Reply to Early intervention.. Is it necessary? Does it really work?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I have two kids with delays. Both did private OT for years. One did private speech for one year. Despite all the hard work, they still have fine motor delays and other motor planning challenges. Neither one of my kids qualified for Early Intervention. If your child qualifies, she is VERY delayed. You should take the therapy.[/quote]

This really depends on the area and evaluator. Some evaluators will qualify ANY child, usually based on something totally different from the original concern. I've worked in the system, but not in DC area. I'm always amazed when people say it's very difficult to qualify for EI, but it guess that's the case in some areas. What does your ped think about the identified "delay," OP? Also, a child younger than 10 months not crawling is not a delay - strange that you would be referred for that? Does your DD not pick up finger foods at all and is that the only issue?[/quote]

My guess, as someone who works in MoCo EI and does these early assessments (as an SLP, but we are multidisciplinary during testing), that the child was a ~month premature, which made her adjusted age 9 mos instead of 10. She wouldn't have qualified in gross motor then, but you only need to qualify in one area in order to qualify for services. If they child is having trouble assisting with dressing (balance, motor planning) or feeding herself (motor planning, fine motor coordination, hand-eye coordination, etc) that may be manifesting in that area earlier and just starting to show up in gross motor as delayed crawling. We get Ped. referrals all the time for things that are just mildly behind or not behind at all, but we like to put eyes on the child and see what's going on since we have more time and a more thorough process than a typical checkup. We'd always prefer to screen too many kids than to miss someone who could benefit from early intervention. However, sometimes the test fails and a child qualifies on a fluke but we see no concerns and we're upfront with parents about that. Sometimes we see some atypical development in one area but the child qualifies with a 25% delay in another area and that's how they receive services. We always have the option to qualify atypical development via professional judgment, but if the test picks them up with a 25% delay we go with that.

OP, I really hope you take the services. It's a completely voluntary program that you can end at any time, but that almost never happens. We're here to support you and help you support your child. Maybe she would be fine with no therapy. Maybe she would be fine, but it would take longer to develop on her own. Maybe all you need are some small tweaks to jumpstart things. Maybe there's something going on, and your provider can bring in supports and refer you to those who can address things early. That's less common, but all are possible. It's all individualized, so services last only as long as your child still needs them. I hope you decide to give it a try and see what you think, and best of luck to you both! [/quote]

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