Need Advice

lindzed · July 2011

Hi girls, so I need some advice. You may remember my 2 year old was having a really hard time with the new baby. With some time and moving to a house with much more space for him to play he is starting to get better. In the mean time, I have realized he is not meeting some of the development milestones. Mostly in the area of communication. He does not say as many words as he should and has issues following directions. He has tons of energy and its often hard to get him to focus on a task, but if he is intrested he seems to do great (he can say the labels of the body parts in a book, say the colors on the blocks, and say most letters). I do have an appointment for a speech evaluation and I think speech therapy could really help him catch up. I also have an appointment for an ocupational therapy apointment and developmental pedi apt (they look for autism).

At this point, I'm afraid that I'm pushing this a little too much. The new baby was a major change for Adam and I am thinking maybe I just need to work with the speech therapist and give him a little more time before I start jumping into all these other areas. Any thoughts? I of course want Adam to get all the help he needs, but I do wonder if I'm not overreacting a little. My pedi wants me to do whatever I think is right. She is concerned that Adam did regress over the last few months, but I don't think anyone ever really understood how badly the new baby bothered him in the begining.

Thanks!

MrsKLB · July 2011

I say go with your gut. If you already have appointments for speech therapy, occupational therapy, and the developmental pedi, then what's the harm in going and having him evaluated? Won't they tell you whether they think he needs further therapy? I think there's more harm in not going when you think something is wrong than there is in going only to find out he's fine. So, I say, have him evaluated and make a decision from there as to what to start with and at what pace. Good luck mama... hang in there. You're doing great!

Daisy22 · July 2011

IMO, i don't think getting professional opinion is ever a bad idea especially if your mommy gut is telling you something isn't right. I got tons of people telling me that I was being crazy and that I should relax on Bailey with his speech. Thankfully I went with my mommy gut and took him to a speech evaluation. It came back that he did have a delay in speech (his is mostly due to his ear infection issue) and has been in theraphy for the last 3 months. Even through we have a way to go, it's already helped SO MUCH. I love our speech therapist and she is awesome with Bailey. This morning he saw her and run to give her a hug which is huge b/c Bailey is extremely shy.

I would go see what they say then go from there.

lindzed · July 2011

Thanks for the advice. I guess everyone I know keeps acting like I'm overreacting so I was starting to believe them. My only concern is that some of these issues can be causing other issues and I'm tempted to start with speech therapy and move on from there.

Daisy22 · July 2011

lindzed:
Thanks for the advice. I guess everyone I know keeps acting like I'm overreacting so I was starting to believe them. My only concern is that some of these issues can be causing other issues and I'm tempted to start with speech therapy and move on from there.

I totally understand. That's why at first I didn't tell to many people but once people found out I have constantly had to defend our decison to put him in speech therapy. We go to Scottish Rite's speech center and when they did the evaluation they did go through a whole list of things with me plus observed him. Some of the things on the list helped her to determine if it was a delay or if there something more cognitive going on. She told me that if she felt it was something more then just a delay she would refer me to the OT. If you feel that starting with the speech is good then go with it but like I said evaluations are never a bad thing. They will tell you if they think its okay.

lindzed · July 2011

Daisy22:

lindzed:
Thanks for the advice. I guess everyone I know keeps acting like I'm overreacting so I was starting to believe them. My only concern is that some of these issues can be causing other issues and I'm tempted to start with speech therapy and move on from there.

I totally understand. That's why at first I didn't tell to many people but once people found out I have constantly had to defend our decison to put him in speech therapy. We go to Scottish Rite's speech center and when they did the evaluation they did go through a whole list of things with me plus observed him. Some of the things on the list helped her to determine if it was a delay or if there something more cognitive going on. She told me that if she felt it was something more then just a delay she would refer me to the OT. If you feel that starting with the speech is good then go with it but like I said evaluations are never a bad thing. They will tell you if they think its okay.

Thanks! I'm using Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the OT and Speech are at the same place so your right, it can't hurt to have them both do an eval. I'm glad to hear that speech therapy has helped.

slwprincess · July 2011

I agree with the others. Go in for the evals and let them tell you. You may end up being surprised and they say that he is just fine. I just posted last week about how we were so sure that Gavin needed more speech therapy and we were so surprised at his evaluation when she said he was in the average or above average category in every section. But last year for his first eval, my family really thought I was being paranoid and that he didn't need the speech therapy and he really did. That was just the beginning- we also switched him to a new daycare and honestly, that made the biggest difference. So yes, go with your gut and get the evaluations- it can't hurt. If they tell you he is borderline, then I would go in for a few sessions to see what they do and then try some of those techniques at home for a while. If you don't see enough improvement you can always go back. That's the good thing about CHOA- its all flexible and you decide what/when to do it. My only issue was that our copay was $75 for each session and he was supposed to go weekly. That plus daycare was really tough on our budget. So once I felt like I had a grasp on the techniques and I knew his school was working with him, I stopped the therapy. It's been about 7 mos since we have gone so I was really relieved when they said he was on target!

Temp925407062502290 · July 2011

My son is in speech therapy and he had communicating the Who When Why What answers She did the evaluation and she is the one that let us know if we had to go to the development pedi.

Nate has been in speech for almost 2 months and it has been a life change.

My advice is go to speech and see what they say from there.

Daisy22 · July 2011

Slw, reminded me that you should definitely call your insurance to find out what they cover, how much they cover and any copays. Like I said before we use CHOA too but we pay nothing not even a copay for Bailey's speech. The person that evaluates him should be able to tell you if they recommend theraphy what they will code it to for the insurance. Since Bailey's was coded delay in speech due to ear infections it is covered totally with no copays.

lindzed · July 2011

I'm pretty sure my insurance will not cover speech therapy, but I do think they will cover OT. I will say CHOA usually figures out how to make my insurance company pay if there is any way. Thanks again for the advice!

kep · July 2011

I agree--it doesn't hurt to have an evaluation. If no therapy is needed, then you can put your mind at ease. Best wishes!

Louise06 · July 2011

I would trust your instinct and get him evaluated by a developmental pedi. You know him best, so I think your gut is the way to go. I always suspected that Lauren had issues, but my DH always acted like I was paranoid. So, I ended up waiting it out and, low and behold, I was right. She has been diagnosed with significant developmental delay and we are scheduled to see a dev pedi in a couple of months. I am happy that I pushed for her to be evaluated.

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