"Comparison is the Thief of Joy"

Note: This is adapted from an extremely lengthy Facebook post I shared earlier this year, and I received much love and encouragement in response. This really wasn't meant to be a complaint but really to focus on the quotation from the man who inspired Teddy's name.

Earlier this month we received Teddy's neurodevelopmental report from NIH. There's a lot of insightful suggestions in there as well as recommendations that will hopefully help him receive additional supports in the school system to best meet his needs.

Yet, part of that report includes different methods for scoring him for developmental age. Talk about a kick right in the stomach (or other more painful places). His highest score was in the low 2-year-old range, and that's only because he's fascinated with dragging around brooms, vacuums, snowblowers and lawn mowers. Seriously, his highest score was in something like domestic skills. Then there's things like his expressive language, which scored at a whopping 4 months.

Now, if I compare Teddy to others his age, I feel overwhelming sadness of what he cannot do that babies can do. I know, without a doubt, that my friend's 6-week-old newborn will pass Teddy within a year for language skills (and apparently quite a few other things). 

But this serves as a reminder not to compare. There is great joy in watching Teddy point to something he wants, in seeing him work his way into snowpants, watching as he presses the buttons to make his toys sing and observing him scale a ladder to the highest point and then wait with his big smile to see if we'll tell him to come down. No developmental screening can take that away ... but at least it might get him the additional supports that enable him to really thrive at school.