Speech delay in 2yo? EI services?

[Anonymous]

My dd is 26mo. At 2 yr appt, ped said if she is not puting two words together by 25mo, have her evaluated by Intant&Toddler Connection of Fairfax. We decided to do it because it was free and they came to our house.

A service coordinator came to see us and she did the Ages and Stages questionnaire, and dd got great points in all areas (don't know if I remember this right, but most areas were 50 over 60?).

The service coordinator said she was pretty sure she would not qualify for services, because of the scores and because she saw dd communicating with me and with her.

Dh and I are not concerned at all about any part of dd's development. She has over 60 words, in both English and Spanish. Dh and I speak english to each other, but nanny and I only speak Spanish to dd. Dh speaks English to her. She understands both languages perfectly. Communicates great, is very social, and has words in both languages. She will say mommy come, or daddy no but that's it for 2 words together. Other pediatricians at other check ups had told us that she would start speaking later because of the two languages.

Service coordinator called us today to tell us she was surprised, but that the speech therapist thinks based on the fact alone that she does not put 2 words together she qualifies for services even though she did great in the A&S.

When I look at the eligibility for EI, she does not qualify for services based on any of the criteria. The next step is a 2.5 hour evaluation with two specialist, at least one of them will be a speech therapist, and the service coordinator. We are thinking of doing this, but after that, what does therapy consist of? Any thoughts are appreciated. I have never been worried about dd's development until now, and only because they think she needs services.


Thanks.

[Anonymous]

We just went through this, although we are not a bilingual family. My son is also 26 months and he did the 2.5 hour eval about 3 weeks ago. I will warn you that a lot of that 2.5 hours is waiting, so be prepared with things to keep your toddler busy. Mine got hungry during the eval and was refusing the snacks I'd brought for him, so we were ready for it to be over.

With that said, at the end of the eval, they tell you which services for which your child is eligible. My initial call was about my son's speech, but based on that second eval, he will get speech therapy and also some OT based on his refusal to eat most foods.

There is not currently a waiting list for services, so we got a call from our therapist last week and our first session is Wednesday.

[Anonymous]

Based on your info I would be surprised if she qualified since she is communicating. BUT that being said if she does get services I imagine it will be speech and language based. The counties are pushing kids to be ready for kinder by age 5. They basically would like all kids reading before they enter kinder (even though they don't come out and say this). Once a child hits public elem schools teachers begin preparing for various state mandated assessments that happen when the child is older (not kinder) but the earlier the child has the basic foundations down the easier it is to teach them (schools want good test scores). So if she does qualify and you agree it can't hurt her to have speech services. Sounds like she's doing great though!

[Anonymous]

We're also a bilingual family (Spanish/English) and our youngest was evaluated at 24 months for speech problems. I would recommend that you have the evaulation. You really have nothing to lose and if your DD does have some challenges, early intervention can make a huge difference. Our evaluation was done in our home and DS enjoyed it very much. We also learned a lot about his development from the evaluator and it was really interesting to be the "observer" of his behavior. Our DS qualified for services and we had the choice of receiving them in our home or at his daycare. Therapy sessions were about an hour and to DS they seemed to be play sessions. She worked with him to improve his pronounciation and put words together. I know it sounds like something you can do without a ST. You can to a point but by observing and speaking with the ST, we learned what was developmentally appropriate to work on, different strategies to use and better understood why he was having the challenges. The company the ST worked for accepted our insurance and we only had to cover the co-pay. Having been in the therapy world for 2.5 years now, it was a bargain. The Ages and Stages questionnaire can be useful in identifying problem areas, it's not definitive. If your pediatrician was concerned and the ST who reviewed it was concerned, it would be a good idea to follow through with an evaluation.

We're in Fairfax County and I strongly disagree that the county wants kids reading before kindergarten and that the support for early intervention services, particularly at your DD's age, has anything to do with preparing a child for kindergarten. Reading before kindergarten is not developmentally appropriate for most kids and FCPS has a kindergarten readiness checklist on its website http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/OECFS/kinder/indicators.htm which most kids who watch Noggin or Sesame Street could meet. Infant Toddler (ages birth - 3) provides health/developmentally based services. Child Find (ages 3-5) is more educationally based and much more difficult to get. It's another reason that I would have the evaluation done now through Infant Toddler. If you wait until your DD is three, you'll have to go through Child Find, an evaluation will be more difficult to get and if your DD does need services, the bar to get those services will be a lot higher. Once you're in the system, it's easier to transition and keep services. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I second 09:22 points about not waiting.

We had our son evaluated by Child Find shortly before he turned 3 but I wish we would have had him tested earlier. He qualifed for speech & language services. We had our little guy in private school through JK, and supplemented the child find services with private speech and OT (the OT mainly because the private stressed writing starting in PS). We didn't use the public school services over the past year because they were so minimal but we kept his qualification active as we are moving our DS to public K in the fall. Once you are in the system it is a whole lot easier to stay qualified than to requalify for services.

[Anonymous]

I have run a daycare (and been a mom!) for 16 years. Right now I have a bilingual 2 year old I take care of, he is speaking very well. I also have a 2 1/2 year old who is just starting to make sense with her words. I have been working with them all on a site called speechtails.com and we love it. Not only does it help with some of the sounds they have trouble with but it has increased vocab in a fun fun way. When my 13 year old son was 2 he said almost nothing, by the age of 3 I wondered why I wished he could communicate better because he would never stop talking - hee hee - Good Luck!