Behavioral or developmental ped recommendation

[Anonymous]

I am so lost... We do not seem to have much of communication between us and our 2.5 yo DD. She talks a lot, but mostly repeats words and phrases she's heard. When you ask her a question, she does not respond.

I don't even know what kind of doctor or other specialist to show her to.
Does anybody here have a recommendation?

Any information would be much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Dr Beverly Powell Developmental Pediatrician in Springfield, Va. Also, contact your county's early intervention office.

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much! Just emailed to our local EI coordinator. Hopefully we'll get somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Charles Conlan is an excellent developmental pediatrician, too.

[Anonymous]

I second the recommendation for Dr. Chuck Conlon (301-530-9200). We saw him for the first time last week and he was fantastic. He was highly recommended by our pediatrician who warned us that it would take a while to get an appointment but that it would be worth it. We needed an evaluation sooner because we were having problems with our school screening committee (they wouldn't qualify our child for special services and didn't think he needed to be evaluated even though evaluations from 3 independent institutions documented significant developmental delays). Our pedictraician recommended we go through Children's Hospital but still keep our appointment with Dr. Conlon.

You might also consider looking on the NIH website for research studies. We found one looking for kids with developmental delays or on the autism spectrum. We got in in less than 2 weeks and spent 1.5 days with them. They administered at least 6 tests, gave us an oral debrief and then, after reveiwing video and test results with a committee, provided us a written summary - at NO COST to us. All it took was our time. They actually evaluated two of our kids. The first one didn't have delays significant enough to continue to the second part of the study. The second child did. They've also been a great resource when questions came up later about the testing and their evaluation.

I would also suggest you contact your local Early Intervention Agency. If you Google "early intervention" and your state, you should get a hit. The federal government funds early intervention services and the programs are administered by the state. They also do no-cost evaluations. Our experience has been mixed but they have deadlines they have to meet once a request for an evaluation is made. I would strongly recommend that you contact them soon. After age 3, services are provided through a different program (Child Find) which is administered through the schools. We found working with them more challenging than the early intervention people.

Please try not to get discouraged about the process. It can be challenging but we've seen great results from early intervention and therapy.

[Anonymous]

Great! Thank you very much for all recommendations and suggestions. I'll get right on it.

[Anonymous]

Another recommendation for Dr. Conlon. We are very pleased with him and his staff.

[Anonymous]

would NOT recommend Beverly Powell. We had a very bad experience with her and have since heard of at least two other families that did as well.

[Anonymous]

Anyone have any experience with Dr. CT Gordon?
Also, anyone have any good or bad experiences with the Ashburton PM 4's program??

[Anonymous]

My son has the same issues as your child. Echos a lot and gibberish and questions are totally lost on him. I too, took him to the NIH study. That was very helpful for getting us a diagnosis.

We went through EI which was incredible, i LOVED the program. Child find is a bit more difficult to navigate. (my son is 3.5 yrs old)

We are aggressively getting him speech therapy at the home using the VB method 5 days a week. We're hoping that this "learning through play" will be helpful. We see small improvements all the time so good luck and don't give up. it can get very overwhelming. I hope this helps.