Looks like Jackson might qualify for Early Intervention!

karskaren · January 2010

One of the evaluators came out this morning and did their assessment. She thought that he would qualify in the areas of fine motor and verbal. She said he would definitely benefit from some physical therapy and speech therapy as well. I was a little confused with the speech therapy, but she said that it would help him with eating table foods (which is not going well at all).

We should know something for sure by Wednesday, and if he qualifies, we have an appointment for next Monday to create his individualized care plan.

emiliemadison · January 2010

Good for you for seeking help early! I, too, would be confused about speech therapy for a 9 month old. I do understand the correlation between speech and eating. However, many children are JUST being introduced to real table foods at 9 months and there is no real reason to worry that he's not "getting" it yet.

karskaren · January 2010

emiliemadison:
Good for you for seeking help early! I, too, would be confused about speech therapy for a 9 month old. I do understand the correlation between speech and eating. However, many children are JUST being introduced to real table foods at 9 months and there is no real reason to worry that he's not "getting" it yet.

I am not worried at all that he isn't getting the table foods yet, but the pedi wants him to work on it. But if that "delay" makes him qualified for the program, that's fine with me. I really just want to get him the extra help that he needs. If this is the path that we have to take to get some therapy for the fine motor skills, I will take it.

MommaToBatman · January 2010

I used to baby sit two little boys (brothers) who had a speech therapist and I know with them she really worked on sign language. So, they were both signing before saying many words. I thought that was really neat.

rbidi · January 2010

That's great. We need to follow through with that for Eden, just because the NICU suggested it. Speech therapy helps with thier mouth movement, which does help with how they feed. When they are newborns, that's pretty much all they work on, since there isn't any speaking yet. That's what I learned from the therapist when Eden was in NICU. Good luck!