C's EI Eval Update

Last week we had the beginning of C's evaluations- this time with EI (Early Intervention). His private evals with the specialist are all still pending. EI seems to do things a bit faster, surprisingly since they're with the school district. Last Tuesday we had his first speech evaluation and Wednesday was with the OT. Nothing came from either except that they found they needed to do more evals with his speech, which took place yesterday. And the OT thought she might need to have us do a more in depth sensory questionnaire, but found she'd received enough information from us at the meeting.

They played games at both and listened to him speak and saw a few of his "quirks"/sensory issues- he's not only a seeker but has a few avoidant issues to. He showed them mild versions of his meltdowns- not anywhere near what he has around us. They looked at his different language milestones- he's very good with receptive language (where he understands perfectly what you're telling him or asking him to do things), and his spontaneous language skills (things he's says on his own or when you ask him what something is/name something) lack. He also a lot of what I call mumble grumble- similar to what a young toddler does (12-18 mth old) where he speaks very quietly and is still a lot of nonsense sounds.

Next week we are meeting to finalize our IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan- much like an IEP for school aged kids). We were asked which 3 things we'd like to concentrate on for now. We said 1) Communicative speech (so we can understand his needs/desires better). 2) Flexibility (right now he's very inflexible. For ex. on walks he will pick a treasure for the day- something in his own head- and HAS TO pick up that treasure every time he sees it. Like it could be dead leaves, he has to pick up every. dead. leaf. he. sees. on the walk, to the point where he starts to make you carry them. And he won't stop the entire time, there is no distracting him. This makes for very long but short walks- we don't get very far, but can be gone 45 mins easily.) And 3) Stopping the eating of non-food items. The summer session starts soon, so she is pushing the IFSP though, that way we'll start by the end of June, instead of waiting till after the 4th of July holiday. He is eligible till the age of 3, when we'll reassess C and his needs.

Interesting side note here- A friend of mine recently had her son (same age) evaluated by EI in her state (different state) and the Speech therapist refused to acknowledge her son's signs and tried to make him speak the words instead, basically she seemed against the use of signing for speaking kids. Our ST actually asked if we minded her using and teaching C basic ones (that we don't know) so he could communicate better. Just thought that was interesting- the differences by region.

We're still going through with the private evaluations to- the ones with our hospital. But we still waiting on many of those. We see the sleep specialist next Friday, have an appointment with the Developmental Pediatrician in August and are still waiting for an opening with the Speech Department (this one could come tomorrow or months from now- so very good we were working with EI and their ST now). EI doesn't do any Dxing of course, just finds whether or not he qualifies for help and makes sure we get them (like this fall we'll probably work some on C's social skills- he lacks greatly here too, coming from a large family does not necessarily guarantee that a child will have good social skills. He's very comfortable with family but get him around others his age and he clams up. They suggest ECFE classes for us, and will find us transportation, if we don't have it.). It'll be the Doctors we see that may give us names to some of his issues. We're moving forward, slowly rolling along.