speech and mixed dev delay?

star1123 · August 2012

We got the report for my son's EI evaluation and it was a little disheartening. They asked if we wanted to receive it ahead of time, or at the meeting and I should have just held off. I'm not sure what to make out of most of it, and it seems much more doom and gloom than what they indicated at the eval.

They told me that they didn't see any cause of concern for Autism and that while there is a delay in language, they didn't think it would take much to get him caught up. The whole thing was pretty positive, and I felt a lot better after the evaluation.

The report says a diagnosis of a mixed developmental delay and speech delay. What does this mixed developmental delay mean??? I did a quick google search and autism came up, but it's obviously confusing since they said they were not concerned about autism AND the report even has a section for "at risk" and it says there and another place that Autism is not a concern and no further tests are recommended.

The speech is a little annoying because it says his receptive language is very delayed - more than expressive and I absolutely know without a doubt it just isn't true. He didn't demonstrate what he truly knows during the evaluation and I knew that would happen. It says a moderate to borderline severe expressive and receptive language delay. This of course hurt, but I knew it was going to come out like that

Cognitive delay of 29%. That upsets me a lot too of course and I cried when I read that. They did talk to me about this (they didn't obviously give me the percentage at the evaluation, but said he was delayed) and said not to worry as it goes hand it hand right now with the speech. That makes sense and I'm okay with that. Aiden is such a smart little boy, and I would not say he is cognitively delayed by any means.

Social, motor skills (both fine and gross) and adaptive care were both at or above age level.

I don't know what to make of all of this. I really wish I didn't get this ahead of time! I don't meet with them until the end of next week, so if anyone can shed some light I would really appreciate it. I don't have any experience with this kind of thing, so I'm not sure

Jcrab · August 2012

This probably isn't much help but the standardized testing is very specific and sometimes children aren't able to display their full knowledge based on the test so it appears that they have more of a deficit. Either way, better to have his deficits appear larger than mask them - this will help qualify for more therapy and get caught up. Getting test results can be devastating, take your time to mourn and then try to focus your emotions on helping your DS. The positive to getting the information ahead of time is you can process it and make a list of questions for the meeting. GL!

Assembly_Reqd · August 2012

Let me start off by offering hugs. Also, GOOGLE IS NOT YOUR FRIEND! You will always find the "worse case" scenario with google.

I also think that cognition tests are really skewed towards children that can talk. There are IQ tests that can be given that are not verbally based, but you have to wait a bit for them to be relevant (like age 4-6). Nate is still having troubles with talking (he's Apraxic) and I was also super worried about his cognition. We got an ipad and he is so much better at it than I ever imagined! I am so much more confident now that I can see what he can do. The not talking part really made him look less smart than he was.

When they say mixed developmental delays I read that as meaning he is at different levels for different categories. If you are weak in one catagory that will have some spillover affect into others.

For example, the cognition part of the 24 month ASQ asks if your child can stack 5 cubes. Seriously? My kid has big fine motor issues. He knows how to stack stuff, but not 1 inch cube stuff. He can stack 6 or 7 3 inch blocks no problem. They are supposed to be testing his ability to plan and execute the cube stack, but the fine motor weakness will always get in the way.

Also in the receptive and expressive language part of the assessments, they don't count sign language. If sign language were counted, Nate would be right on track for communication. It is so frustrating.

You have to come away with the fact that the assessment is only one snapshot in time. It does not offer any prognosis for the future. The future is completely up to your child. Take what they say, since you did say you agree with most of it, and run with it. Therapy can only help at this point. In six months they will do another review and you may get an entirely different picture. Stay strong!

kcisthebombdotcom · August 2012

This happened to me with both my children's evaluations. They were both uncooperative for the test so the team couldn't get a truly accurate read. Look at it this way--the worse they assume the delay is, the more services you'll qualify for, and the quicker they can help him catch up.

