Early Intervention- When to get it.
This post was long overdue, being that MJ is already in school. I wanted to write this post with all the information I could give you to help you or help someone you may know. Getting the news that there may be something different about your child may make you want to hide. I know I did, I wanted to crawl in a hole and hide. Mainly because I knew something was different about my boy. When we would speak to him as a baby, he wouldn’t look at us directly, and the lack of eye contact was our most significant red flag. We knew immediately we had to find out what our next steps, while at his a visit with our pediatrician we expressed our concerns.
We love our pediatrician, she was so proactive and said we still had time because he was still not one year old, but helped us schedule some evaluations to see if he qualified for Early Intervention. Before his evaluations were started we were assigned a coordinator to handle our case. Her role was to be our case manager, she was the one we communicated with in regards to the evaluations, whether we had concerns. Her role was also to handle all reports about MJ moving forward. She worked with several agencies that worked with the Therapist to do these evaluations. During our first meeting with her, she asked us what our concerns were and what things we noticed he may be delayed on. I was annoyed at first because I felt like I was being asked what was wrong with him, I'm assuming she saw the frustration in my face. She explained to me that I was his mother and it was my job to nitpick and know what I wanted for him. She was right and I knew it, there were things aside from the eye contact that we had noticed.
After that first meeting with her, she scheduled evaluations for a Speech, Physical, Occupational Therapist, and a Special Teacher to do the evaluations. We had them all come to our home to evaluate him because we wanted to be there. The agencies give you the option to do these evaluations at home or daycare. During the evaluations, they all spoke to us but mainly focused their time with MJ. Each therapist had different ways to test MJ’s skills, they used puzzles, matching cards, balls, a board with pegs and other toys that would help them evaluate MJ. Each therapist was respectful to us and MJ, they communicated with us and let us know what they would be doing with MJ during the eval.
We were told by our coordinator that if they spent most of their time speaking to us and didn’t spend too much time with MJ, to let her know so we can get another therapist to do the eval. I was both shocked and happy that wasn’t the case with the evaluators. Being curious I asked her if that happened a lot, she mentioned that it did but that it was important that the therapist get the first-hand experience with the child. So that their recommendations were based on the interaction with the child and not just the parent's feedback. Once all of the evaluations were completed we received a copy and were scheduled for a meeting at the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene with a city official and the coordinator to see what was being recommended and if MJ qualified for services. We got the approved for services which included Three Thirty minute sessions for Speech, Two Thirty minute sessions for Physical, Occupational Therapist, and a Special Instructor to help him with his ABC’s Numbers and Daily activities.
Sounds like a lot when your child is just hitting one year old, but he was delayed and needed the help. He started getting his Early intervention services two months after his first birthday. Juan and I were working full-time jobs and MJ was at daycare with B. We made it a point to meet with the therapist at the daycare even if it meant leaving work early or getting there late. When MJ turned about 16 months we got the psychological evaluation done to see if he was autistic. Our Coordinator was very present in MJ’s development too. She would call me to let me know about any activities that would help and she was the one who suggested we get the psychological eval. Once it was confirmed that he was autistic we changed all his therapy to include Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) techniques into his sessions with his therapist. We were so excited that his Special Instructor was an ABA so we didn’t have to switch her. He was getting the help he needed and was improving immensely. The biggest change was that he was now getting ABA every day instead of two times a week. The Psychiatrist who evaluated MJ recommended 20 hours of ABA. Due to MJ being at the daycare and we knew he was gaining social skills there we decided that we would do 10 hours a week to start. This remained his ABA therapy hours because he is not severe and we were also working with him at home.
We are beyond happy that we began early intervention when we did, he’s improved so much during that time. Some things that I have learned while in Early intervention that isn’t really mentioned or enforced is to have communication with the therapist. If you can’t call or text, have a communication log with them so that you can request reports from them on daily activities, things you can do at home. Also If you feel that during therapy sessions he was not doing well with the Therapists or the therapist was not connecting well with him you have the option to change them. It is important to be present and participate in the treatment of your child. This was and continues to be true, we do make sure that even now after Early Intervention we ensure that we speak to everyone involved in his schooling. I have spoken to some therapist that had never had a single line of communication or meet with the parents when caring for some children.
One last thing I have to say is if you for any reason see that your child is delayed and your doctor says that it will pass and you feel strongly about it. Ask the doctor if early intervention can be provided, these services are provided for free or at a low cost till the child is three years old. Get all the information you need to make sure you are speaking on your child’s behalf. Write down questions you may have before attending any meeting. You not only are their parent but you are also their advocate.
