EI evaluation results and questions

JuliaJAG · August 2012

Hi, everyone - my 29-weeker Jack has his EI evaluation this morning. He is 6 months actual, not quite 4 months adjusted.

(I had considered waiting a month or two to do the evaluation, but the EI people told me I should go ahead and do it... they said that since Jack was so early, he'd probably need therapy even if the evaluation didn't show delays.)

It was smack in the middle of Jack's new nap time, and he had JUST fallen asleep in the car... so he was half-asleep during most of the evaluation. He wasn't doing most of the things he does every day when he's awake and active.

But, she said he was above average across the board for his adjusted age and that they're not going to recommend therapy.

I'm a little torn. On one hand, you want your baby to do well and not show delays... but on the other hand, I was kind of hoping he would qualify for some kind of therapy to make sure he stays on track. Now he can't be re-evaluated for another 6 months.

The other thing I'm confused about is this: They say that preemies usually catch up to their actual age by 2 years old. But for these EI evaluations, do they keep going by adjusted age until then? If he's behind based on actual age, shouldn't he be getting some kind of therapy to help him catch up by age two?

thishappyhouse · August 2012

I agree with BostonKisses, our state bases all of their evaluations off of actual age. Our daughter is automatically eligible for services until 3 based on her birth gestation and weight, so even if she catches up at some point before then we can still enroll her in services. There is a sliding scale participant fee in our state though so that may influence this policy.

Id call the service coordinator, pediatrician or even the social worker from your NICU to confirm the qualification requirements for services.

Its great that he is on track or ahead of his adjusted developmental milestones though!

DrRx · August 2012

As other PPs have mentioned, I'm surprised that they based it off the adjusted age instead of actual. When we had our EI initial evaluation, they told us that they would base everything on her actual age. She said that Adalyn was ok in many things based on her adjusted age, but that she was delayed in most things based on her actual age (as was expected). We actually had her EI evaluation a few weeks after we were discharged, actually on her EDD!

We started with the lady coming to our house once a month until July, when Adalyn was holding her head up more, etc, and then we changed it to once a week. I really think that it is helping Adalyn close the gap in her milestones between her adjusted and actual age.

JuliaJAG · August 2012

Wow... now I'm a little upset that our state goes by adjusted rather than actual. What's the point of that, really?? I'm in Georgia -- is anyone else here in Ga. and have experience with Babies Can't Wait (Ga's EI program)?

Not only that, but they put his adjusted age as 3 months. His adjusted age will be 4 months in less than a week!! I even pointed that out to them and asked if that makes a difference. She said that they go by the rounded-down number, so even if he were 3 months and 29 days adjusted, they'd go based on 3 months. It just sounds screwy to me! She said that if they had evaluated him based on 4 months adjusted age, his scores would have been a little lower but still above average.

This is kind of upsetting... I wonder what options I have for getting him any support he needs in catching up to his actual age? BTW, his ped says he's closer to his actual age than adjusted in terms of his developmental milestones, so that's good at least, but I was really hoping what they had said was true that he would qualify for SOMEthing even if he seemed on track.

Anyone know of any lists of activities that are done in PT/OT? I'd love to work with him on the kinds of things they'd be doing in therapy... beyond normal playing (which we do a lot of), I don't know what all we should be working on. This has left me totally in the dark... *sigh*

katie4253 · August 2012

Whether they use actual or adjusted age depends on your state. It doesn't sound like they did anything wrong. Just how your state does things.

I'd prefer it honestly. It is really hard for me to process "actual age" when he is behind even his adjusted age.

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