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Special Needs
hi. I'm new and need advice. (long)
I don't know where to begin. My 3 1/2yr old ds has pdd-nos. He was dx in Oct. and finally startred going to the special preschool through the county this Jan 5 days/wk for 4hrs and day. I always knew he had a speech delay, but the peds and even Child Find brushed me off until last fall. His language has improved ever since I began doing floor time with him at home while we waited for the eligibility meeting. He is able to communicate, is VERY affectionate, has wonderful eye contact, and shares attention. He is very hyper at times, gets "stuck" with activities, stims, and uses mostly route sentences that I have taught him to communicate his needs. I also started him on the GFCF diet shortly after the holidays and have seen some improvement in his attention span and language. He LOVES going to school and adores his teachers and peers there. He is only receiving 1hr of ST/wk which I am not happy about. He was also suppose to have an OT consult done per his IEP, that has yet to be done. This concerns me because of the lack of self help skills he has. (He is 100% potty trained, but needs help dressing, is not able to eat with utensils, and has the typical flimsy hands you see with kids with autism.) I've been exploring all the different options out there for treatment. We took him to see Dr. Megson (DAN! dr.) and have explored the biomed treatment, but aren't quite ready to go there yet. I still need to do more research on that. I would like him to receive ABA therapy and more ST, but everytime i mention it to his teacher or my educational advocate they brush it off and say that if we don't see a change in him then we can try that approach. As you ladies know that is very expensive to pay out of pocket (our health insurance won't cover it) and frankly my husband is going to be out of a job in May and my hours at work have been getting cut since last year. I don't know what to do because i strongly feel he will respond to the ABA and want it to be added to his IEP. I'm also upset that his OT consult hasn't even happened yet. How did you guys get your health insurance to cover extra ST? Even though I've been studying pdd-nos and the different treatments I still feel lost in how to hurry up and get things going before the window of early intervention closes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My son is one of the sweetest, most empathetic, funniest, and passionate of people I've met. The way he is with his little brother is heart melting and I can "feel" I can help recover him if only I could get these things going. (does that make sense?) Anyway, thanks again.
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Re: hi. I'm new and need advice. (long)
Have you tried applying for medicaid (through the state)? You should qualify based on diagnosis at least that's how it is through my state. That should open up additional speech therapy services (not sure ABA).
Heather
Natural m/c 3/28/10 5w6d** Natural m/c 9/4/10 5w4d**
BFP: 2/27/12. u/s showed blighted ovum at 9wks Natural m/c started 4/11, cytotec 4/13/12 (at 12 wks). **
First appt with RE 5/7. Testing complete. Dx: luteal phase defect
BFP 10/25/12. u/s on 11/16 confirms heartbeat
Just curious why you are thankful medicaid doesn't cover autism?
She is thankful her son doesn't have MR.
I'm in VA as well, and from what I have heard from other people, 1 hr ST/week is actually pretty good. That is what my son gets, and his delay is fairly substantial. I have heard of other folks getting only 15 mins/week. I've also found that the preschool class reinforces speech therapy concepts in ways that you would not see in a typical preschool, so I view the net result as even more therapy than the one-hour.
My insurance will not cover extra ST because they deem it "educational" even with a medical diagnosis of dyspraxia. We pay OOP for an extra hour a week with a private therapist. If you are interested in getting insurance to cover it, you'll need to research your plan's policy on covering speech therapy. The other thing to note is that many speech therapists (at least in NOVA) don't accept insurance, so you will be limited to out of network benefits. For us, it was cheaper to stay with an HMO and pay OOP than to fight coverage for the chance to get back a fraction of the cost of each session.
I too am confused by your question re an OT eval. A PhD OT was part of Zach's Child Find evaluation team, and we have OT goal written in his IEP. He gets 1 hr/week of OT at school (plus extra time we pay for OOP).