Early Intervention

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

As part of our long journey waiting for Alistair to start walking, since our peds ortho didn't reco therapy, I decided to reach out to our county's EI program for an evaluation to determine if he'd be eligible for services.  We live in Cook county, but near the border, and our town lies mostly in DuPage, so we were referred from the former, which I'd contacted first, to the latter.  The whole process has thankfully only taken a few weeks.

First, a case manager reached out and we also later met at our home to discuss his development.  While our concerns were primarily with his lack of independent walking (gross motor), they do a series of in home assessments with different specialists/therapists (physical, speech, developmental) as part of the intake process and then we all meet together to discuss the outcomes and any treatment plan(s).  Our final meeting was this morning.

While I knew neither of the kids were setting any records with their language development, I was not overly concerned because they are both very verbal, though it is primarily pre-language jibberish and animal noises.  I was a very late talker (which caused no long term ill effect, save not starting kindergarten early, even though I tested off the charts), and so are/were my sister's (the speech pathologist) four kids (her 20 mo. old mostly grunts and her 3yo talks very little) and since they are twins (and he a boy), raised bilingually (English and Marahti), at home (where their needs are anticipated), etc. etc., I wasn't losing sleep over the fact they "knew" words (could point to/retrieve items), but weren't saying them.  So I figured they'd qualify for some therapy, though honestly I don't know if he'd starting walking sooner, if I would have reached out right now for their speech alone, since they clearly have strong cognitive skills, which the therapist confirmed.

Of course our little stinker started walking the week of his physical eval and also for the therapist, which since she didn't find any other issues of concern, he would have just missed the cut off for qualifying, which for each area requires a minimum 30% delay, based on age, though in the end she qualified him for therapy and recommended twice a month sessions until he is a confident walker (which is our primary goal).

 

We met with the speech language therapist and she also qualified Alistair for therapy, as she also did for Marielle, though a separate formal assessment for her, as she is just slightly more advanced.  Both of them displayed age appropriate skills, except for expressive language, as we knew.  She also recommended two sessions/month, though they will in essence be receiving four as they will be treated separately and together. They understand many words, but their regular active vocabulary includes just a handful of basic words (mama, dada, car, cat, dog, ball, block, me, go, wow, uh oh, and the like).  And though they are always surprising me with new ones, they have yet to string words together, which apparently they should be by now.

Lastly, we met with a developmental therapist, who evaluates global development.  She confirmed that both would qualify for speech therapy, and he for physical therapy. She also said that while it is good that he has finally started walking (though he didn't during her visit), since I told her it is still not his preferred means of getting around, which it should be, that she pushed for him to qualify for physical therapy to "get him over the hump."  We agreed that we thought he would benefit from this as well.

While I'm sure this varies from place to place, we were given the option of using our private health insurance for the therapy (though many do not cover developmental therapies) or whether to pay on their sliding scale ($0-$200/month, depending on family income/size).  We plan to opt for the latter.  I was pleasantly surprised we were given a choice, since we have private insurance, though I have no idea if our insurance covers the therapy (I later found that it is covered, though we've still opted for the monthly plan).  I guess sessions are expensive ($200/ea.) and the state pays the difference.  This is why I don't mind paying taxes, though you can add this to the many many additional costs of multiples.  Can you imagine not having the means to get your child the help they need?  I'm surprised how often I hear this, but I was also shocked that over half of the babies born at Prentice are paid for by Medicaid (no wonder we got such a sweet room).  Their services can continue until age three based on reassessments, and EI participants have priority access to public preschool services.

I'll be sure to give updates on how they do once we get going with the therapy sessions.  Anyone have experience with EI?  How did it go for you?

Have a great weekend! We are off to Boston tomorrow, which will include the kids' first train, plane, bus, and maybe duck boat ride! :)