Andrew and I were out the door by 8:15 this morning to drive to Children's Hospital so we could participate in a research study about autism. We don't suspect Andrew has autism at all, they just needed a range of 4 year olds. So, since we get paid $200, I signed us up. The girls stayed home with Grandma and completed their schoolwork.
First, Andrew spent 2 hours with a research assistant who did the education assessment. They tested his language - expressive and receptive, ability to copy both with drawing and recreating with blocks, matching shapes, letters and words, identifying colors and concepts such as if I hide this ball under the cup where will you find the ball? He tested out of all the tests. Then they did a folding test which they said they never do with the 4 year olds but she was curious how he would do since he did so well with everything else. She folded a piece of paper 3 times and then Andrew copied it perfectly. The tester was impressed and then the person who was video taping mentioned his folding ability too. I was a proud mama all around. I was able to observe all the testing. Even his speech therapist would be impressed with his speech - he did such a nice job of speaking clearly even with a complete stranger.
After our marathon testing session, we walked over to the hospital to get our heights, weights and head circumferences and they drew blood and we spit.
Before they drew blood, they put "magic lotion" on his arm.
As soon as we were finished, we hopped into the car to pick up the girls so we could meet a homeschool group for swimming. The kids had a blast.
