Another question for those who use Early Intervention

Mr.&MrsS

Thanks to everyone who responded earlier, I really appreciate it!

My next question- Do you feel that the services you have been provided actually helped? Did your child make progress? Do you feel that the progress that was made was through the help of your Early Intervention coordinator? Or do you think some of it was just your child's age?

My DH seems to think Nolan will make progress without these services just as he gets older. I feel like if he is behind then why not give him every opportunity to get ahead. (He qualified in his responsive communication- he is almost 18 months and he scored at 10 months, so he is pretty far behind.) My DH wants to hear from people who have used the services and see what they think.

Any info you provide is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

JillRock96

CeCe's services are PT, for torticollis (tight muscles on one side of the neck, causing her to favor the other side).  I have definitely found the services to be helpful, but not in the way I expected.  Really, the short therapy sessions every other week are not making a huge difference, in my opinion.  What does make a difference to me are the exercises and tips that the PT teaches me every week.  She shows me everything -- how to position things in CeCe's environment to encourage her to use her left side more, how to massage muscles, what games to play to strengthen muscles, etc. 

She also points out all of the ways that CeCe progresses between appointments -- things I never would have noticed.  For example, in a month, CeCe still wasn't crawling.  But the PT pointed out all of the new things she was doing to prepare to crawl (very minor arm/hand movements, strength in her core muscles, back muscles, etc.) that I never would have noticed.  It really showed me that we WERE making progress, but on my own I might have stopped working with her because I wasn't seeing a difference, KWIM?  I hope that makes sense.  And, for the record, she is crawling FAST now!

ETA:  Wanted to add -- I have worked in conjunction with many speech/language therapists when I worked with preschoolers (I completed their psych evaluations), and they had such fantastic recommendations for parents.  Just little things that really help to encourage language in every setting.  Even if you only go through the evaluation phase and maybe a few appointments to work with the SLP on things you can do, I think you'll be satisfied.

naflmj

I don't have personal experience but I work in special education administration and deal with children coming out of EI and being referred to Special Education. The children who have been referred out of EI have made so much more progress than those whose parents didn't notice a delay or chose to wait and are referred later. Many times, they no longer need services. 

AlissaCell701

JillRock96:

CeCe's services are PT, for torticollis (tight muscles on one side of the neck, causing her to favor the other side).  I have definitely found the services to be helpful, but not in the way I expected.  Really, the short therapy sessions every other week are not making a huge difference, in my opinion.  What does make a difference to me are the exercises and tips that the PT teaches me every week.  She shows me everything -- how to position things in CeCe's environment to encourage her to use her left side more, how to massage muscles, what games to play to strengthen muscles, etc. 

She also points out all of the ways that CeCe progresses between appointments -- things I never would have noticed.  For example, in a month, CeCe still wasn't crawling.  But the PT pointed out all of the new things she was doing to prepare to crawl (very minor arm/hand movements, strength in her core muscles, back muscles, etc.) that I never would have noticed.  It really showed me that we WERE making progress, but on my own I might have stopped working with her because I wasn't seeing a difference, KWIM?  I hope that makes sense.  And, for the record, she is crawling FAST now!

ETA:  Wanted to add -- I have worked in conjunction with many speech/language therapists when I worked with preschoolers (I completed their psych evaluations), and they had such fantastic recommendations for parents.  Just little things that really help to encourage language in every setting.  Even if you only go through the evaluation phase and maybe a few appointments to work with the SLP on things you can do, I think you'll be satisfied.

Pretty much THIS!! I don't think I could have said it quite as well.  I also posted a few weeks about why I needed to get Jake some PT/OT EI services.He also has totocollis and as well has him being small it was necessary.  We do 2x a week 1/2 sessions and as JillRock said, it's not so much the "therapy" its the conversations and the tools that the therapist is giving me is making me a better more aware parent. 

I can't quite comment yet on how much it has helped Jake cause it's only been two weeks since we started.

browneyedgrl4282

All three of my kids are in and I really believe if it wasn't for the session (especially Preston and Brady) they would have been far more delayed than they are!