Child development
Just like everyone else, I went through different stages of development as a child. I used physical and motor development by walking, learned cognitive development by being placed in time outs, and I learned social and emotional development by learning how to talk. I went through different health problems as a child, and moved a few times because of my fathers job.
Physical and Motor development
When I was born on May 18th, 1990 I weighed seven pounds and 5oz. and only two days later I was able to lift my head. I would often 'bat' at a rattle and a toy bird that dangled for me to play with. In January my first two teeth came in and I had no problems with them. I originally started to walk when I was a year old, but tried to do it before then but hated to fall. I was a very cautious kid- when I would try to walk I'd hold onto the edges of furnature and when I got to the end I would sit down. It took me eleven months to stand on my own, which is about adverage for babies. My mom also told me that I didn't like to crawl, but when I tried it was more like scooting across my face. My behavior as a baby could have been considered normal, but I wasn't even close to as energetic as my brother at that age.
Social and emotional development
When I was a kid I had very strange sleeping habits. I used o have a hook on chair at the table and whenever I got tired I would just plop m head down and sleep. I would also crawl onto the landing of my stairs and fall asleep half on the stairs and half on the landing, sometimes I could even sleep anywhere. My mom would mess around with me because I would sleep so soundly that she could put me sleeping into our car, to the store, into the shopping cart, back into the car, and all the way home again napping the whole time. She would even force me to take naps before going to birthday parties probably because of y weird sleeping habits. To this day I still sleep in strange places- closets, floors, chairs, etc.
'Lala, dada, and baba' were all my first words, and on April 10th I could finally say 'mama'. Whenever I would drop something, normally on purpose, I'd say 'uh oh!' and I'd also say 'oh' when I snuggled my stuffed toys. Whenever I was proud of myself, like if I finished eating or if I was called a 'big girl' then I'd clap. My mom told me that I wasn't as talkative when I was little as my brother but I would stil get my point across by finding ways to express myself.
On April 4th, 1991, I had a double ear infection and because I broke out into a rash the doctors found out that I was allergic to Sulfa. When I was two, I was misdiagnosed as having an infection when I had blood in my diaper. I was ok off and on for a few years until on one of my moms birthdays, I was about 5 or 6 at the time, I had the same problem, but a little worse than before. Because I wasn't in any pain, and because I acter fine; I'd giggle when they pressed on my stomache- the same doctor as before once again said that I just had an infection. We decided to switch doctors to a Pediatric Gasterologist, and she felt that I either had 'colitis' or 'crones disease.' My mom said that I didn't cry even when my veins kept collapsing when they went to take blood.
They had to schedual a diagnostic colon surgery and while I was going under I kept saying 'E.T, E.T' because there was a blood pressure monitor on my finger that blinked a little red light. When I first awoke I freaked out because I was out of it, and I tried to rip the IVs out of my arms. When I 're-awoke' I had a beanine baby in my arms wearing a soccer uniform. I had two surgeries that year- but inbetween the 1st and 2nd surgeryI was tested for systic phibrosis. My mom said that this was the only time that I ever cried, and all they did was tape a monitor to my arm for a few hours- and I idn't even have it.
I was diagnosed with non specific colitis, which means that I can't properly digest certain foods. (ulceritic colon). The doctors said that we had discovered it early, so they put me on medication that was described as so awful that they had to put chocolate syrup into it justto make it taste better. I had a reaction to Asulfadine and they were then 100% sure that I was alleric to Sulfa. The medication made me often tired, red faced, and I couldn't be in the sun due to the reaction I got- so they had to switch medications. I ended up having missed too much school, so I had to repeat 1st grade.
I can not eat : most fruits, raw vegetables,corn, ppcorn, whole weat/grains, seeds or nuts. I have a lower immune system so I'd have no serious reactions if we watched what I ate. Therewas even a stage where I didn't eat cheese or dairy products because we didn't know how I would react to them. During my second surgery, my mom had to put a numbing cream on my arms where the IVs go because they had to wiggle the needles through my veins due to them collapsing too much. They even had to put these plastic covers over my arms so that I wouln't pull out the IVs.
Around the time that we moved to Texas I was about in the second grade. I didn't have too many stomache problems like before, but I had a wart problem on my hands. The doctors gave me the wart virus that was still in the testing stage because the freeze didn't work on me. But because they gave me the virus, my warts went away and I am now immune to warts. This was also the time where I had noticable cronic dry skin. My hands were very sensitive and alot of things made the skin on my hands much, much worse and this is how we found out that Tide was the harshest laundry soap you can use. My skin would be so dry that it would crack and bleed often and when I had warts it was worse. We found some luberderm for my hands because normal lotion just didn't help, and I'd put it on every night and sleep wearing a pair of cotton gloves that helped clear up my skin.
Even though I was sick alot when I was a kid, I still had some form of a social life. When I lived in Las Vegas I was in tumbling for gymnastics which was one of the 1st things that I wanted to do for myself, and I was also in a ballet class. But the medication I took from when I was sick made me too tired so I had to drop ballet, but I was in Brownie Girl Scouts until we moved. When we moved to Texas I did a cheerleading camp for about two years, and for three years I played as right defense in soccer. At my elementary school, there was this game that everyone liked to play called Crazy Bones. The game gave you a chance to play against anyone and even make friends to differnt groups of people. After the Crazy Bone Craze, there was the pokeymon card phase. Even though I didn't know how to battle with the cards, we all collected and traded them. Pokeymon brings me certain memories because this is the time where my brother, sister, and I all shared a common interest and played together often.
Cognitive development
Whenever I got into trouble as a kid I listened to my mom and would go into 'timeouts.' Whenever I was told to go and stick my nose into the corner I would literally go into the corner with my hands behind my back and stick my nose into it. I grew up watching cartoons and shows like Barney, The Muppets, Popples, Care Bears, and I often played with toys like My little Pony, Pet Show, and Polly Pockets. My mom taught my bother, sister, and I to play independently, like reading or playing by ourselves. But there were also times like when I still lived in Las Vegas: where I took crayons to the playroom walls and drew embelished pictures. I was an imaginative and creative kid that liked to draw ofteen and play with finger paints.
But when I was 9 and had moved to Texas, right when I was starting school- I flunked every spelling test even though I could verbally spell the words. I was tested to see if I had vision problems and then for ADD, but I was fine. We ended up going to another specialist and when I had to take tests for mental processing, they told my mom that I was a 9 year old at a 12 year olds brain level. While they were testing me, there was one case where there was a piece of paper of various rows of letters and numbers. They told me to keep my head straight and I had to say the letter or number from the left side to the righ side till I got to the centerof the sheet. When I got to the center my eyes 'jumped' and that's when the doctor realized that I had a scanning disorder and that my brain had been compensating for my disorder.
I had to be taught to focus on each letter and practice to concentrate on them and I was taught how to hold my pencil differently as well. I used to write by 'turning' my body and leaning over the paper which caused me to write at an angle. When they elevated my paper so I could focus more on the words my posture noticably changed and I learned how to write correctly. Without correcting the way I wrote, I'd have a very hard and stressful time doing simple things today.
Alice Denever Community Member 
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