Today Benjamin had his evaluation with Birth too Three. They basically are a program through the State for all families in Connecticut to help curb and have early prevention for disabilities and prevent delays from turning into disabilities in children.
Our Pediatrician had shown a little concern for Ben's development at his 12 month check up so I immediately called and scheduled an appointment for him.
It turns out that Ben has some severe delays. His delays are in Gross Motor skills, Fine Motor skills and Receptive skills. We thought he may have been a little behind in his gross motor skills but we were taken back by the others.
He also has mild delays in his Cognitive skills and Social skills.
Now we know that he qualifies for services through Birth to Three, but this is just the first step in a really long journey of therapy and help to get him where he is supposed to be at his age. Some even said this process could take years.
Years
That scares me.
I am hoping it may not take as long as years but whatever I need to do as a parent to make sure my son gets the help he needs is exactly what I am going to do.
It upsets me as a Mom because I feel like I should have done something different, or I feel like I screwed up somewhere along the line. The two women that came to evaluate him re-assured me repeatedly it is nothing that I did, but instead just something that happens to some children.
It doesn't make it any easier though.
5 comments:
A friend of mine has had two of her sons go through the Birth to Three program and had a very positive experience with it. Hoping for the same for your family!
Okay, so I've had two kids in Birth to Three. My oldest who is now 11 was in it from the time she was 17 months until she aged out into the school system for speech. Yes, it was years of speech and years of fighting for her, but now she's doing great. In the gifted program at school gets straight A's and no problems talking. Going onto middle school next year. My youngest (who you know is Camden's age) was in it from 6 months to 18 months for gross motor and failure to thrive. Everyone's different. I honestly found the therapy to be a relief though. Because there was someone there who was noticing things I was seeing or even things I didn't that I could discuss things about it. We did just have CJ reevaluated by Birth to Three because there was some concern that his gross motor was falling behind again. He is fine though and actually they were more concerned with his speech. Birth to Three is a great resource. They'll help you to find other things in your area too which will be beneficial to both of your children. Things like playgroups or story times at the library. It's good that you are on top of this now though and Ben probably won't even remember having had to do it. Which agency came out for you? I can't remember who I had when we were living in Fairfield county for my oldest. The group I worked with for CJ was Early Connections though and they are great!
Reachout from Hamden came out for us. It was just hard to hear how much he needed. Now I am going to sit on pins and needles waiting for our family meeting where we make our "treatment plan" and go from there.
I had a much harder time with Natalie being in Birth to Three than I did with CJ for some reason. Maybe because I had already been through it all with CJ and came out okay from the other end. But I remember very well with Natalie thinking what could I have done differently and why did it happen? Once you get your IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan) you'll probably start to feel better about it all. And just be glad that he's getting the help that he needs now. It's a mother's job to worry. I worried about Natalie's speech for many years after she was discharged. Now I don't worry so much though. I have other things to worry about with her, lol. The Birth to Three program is really wonderful and if you have therapists who you work well with it's even better. If you are ever uncomfortable with any of the therapists or the program though you can ask to be changed and they have to. I did not click with one of the therapists who had come out to evaluate CJ when he first got in. I told the Developmental Teacher who was coming out to do his IFSP that I didn't feel comfortable with her and she said no problem and got someone else to come out and help us. It all worked out great. So just don't feel like you are stuck with this group just because they came out to do the evaluation. You will be working closely with them and they will work closely with your whole family really (Camden included) so you need to make sure they are the right fit for your family. You are now in a whole new world of PPT's, IEP's, and IFSP's. So get used to the abbreviation talk :).
One other thing I wanted to add. Think about the things you would like for Ben and for your family before they come out to do your IFSP. They will ask you what your family wants to get out of this. What you would like Ben to be able to do. For example with Natalie I just wanted her to be able to tell me what she wanted to eat or drink at first. So that was put in there and then she was taught the signs for eat and drink so she could tell us when she was hungry or thirsty. An IFSP can always be changed too if it needs to. Another thing I had wanted for Natalie was for her to be around more children her own age (she was my first and none of my friends had kids because I was young) so she wasn't around other children a lot. So they pointed me in the direction of a playgroup for her. So if something like that would interest you then you would mention something like that and they will get you information on things that are local to you. I didn't need that with CJ because I already had it by that point, but sometimes it's hard to find things and to get into a playgroup which is already established. So that's my suggestion to you right now is to think about what you want for Ben in say six months and what things you'd like for your family because they really do involve everyone in this.
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