So AM’s application to participate in state-sponsored early intervention has been turned down.
Sounds so much nicer than “he has been disqualified” or “he’s been rejected,” which of course is what I’ve been saying to everyone around here.
The long and short of it is: he is age-appropriate in every other way. Yes, his expressive language is not even on the charts, but his receptive language is fine. He communicates. He has good cognitive skills. When shown a picture of a baby during the testing with a special education teacher, he noticed that the baby had no clothes on and signed “bath.” So basically, we couldn’t have dumbed him down if we tried.
The speech therapist’s report listed 12 oral/speech objectives that he is not meeting and strongly indicated the need for therapy in general, but at the same time she had noted that his receptive skills were acceptable and therefore meant that he did not meet the qualifying level of two standard deviations below the mean. She basically said that she hoped he was delayed in another area, because two scores of 1.5 standard deviations below the mean also qualify. No such “luck.”
Through Early Intervention we basically have no recourse except to wait a few months and do it all again. All of it–social workers, forms, everything. Our case worker told us if we wanted to try to keep the file open it would require approval from the Regional Supervisor (I swear there were caps in her voice when she said it). And probably nothing would come of it except the command to wait a few months and do it again.
It’s frustrating as hell.
Thankfully, we have good health insurance, which would cover a lot of private speech therapy. The weekly or twice-weekly co-pays will suck, to be sure, but we have flex-spending, so it’s pre-tax dollars, which, Taxman tells me, is good. (Honestly, I haven’t a clue.) Better than the alternative, anyway, of paying out of pocket for everything.
Or we can try the university speech clinic route, although I don’t know how to get into one.
I just want to do something. Soon. I am tired of sitting on my hands and waiting. There’s work to be done, and I want to begin.
Yep. So been there. I have lovely therapist out here, which is no help to you what so ever. But it was amazing what a difference it made with C. I think we started him at a little less than three, and by three and a 1/2 he was fully understandable and people looked at me as if I had two heads when I told them that six months ago he couldn’t pronounce a single word besides “mama” and even that was dicey. It was totally worth the copays…I can fax a copy of our workbook if you want
I fit makes you feel any better, I’ve heard that private therapy is much better than EI therapy. Hurray for good health insurance.
Remember that call I put into Taxman a few months ago. It was for Flex Spending advice
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Ugh, so frustrating!! I dunno if I mentioned it to you before, but my little brother was completely non-verbal until age three. My folks got him through a patchwork of local services and speech therapy, and he needed some extra coaching for reading in school. Now he’s the grown father of two and makes more money than me, his sister who read at four and never shut up long enough to let him get a word in edgewise. Life is funny.
Well, at least you have good insurance. And as crappy as it is to not get into EI, I think it’s great that he doesn’t qualify. Because he is such a smart kid and really does seem to get the receptive language, so good for him being too smart to qualify!
I hope that makes sense and doesn’t belittle your frustration. I mean it in a very supportive way. Because I know it must be so frustrating! Good luck finding private therapy or a university clinic!
I mis-spoke. I don’t mean great that he doesn’t qualify. I mean great that he is such a smart kid and has such great receptive language. The not qualifying part just sucks.
Agh, the EI system can be SO frustrating. I hope you guys find a great therapist who will make the copays seem like the best money you ever spent. And, trust me, Taxman is right about the pre-tax money being very advantageous. I will spare you the personal finance writer’s treatise on why that is the case.
Hugs to all of you, especially that brilliant, adorable little boy. And chocolate for Ema!
Sigh. Something is just inherently wrong with the concept that someone can be too smart/skilled/etc. for help. Even though I’m sure there is an entire vocabularly in that brain of his just bursting at the seams and waiting to come out any second now, it doesn’t help you any and I can’t blame you for feeling that way. My nephew’s private therapy worked so well he was told not to come back after only a short time working with him. So there’s that, I suppose.
Hugs and hugs to you all.