Preschool Screening part 1

Ram is still hanging in there recovering slowly. I'll take a break from posting about Ram and post about the Lambs now.
When Lamb 1 was 3 years 1 month old, in the spring, he went to the local school district's preschool screening. He was a late talker and we had had him evaluated for speech. The next step in that process was the preschool screening. That was 3 years ago so I don't remember everything, but I remember some things. It was held at a church. He had height and weight measured, vision and hearing checked, gross motor skills evaluated, some academic work where I was not allowed to be in the room with him, we spoke to the school nurse about his health and immunizations, and then they spoke to us as parents about how he did on the test. They assured me that the test was scored adjusted by his age, but I thought there would be a big difference between a 3.1 year old and a 4.11 year old. I couldn't imagine that they gave the same evaluation to both students. Lamb 1 did ok on everything besides speech. There was also the issue of separation anxiety during the test, especially during the academic part. His "prize" for going to preschool screening was a box of crayons.
Last spring when Lamb 2 was 3 years 11 months old, I expected to be notified of his preschool screening time. When I never received anything from the school, I called. They had moved the preschool screening to the fall. It makes sense because if they screen in the spring and find problems, they can't address those problems until after summer break. They have to retest in the fall because possibly the child learned those skills over the summer. Lamb 2 was put on the schedule this fall.
Lamb 2 had the last appointment of the day yesterday. It was held at the school, not a church. Lamb 2 is 4 years 4 months old. A teacher took him for the academic part first. He did well on everything except he could not draw a person. She also tested gross motor skills and he did great on that. The teacher talked with me after she was finished with Lamb 2. I told her my frustration with getting him to do writing or hold a pencil and how different he was than Lamb 1 in this area. She suggested a few things including more practice on a vertical or slanted surface. I'm glad my dad just repaired their easel as that will be good practice for him. She also suggested shorter pencils and crayons and the Handwriting without Tears program. It gave me some ideas to think about how to work with Lamb 2. Just talking with her about these areas was worth taking him to the preschool screening.
Lamb 2 also had his vision and hearing checked, height and weight checked, and did great on all that. His "prize" for the preschool screening was a book. We owned most of the books in the pile to choose from. He chose a non-classic book and that was ok from me because we owned all the classics in the pile.
I will continue this post tomorrow.