Farewell to EI!

Tuesday was our last session with Early Intervention, as Isaiah turns 3 in a couple weeks. It doesn't seem that long ago, that Isaiah was just 17m, and we were just starting the program.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of questions left unanswered. Our coordinator agreed that there are definitely concerns, not just with his speech, and said he needs a good OT. Unfortunately, it's doubtful that he'll qualify for any through the school at this time because they usually don't deal with "just" sensory issues.

I asked if we went to a developmental specialist and got an official diagnosis of some sort, perhaps SPD, if she thought it would help, and she said no. Some school districts do tend to be more generous with services when there are "medical" diagnosis involved (as I've had several of my blog friends with SN kids tell me had been their experience), but she said in her experience, ours is definitely not one of them.

She did say seeing a developmental specialist might still be a good idea, even if it didn't help with school services, but just to get another opinion on him as a whole. I'll have to think on this.

Other than that, just a wait and see. Wait until he's a bit older and closer to school-age for them to realize that his issues will affect his ability to learn (in a "school" sense, not learning in general, because he's already one smart cookie!). See if the small gaps that he does have increase as time goes by.

She kept apologizing that she wasn't able to do more for Isaiah, and that there probably won't be anything at least for the next 6-12 months, other than speech. I guess it's mostly my fault, though, for not pushing for regular OT sessions while we in the EI program and had the chance. :( We met with the OT back in October, but I suppose I thought that those issues would be more short-term, when they've remained the same/gotten worse.

Anyhoo, I'm remaining positive that things will work out. We'll figure something out, one way or another.

In the meantime, we'll definitely miss Carol and Debby, though!! I wish I could have got a better picture, but Isaiah was in a semi-grumpy mood and didn't want to sit for an actual picture. I just snapped this as he was saying goodbye.

Isaiah's initial transition meeting...

As most of you know, Isaiah receives speech therapy through our local Early Intervention program. It only goes to age 3, so we are starting the process of transferring over to the school system, as he turns three the first part of July.

On Wednesday, we met with our EI service coordinator, the preschool special education director, and one of the school's speech therapist. The preschool director explained the transition procedure, complete with a nifty flowchart. We then chatted about Isaiah's strengths and weaknesses while the preschool director took notes. They'll make the decision, and we'll meet again the first of May to see if he is eligible. Our speech therapist says he most likely will be, as he's still only talking in one-word sentences and it's still very hard to understand the few words he does use regularly.

And while I did express concern about some of his behavioral issues, it seems the eligibility will only be based on his speech/language delay. She did jotted them down, so at least it's "on record", I think. I explained how rigid he is in his routine, how things have to be in a certain order, as well as the frequent complete emotional meltdowns when things don't go as planned, which happens countless times a day. I also mentioned his constantly putting things into his mouth, licking, chewing on, and eating everything, plus his newest thing of sniffing everything.

I guess we'll just wait and see what happens.

What did Isaiah think of this meeting? Well, it was right during his naptime, and I guess he found it less-than-exciting...

Isaiah's re-evaluation

On Thursday, we had Isaiah's re-evaluation for EI (early intervention) since it had been a year since he started the program. He had so much fun, playing with all the toys and games our coordinater had brought, as did Abbie.

He is doing AWESOME in almost all areas of development, even with quite a few skills above age level. (For example, she was floored at how well he is doing with using the potty, as well as his fine motor skills). He's 28 months old, and at the 12-15m level for communicative speech and 21-24m for receptive. And he's at the 20m level for adaptive skills, but only because he still puts everything into his mouth, as he does great with washing hands, getting undressed, etc.

He's going to continue receiving speech therapy 2x a month, and his behavioral "quirks" were also noted on his report (his need for having things a certain way, becoming overly-anxious if they aren't, etc).

We went over his goals from last year, and he's met almost all of them! *yay!* He makes 10+ exclamations/sound effects, he's making 10+ consonant/vowel combinations, he has 30+ word/word approximations, he's using single words to request things, he's labeling familiar objects in a book. That's amazing progress, considering this time last year, he wasn't using ANY words, and only made vowel sounds (oooh, aaah).

Our new goals include repeating non-familiar words, using more multi-syllable words, using 2 word phrases, using more using different sounds in multi-syllable words (all of his current multi-syllable words are the same sound, repeated), and a couple other smaller ones that I don't remember offhand. The main long-term goal is saying and using 50 words, with at least 75% of them understandable to a stranger. (He has close to 50 words now, but the majority of them are sooo vague, that I doubt anyone else could understand them... heck, I have trouble a lot of the time!)

We didn't make any official goals for the behavioral stuff, but I'm hoping that with the OT suggestions (which I'll write about next), and some changes around the house, we can curb some of those. I'm really excited and am very hopeful. She's going to send me a copy of the evaluation report, so if I left anything out, I'll update this, but I think that's about everything.

Touching Base with EI

I called our Early Intervention service coordinator this past week, and we talked for over 45 minutes. She said she was suprised at our pediatrician's mention of Isaiah possibly being on the spectrum. She said it was because he didn't display all the symptoms that autistic kids present, which confused me. I thought that's what PPDNOS was- those who don't have ALL the symptoms, but who do show some. When I brought that up, she said that was just a catch-all, and didn't seem to even consider it a possibility.

She did give me some suggestions on things to do now. One was getting a beanbag chair, and setting up an area he can retreat to when he's getting anxious and overwhelmed. Also, a few things such as squishing him with pillows, and big bear hugs. I asked about maybe adding occupational therapy, since her suggestions were of the OT sort. We're going to talk about it on the 9th, at our next session with her and the speech therapist.

She also mentioned that her opinions were just that- HER opinions. And she really didn't have *too* much advice in regards to his "everything-has-to-be-in-a-certain-order-or-he-freaks" behavior , since she had very little experience with that. She told me that I always have the options of seeing the developmental pediatrician, like our ped. recommended. But suggested waiting 6 months or so before making that decision.

For the past year, I've been either been feeling as if I'm not doing enough for Isaiah, or I'm over-reacting, making something out of nothing. And... I still feel that way. *sigh* This parenting gig is tough. :(

A Boy of Little Words...

Today, a couple ladies from Early Intervention came up to the house. We're seeing if Isaiah (almost 17m) qualifies for any services since he still isn't talking at all. I've really been back and forth on this decision. I've had people tell me "Yes, call immediately! The earlier they catch problems, the better" and others say "No, he's perfectly fine. My kid didn't talk until X years old." But, after putting it off for a couple months and seeing very little progress, I decided to call. Both of them were REALLY nice. The main one who is in charge of everything was super-friendly. She's a SpEd teacher, so she was all on the floor, playing with Isaiah. He took right to her, and hugged her right away. Lots of paperwork. Felt like I was signing over my soul, not requesting an evaluation. LOL. She said that while he's VERY bright and does have great receptive skills, she does feel like he has a delay, expecially since he's not using any consonant sounds. She's going to talk to the speech therapist and we're going to have an official evaluation here at the house next Tuesday. And if need be, set up an IEP for future services. After today's meeting, I'm feeling a lot more confident in my decision. It seems they focus on teaching the parent how to work with the child through their daily routine. Which is what I'm all about. It's NOT going to be him going to a strange place with a strange person, sitting down at a little desk, doing flashcards. Actually, how she was describing it, it was really meshing with my thoughts on unschooling, so that was reassuring. I'll keep post an update after the evaluation, as well as progress!