Some kids with receptive/language delays are autistic, but a lot aren't either. I'm guessing that they said mixed delays because he showed delays in a few different area. I would not have any autism concerns if I were you.

If it's any comfort, my son had similar scores in receptive/language/cognition a year ago. Now he speaks in full sentences (he had a 12 word one last week!) and has hundreds of words. They finally agreed that there never was a problem with receptive language (they think he's actually above average in that area) but he has sensory issues which caused him to have difficulties to paying attention. He still struggles with articulation and finding words (he has a mild case of apraxia) but he's definitely miles away from where he was a year ago.

GL!

star1123 · August 2012

KC_13:
This happened to me with both my children's evaluations. They were both uncooperative for the test so the team couldn't get a truly accurate read. Look at it this way--the worse they assume the delay is, the more services you'll qualify for, and the quicker they can help him catch up.

Some kids with receptive/language delays are autistic, but a lot aren't either. I'm guessing that they said mixed delays because he showed delays in a few different area. I would not have any autism concerns if I were you.

If it's any comfort, my son had similar scores in receptive/language/cognition a year ago. Now he speaks in full sentences (he had a 12 word one last week!) and has hundreds of words. They finally agreed that there never was a problem with receptive language (they think he's actually above average in that area) but he has sensory issues which caused him to have difficulties to paying attention. He still struggles with articulation and finding words (he has a mild case of apraxia) but he's definitely miles away from where he was a year ago.

GL!

thank you so much. I'm just really suffering with this right now. I'm seeing my doctor who is going to refer me to a psychiatrict because at this point I think I am quickly going into a state of depression over this.

And I am sorry...I know there are plenty of people who have a much more challenging situation. No doubt about that, and I am not trying to say this is the end of the world, or the worst thing ever. I've had anxiety issues for a long time, and this is just making things worse.

robynlesley · August 2012

When my son was evaluated by EI last year, he was shown to have a 33% delay in cognitive ability and I was heartbroken (he also had similar delay in speech and social/emotional). So he qualified for services and got developmental intervention (DI) twice a week and speech 1x per week.

Once his DI therapist (a special ed teacher) started working with him, it was apparent that he was not behind cognitively and that the speech delay impacted the test scores.

These tests are easily skewed when your child is so young and cannot effectively communicate what he knows. The evaluators cannot engage the child and therefore get results that may differ from what you see or, later, the therapist will see.

I also had worries re: Autism from several behavioral red flags and saw a developmental pediatrician when Aaron was 27 months old. He does not fall onto the Spectrum, though he does have some sensory processing issues (but not enough for a SPD dx). He also ended up having mild hearing loss and got tubes, which corrected that and he had a language explosion soon after.

And after a year of Early Intervention (we also added OT for the sensory piece), he aged out testing at/above age level for most areas--still behind in gross motor and adaptive (self care).

star1123 · August 2012

robynlesley:
When my son was evaluated by EI last year, he was shown to have a 33% delay in cognitive ability and I was heartbroken (he also had similar delay in speech and social/emotional). So he qualified for services and got developmental intervention (DI) twice a week and speech 1x per week.
Once his DI therapist (a special ed teacher) started working with him, it was apparent that he was not behind cognitively and that the speech delay impacted the test scores.
These tests are easily skewed when your child is so young and cannot effectively communicate what he knows. The evaluators cannot engage the child and therefore get results that may differ from what you see or, later, the therapist will see.
I also had worries re: Autism from several behavioral red flags and saw a developmental pediatrician when Aaron was 27 months old. He does not fall onto the Spectrum, though he does have some sensory processing issues (but not enough for a SPD dx). He also ended up having mild hearing loss and got tubes, which corrected that and he had a language explosion soon after.
And after a year of Early Intervention (we also added OT for the sensory piece), he aged out testing at/above age level for most areas--still behind in gross motor and adaptive (self care).

Thanks so much! Sounds like your son is doing great

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