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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PT here.  Don't burn yourself out.  Parents feel so much pressure to get all this done by age 3 because of a misunderstanding about how the brain develops.  Pace yourself.  Have fun with your kid.  I know that's hard, but you're the parent and keeping yourself & your family sane, and loving your baby -- that's your #1 job.  I've seen many families completely ravaged by the time their kid is three because of all that pressure.  Take your time and it's okay to say no to therapy and yes to a trip to the park once in a while!      [/quote]

We found 3-5 the most critical time for therapies.  I would be concerned about walking and those issues, but agree to pace yourself.  Its very easy to get overwhelmed and burnt out.  Some kids do catch up on their own but for those of us whose kids need years of therapy, pacing is really important.  Early on our developmental ped put a lot of pressure on us to do 20+ hours of ABA (very few providers would even do this), preschool, an activity, speech and OT and it was really overwhelming.  We did it for months and said forget it and cut back.  [/quote]

Hindsight is 20/20, so generalizing your individual situation is meaningless to the op.  The the earlier the intervention the better--based on research.  You address the deficits within reason, try to find balance in life, and don't drive yourself crazy.  The op is on the right track.  [/quote]

They aren't doing much with in speech therapy before age 3.  You are kidding yourself if you think they are with a non-verbal child.  Before three, a child who is going to catch up, is going to start before then on their own.  Early intervention is good but its not the be all and end all to everything.  Pacing is important and not overdoing it and that is what the Pt was saying which I wish someone had said to us.[/quote]

Again PP, reasearch proves you incorrect.  No one knows which kids will catch up or not.  Speech therapy does help kids before age 3 even non-verbal ones.[/quote]

+ a million

I would say that this age (under three) is the most critical for nonverbal children to get intervention.  Speech therapy is not just for the goal of producing speech.  It's for communication.  Children at age two who are nonverbal become very frustrated and can have behavioral impacts and social impacts.  It's important to provide communication -- augmentative communication, signs, speech devices, etc.  Speech therapy can do so much for children under age three and this point of view is twenty years old.

Moreover, as the PP said, it's impossible to tell which kids are slated to catch up and which aren't.  If your kid is destined to be nonverbal, you've lost 3 precious years of the "window" of intervention.  When you are trying to introduce an augmentative device, that's HUGE.[/quote]

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