FoggyRock General Forum

I am thankful that the "word" is getting out and early interventions are being utilized more....Callie was finally diagnosed at 3 yrs, however, i knew ther was something wrong at 2 yrs..  she is 13 now...My beloved family MD thoughti was just looking for things...I couldn't explain it to him and had to "push" my way through the system...So, I say NEVER give up on your own knowledge and instincts and begin early interventions..

Silas had Early intervention since he was 13 months...and i am so thankful that his regular doc was out the day we took him....he had to see someone we had NEVER seen before, and she noted all his delays and gave me the number for early intervention. his reg, doc. said o he will catch up, he will sit up any day now, he will talk any day now, he will walk any day now...ect ect ect.....any way now we are playing another waiting game with the specialists....they call him a shady kid because they can not figure him out.......

I noticed things were not right with Dylan after his MMR shot when he was 12 months old!! I kept on trying to tell his doc that things were "not the same" with him and I became a worried first time mom in her eyes for no reason! I pushed and pushed and FINALLY got her to get me a ref for EI. I live north of boston (even though profile says boston long story there) and the waiting list was SOOOO Long for a ST. but OT came out and we worked together for several months. By the time ST was ready to come out, Dylan turned 3 and we were thrown away!! I had NO ONE to help me figure out what was going on with him!  I took it into my own hands at had him evaluated at a Boston Hosp. Diagnosis PDD-NOS a few weeks ago.  I think EI is great but it really does depend on where you live in this country and the level of services/therapies that are available to you!!  I do thank God for bringing my sons OT in our lives since she has helped me out (on her own time). She has left the EI center where we first met but I can call her my friend now!

Last edited by MyLife&Love (2008-01-13 02:51:53)

At 22 months our son had no speech, and our pediatrician referred us to a pediatric neurologist, who we couldn't get in to see for 3 months. They told us to go ahead and start speech therapy in the interim. In an attempt to get someone in the home, I was told that only the Early Steps (early intervention) program would do in-home visits. We caved, and jumped into the EI process. The OT who did the intake evaluation, after about 5 minutes with The Boy said, "You do realize the only thing this could be, right?" Of course we did. But for so long, we'd heard that you really couldn't do anything "about autism" before age 2, we just accepted that eventually someone would tell us what to do.

The Early Steps program smacked us into reality. The evaluator suggested sensory integration therapy (which I'd never heard of) for The Boy, and also suggested speech therapy and a special educator. Now, 3 months later, we're just starting to have regular visits with our special educator, we have to travel 40 minutes to our OT (it's supposed to be in-home, but there are no OT's in our area enrolled in the program) and our speech pathologist flaked out on us, and ended up being fired, so we have no one.

In some ways, Early Intervention was a lifesaver for us. In other ways, it has caused so many headaches and tears. To know that there are therapies that could help our son that are just out of our reach is heartbreaking. Other AS parents told us to be prepared to fight for the services that we needed, but I never imagined having to do so with an agency that was designed for specifically this type of situation.

Our next hurdle will be the problem of "ageing out" of the Early Intervention program. Here, you are essentially referred to the local school district and are expected to send your child off to the school system and hope that he gets what he needs. Thing is, the special education department in our area couldn't do what they were supposed to with our gifted older daughter, and she's currently being homeschooled. So now, while we are barely into the Early Intervention, we have to start thinking about what's going to happen in December when he ages out, because the Early Intervention folks are essentially saying, "well, um, we usually just refer through the school system; I'm not sure what you should do if you're homeschooling." It's made worse by the fact that the kids are on Medicaid, and have a barely adequate income.

Thank goodness for early diagnosis and early intervention.  Sounds like he has made tremendous progress!

Early Interventio is critical but it doen't have to be so professional involved.
As for early diagnosis thats ontoher thing. The professionals realyy need to  pick up their oots here!!!
We were in multiple systems for a couple years before a chance incounter with a paediatrican from France. He was our only chance. Thank God