son loved it and I ended up buying the play tray to go along with it so he could have toys and snacks in front of him to grab for while he was sitting. I think it was a big help in both the sitting and grabbing depts.

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• By charlenefron
• Posted November 9, 2009 at 9:19 am
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Unfortunately there isn't much "sailing" time when you have a preemie. My son (31-weeker, now 4yrs) did PT as an infant for some high/low muscle tone but was always on track for his adjusted age and nothing was ever mentioned about fine motor skills. At around 10 months old he was on track and was released from PT. I thought the "ride" was over. At around 20-22 months old he was diagnosed with sensory processing issues, delayed fine motor skills, and receptive language delay. He's been attending both community and therapy-based preschool programs and is showing lots of progress, but with preemies things can pop up at any time.

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• By chandralynn
• Posted November 11, 2009 at 7:45 am
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We were actually given a bumbo by our IFS team-and Amanda does very well sitting in it to eat, and we have started to let her sit up in it to play.

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