Today was the big day that has been weighing on my mind for months. And months. Braley had his evaluation with Sooner.Start, our states early.intervention program.
First, I was super anxious for obvious reasons. But also, a few days ago, Braley started coughing a little, no big deal. Well, after his nap yesterday, he woke up and could barely breathe, he was wheezing so badly. Uggh. Off to the pedi we went, and it turns out, his airway was swollen from not being able to cough all that gunk out. He got a steroid shot, and it helped. But I was still nervous that if he wasn't feeling 100%, his evaluation would be even worse.
However, he surprised me! It took him a few minutes to warm up to them (there were two ladies evaluating him), but he engaged with them, did what they asked, etc.
Long story short, as we suspected, he is delayed in his expressive communication. Very delayed. At 19 months old (well, 18.5 adjusted - they adjusted because he was a multiple and born at 37 weeks - did not know they were going to do that) he is at an 11.5 month level for expressive communication. Insert worried momma face here : ( On a positive note, his receptive (what he understands) language was at a 22 month level, and every other thing that looked at (there were several items) he was at or above average. Bottom line? He does not meet the required 50% delay to qualify for services.
We filled out the M.CHAT (autism screening tool) again, this time taking a closer look at all the questions. He scored a 100% on it (meaning, autism is not a concern). However, as I understand it, the M.CHAT is just a screening tool. We will revisit this at 2 if he is still delayed.
They told me that they saw no red flags for abnormal development and as far as they could tell, he is a typically developing toddler. I asked point blank if they thought he would benefit from therapy and should I look in to private speech therapy? They told me they didn't think it was necessary. They are encouraged that he has made some progress in the last month (he has a few words now - up, no, hello, uh oh) and they think he will catch up on his own.
I am happy we did the evaluation. Happy the only thing he is lagging in is speech, and happy they think he will catch up on his own.
Whew. Long day. Glad it is over.
THUNDER the heck UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
David and I were married in June of 2006. I am a stay-at-home mom after a long struggle with Infertility. We have been lucky on our first and second cycles of In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF)! We have a daughter, Paige Madeline, born April 23, 2009. Our twin boys, Jack David and Braley James, came on November 16, 2010.
Random Winter Happenings
4 years ago
3 comments:
My son is 18 months (born Dec '10), and we were told he has "expressive speech delay". We have a 4-6 month wait to get in to speech therapy though.
He squeeks and hmmmmms and whines but doesn't say any actual words, and doesn't repeat sounds either.
If it's not too personal, what delays does he have? (if you want to email me instead, I'm at alyssa dot gavinski at gmail dot com)
Oh, it's no problem! All they told me was that he has an expressive communication delay. He only has 3 or 4 words, where he should have 10 or more at this point.
As I said, he did not qualify for services through the state, and we are opting out of seeking out private therapy at this time. Will reconsider if we don't continue to see progress on his own.
Best of luck! Please let me know if you have any other questions! You can email me too at mlgriffith3 at gmail dot com.
THANK YOU for sharing! Like you, I have an older child so have a sense of what is somewhat normal and not but am generally laid-back about milestones while recognizing they exist. My younger daughter is someone I've been concerned about language-wise for awhile (honestly, since about 12-13 months). I didn't want to be overanxious b/c I know, in some ways, I'm holding / comparing her to my older daughter who was pretty advanced verbally. And, like Braley, I recognize that she has great "receptive" expression (I didn't know what it was called before reading your post) but not great expressive communication. She's now 17 months, and we have an evaluation on the calendar for this month. I didn't want to do it before now b/c I know there is a range of normal and I can see how much she understands but, at ~17 months, I also want to confirm my intuition. Thanks for your post. You always have great perspective.
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