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LALASEPT05
member
Developmental Pedi Evaluation - What to Expect?
LALASEPT05
member
Hello, I've posted only a few times but am a lurker on this board. In short my son is 2 years and 3 months and has basically no words. He understands and follows directions but does not communicate. We found in the spring that he had severe hearing loss due to fluid and had tubes put in May. We've been on a wait list for the developmental pediatrician at CHOP for 6 months and finally have our evaluations in September. They said they may or may not do a speech evaluation. I was curious what I should expect at this appointment? What types of evaluations will they do?
Thanks for any insight or advice.
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Re: Developmental Pedi Evaluation - What to Expect?
My son was the same age when he got his developmental eval. He also didn't have any words. Whe went to Children's in Boston. When we went in there were 2 doctors working with us, one was assessing him and one spent that time asking us questions and letting us relay our concerns. For him they did a full test on all areas of development, fine and gross motor skills, expressive and receptive speech, and cognitive skills. I believe the test was called the Bayley Scale. They also screened him for Autism using the ADOS. In addition there was a full physical exam. The whole process took about 3-4 hours. We went back a few days later for a follow up appointment (well I did because my husband had to work) to get the results of everything and their recomendations. My son ended up being diagnosed with Autism.
Best of luck to you, it is a very stressful experience, no matter what the outcome is, but you will be glad you did it. I still have a hard time believing my son actually has Autism some days, over 6 months later, however I do not regret getting the evaluation because it allowed us to access the therapy that he needs to progress, and he is doing wonderful now.
My son was a bit older about 3 yr 7 months when we saw the Dev Pedi at our local Children's Hospital. We had to complete a packet of paper work regarding his development and behaviors prior to even making an appointment. His preschool teachers also had a form to complete.
When we got to the appointment the Dev Pedi and her resident asked us a whole lot more questions while DS played. Then the Dev Pedi essentially played with him while evaluating him. She did a ton of tests all while playing. (Drawing, cutting, stacking, copying, sorting, colors, counting, kicking a ball, throwing a ball, running, climbing stairs, speech....) All the while she was observing behaviors as well as if he could do the tasks at hand. I know she was doing specific evaluations but I can't remember the names from the reports. She also did a quick but full medical examination. At the end of the 1.5 hour appointment she told us her findings and told us we would get a report in 2-4 weeks. At the end of the appointment she said she did not think DS had an ASD but because he had some markers and the language his preschool teachers used she referred us to a Psychologist. She also referred us, for evaluation, to an SLP and an OT.
We got into the OT and SLP with in a few weeks and got on waitlists for services based on the evaluations.
Two months later (early July), after a very in depth almost 4 hour appointment, the Child Pysch diagnosed him with an ASD (PDD-NOS) .. We have our follow up with the Dev Pedi in a few weeks.
DS 09/2008