**vtkendra** MoCo EI
I had Molly evaluated through the Montgomery County Early Intervention program. She was not even sitting up on her own for more than a couple of seconds at her 9 mo appt. She eventually did sit up but not until about 10.5mo. She is now sitting up well but still not crawling (she does army crawl though!) or pulling up on her own. Maggie was late in these things too but certainly not this late - she crawled at 10mo which is still average for crawling (8-10mo) and walked at 15mo.
My pedi was a little more laid back about it all and said not to worry but my sister is a social worker with kids and her daughter was also late so she encouraged me to just call and get an evaluation (it can't hurt). It takes a couple of weeks for them to intake the application and schedule the evaluation - here is the website and you call the phone number to start the process of them sending you a form etc. At the evaluation if the child is more than 25% delayed you qualify for services in that particular area - they tell you that same day. Molly was behind in most areas but she only qualified for services in her gross motor development.
We have the PT every other week for an hour right now (2 appts so far total) but she said if Molly doesn't have a lot more improvement by her next visit then she would like to do every week and she would go to Molly's daycare to work with her there if we need her to. At the sessions she gives us exercises to do with her and ways of positioning her to help her along like putting her legs closer together when she is sitting to make her balance her torso - things most kids just do on her own Molly seems to need a little help with. The PTist basically said that Molly just needs a push (she didn't outright say lazy but that is what she meant, in the nicest way possible). Molly is just happy not being a risk taker and she does have low muscle tone which combined mean she is not going to do things on her own until very late. I think Maggie was probably also low tone because she did things so late but she is definitely a big risk taker and had a lot of self-motivation.
I think we have seen improvement based on the services - there are so many things I just didn't know were hindering and what could help her build the essential muscles. I do think Molly would get there on her own but I just don't know when that would happen due to her low motivation to be doing these things. Let me know if you have any specific questions too.
Re: **vtkendra** MoCo EI
Tracy - Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. I really appreciate you taking the time to write this out and share what has been going on with Molly. After reading what you wrote, I called the number and did the application over the phone. They said someone will call me in 5-10 days to schedule her initial appointment. You are right that it doesn't hurt to have her evaluated. If it's decided that she needs additional PT, then I definitely want to get it for her. DH and I are trying to do our own version of PT every evening but it's like the blind leading the blind and I have no idea if what we are doing will even help her. I know daycare also gives her plenty of tummy time each day but that may not be enough to get her motivated.
Anyway, thanks for the advice and encouragement and for motivating me to make the call. I already feel a sense of relief now that I got the ball rolling. I'll keep you posted on how things go.
Yes, she actually sits up great. She's been doing it for a while. Probably since about month 7 I would say. She also is good at standing. She can stand while just holding onto my fingers. She wobbles but can fully support herself for about 5 minutes.
I think it may be a motivation/not knowing what to do issue for her. We did some work with her again last night and I put her very favorite toy on the ground next to her. I wanted to see if she would at least turn the front of her body towards it. She looked at it and was interested but didn't seem to make the connection that she could move her arms and twist herself closer. Also, she keep just putting her head straight down on the ground and sometimes sucking her thumb. She just doesn't seem to like being on her tummy.
Well, I hope I get approved for an evaluation because even if she doesn't qualify for the services, I would like some tips on how to help her.