Today was Kaiden's appointment with Michigan's Early On program. Early On assists families with infants and toddlers, from birth until they turn 36 months or 3 years of age, who may be experiencing delays in their development or if they have a diagnosed disability. When they turn 3 (or actually, the Fall that they turn 3) they are then part of the local school system. Children are then eligible for various preschool programs that are designed to better assist the developmentally delayed children. One of the most appealing things about NYC was their public school system. Now that is a school district that has their act together to care for the more advanced children. Those close to me know that I've always been frustrated with our state public school system because they are not prepared to deal with gifted children, until usually middle school, but more commonly in high school. Hence, the big reason why I homeschool the girls. I'd always say in the past that if I'd had a slow child, that I lived in the perfect state for that. Well, now I'm happy to live where we do : ) But, I digress.
Our pediatrician evaluated Kaiden to be at around a 4 month old. The specialists today said he is more like between and 2 & 4 month old. Ok, not that big of a difference in my mind but to them, it was a difference. He qualifies for their services. No kidding : ) He'll get started now even though they run on a school year which will be over in just about 1.5 months. But, at least we'll have some specific exercises to begin with him to do over the summer. We can also use our health insurance to get private OT & PT during this time. But we won't decide on that until we get to that time. Normally, they like to have children wait until they have been home for a few months to see how much they can naturally catch up but since he's so far behind, we'll go ahead and go started now.
I met with 3 different people during our 2 hour visit with them. I was not looking forward to this appointment because of my anti-public school system attitude, for my children, but I tried to go in open minded. To say the least, I was very pleased. All 3 women were warm, welcoming, and really seemed to have a love for children. We (Kaiden & I; Pete won't possibly be able to miss work for all of these upcoming appointments so he'll just come to the most nerve wracking ones) met with a Occupational Therapist (OT), Audiologist, and a Coordinator.
I'm just a little bit familiar with this program because when I was doing in-home daycare before K3 was born, I had a little girl that was enrolled in it. Now that I think back on it, she was more delayed than even I realized at that time. But after going through with these services, she started making remarkable progress.
The Coordinator is basically our go between us and all of the 'team' that will work with Kaiden. She'll be the one that sets up his first meeting in 2 weeks with the team and schedules all follow up evaluations that will be needed. He'll go twice per week for a 1 hour visit with the OT & PT. A speech therapist will see him on an as needed basis since his motor skills are more of the focus right now. He'll also be evaluated by a psychologist in the Fall as part of his 'transition' year. I can't imagine that that would take that long : )
He didn't have an appointment with the audiologist but she was free so she saw him. No surprises there. He wasn't responsive. She couldn't rule out any hearing loss so he needs to see an ENT, preferable the one that works out of Children's Hospital downtown because they have an Audiologist on staff that can do this hearing test that he needs done at the same time as our visit. Check. Already have an appointment with him in 2.5 weeks. Good news is that his ear drums are fine so his ear infection must be gone.
The OT was wonderful. She was patient and gentle with Kaiden. She got us started on "brush therapy and joint compression" with him at home to be done about 5 - 6 times a day, basically at every diaper change so we remember to do it. It'll only take about 5 minutes to do. This will help him with sensory integration and get his joints used to pressure for crawling & walking. Also some different touches to do around his face and mouth to get him working towards foods. And, try and rub different textures on his hands like silk, and this brush, and any other types of materials that we may have to try to get him to engage his hands for toy play. She was happy to hear that we already have our appointment with the neurologist and it's the one that they recommend as well.
He'll need to get some more medical testing done (ENT, neuro, vision, etc.) to rule all any under-lying medical conditions for the delays. These things should all be taken care of over the summer so we'll be in a good position to make progress come the Fall.
Kaiden turns 2 in the Fall, in October, which means next Fall of 2010, he'll be eligible to start pre-school. They call next year his transition year, preparing him for school. I can't imagine him being ready for that. He doesn't have to attend, but, if we want to use these services, then he has to in order to get them done through the school district. Right now though, I can't even think that far! I'm glad that they can.
No comments:
Post a Comment