I took Shane in today for an evaluation, since his verbal and social skills are still WAY lacking. Of course, the (civilian contractor) doctor rushed me out of the clinic. I HATE military healthcare. I have been stressing his development since they were a year old, and they ignored it. Now they are referring me to an off-post place for a "Developmental Eval." The Dr. kept making a fuss about his hearing, I KNOW he hears just fine. I'm worried about Autisim, he really just acts bizarre. He is SO smart in some aspects, way ahead of his sister. He HATES loud noises, is very sensitive, thrives on repetiton, and gets frustrated easily. Lately he has picked up a habit of peeling crayons. He WILL NOT color any more, just peels the labels off all the crayons. He could do it for hours if I'd let him. He says maybe 20-30 words at most, and he doesn't say two word sentences. However, he puts toys away, helps with chores, can figure out a "problem" in no time (like how to climb out of his crib and into Maddie's), and can repeat words ("The cow says moo..." "moo!!". He KNOWS them, but can't seem to use them. I'm sorry to ramble, I'm just so worried about my little man, and scared there has been something all along that we missed. Anyone have any experience with things like this?

By Feona on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 06:31 am:

I am a big believer in early intervention. Usually it is always a state run program. The therapist can come to your house or you can bring child to a therapy office. Everything is free free free.

Sometimes you can get free preschool (up to 6 hours a day.) (with free bus) The bus can drop off at day care or home or anywhere you want.

Maybe he needs speech, but the evaluation should tell you.


If he was autistic it would be unlikely he could say 20-30 words at his age. I would chill about that. My son did say a word at two years old. He didn't even wave. My son does not have autism or pervasive development disorder.

Does he imitate? Sounds like he does.

Sounds like he needs some ot for sensory issue. (Loud noises)

The no coloring with a crayon is a ot issue too. The ot helps with the crayon.

The ot and speech would help with frustration level. They work on that.

How is he at the playground? (physical therapy) Does he hold his own with this sister and same age playmates?


They might give him a special ed teacher to work on skills with him.(Counting, abcs, crayon, small motor, gross motor)

Just try to view it as a private tutor you don't have to pay for and chill out.

Also if he has social problems when he is older he can go to play groups with a social work to help him socialize. Or have a special ed teacher in him preschool for a hour or so a week ot help him learn social skills or anything at all.

Boys are alway behind in speech and social skills. Don't compare you girl with the boy. Just think how different men are from woman and you can understand it. Men are visual and woman are verbal usually.

By Gammiejoan on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 08:59 am:

Crystal, you are doing the right thing by having him evaluated. Early intervention is vital in getting him what he needs. My now 6 y/o grandson was evaluated at age 3 and was able to go to preschool free. At that time he was diagnosed as having sensory integrative dysfunction with perhaps something on the autism spectrum. Aspergers was also considered, but he really didn't have all the characteristics. He exhibits definite obsessive compulsive tendencies with generalized anxiety at times. His 3 y/o brother has been referred for a developmental evaluation, and we are waiting for a date. In the meantime he went to his pediatrician earlier this week for his annual exam, and the pediatrician decide to go ahead and refer him to a speech, language, and hearing pathologist so that we can make sure that we "get the ball rolling" before the new school year starts. We have a preschool program in our public school system that he would be able to attend free of charge if it is determined that he needs special services. Good luck with getting Shane what he needs!

By Palmbchprincess on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 11:45 am:

Joan, I have been reading the updates about your grandson, and was interested to read your response about my DS. I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Shane sort of reminds me of myself in certain things. (He gets overwhelmed easily.) The whole thing with the crayons isn't that he has never colored, he suddenly stopped and started peeling off the labels. This has just started recently, around the same time regular visitation with my Ex started. Could it be from the stress?? This just gives an already anxious mother more stress, I guess mainly because I've felt he needed help for over a year, and people told me I was nuts! I'll post when I finally get to talk to someone to evaluate him!!

By Cat on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 03:09 pm:

Getting him evaluated early like this is great. I'm sorry your appointment on post didn't go well (and unfortunatly, I completely understand your hatred for military health care!). Let us know how it goes. Do you know when it is yet? Robin sees a psyciatrist off base and has seen three different therapists, all off base. Mental health services are totally covered--no copay or anything. Good luck. You can always email me. cathyliz@bigfoot.com

By Tink on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 08:26 pm:

My son has autism and had a vocabulary of 25 words when he was 2. The repetitive behavior and fear of loud noises sounds like my little guy. He also repeated the last thing we said, which doesn't count as vocabulary. So there seem to be some definite similarities BUT does Shane point? Does he look you in the eye as often as Maddie does? If you push a car past him and say "Vroom" does he mimic you? Does he choose to play with you and Maddie most of the time or by himself? If you blow a stream of bubbles and then hold the wand out, will he try? Is he compassionate if you or Maddie are crying? These are all things that most, but not neccessarily all, children with autism have trouble with. Please feel free to e-mail me and I can send you an autism checklist or any other info you might need or want regarding autism. tinkamarink at aol.com {{{hugs to you}}} for pushing this even when the Drs aren't supportive.
P.S. They tested Seth's hearing just to rule it out before they even mentioned autism to me.

By Palmbchprincess on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 08:57 pm:

Cori. most of Shane's vocabulary is repeating words we say. He only says a handful of spontaneous things. He does point. We watch Dora every day, and when he sees or hears "Swiper" he puts his hand out and says "NO!" He can mimic us, and actually mimics me constantly. He watched me hand mop the floors a few times, and stand on a towel to scoot across the wet floor. Now, he'll take a towel out of the laundry and do the same thing. I'll email you with some more, since I'm very curious if you recognize some of his idiosyncrices (SP?!?!)

By Tink on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 09:50 pm:

Crystal, mimicking is a really good sign that he may not have autism. How is his eye contact? I thought Seth's was good until it was pointed out to me that he was watching my mouth rather than my eyes. Does he call you and Nate by Mommy and ___ (whatever he calls Nate.) That was another thing that Seth had trouble with. He would call us mommy and daddy interchangably. If that e-mail address doesn't work (and it is kind of tempermental), try tinkamarink at yahoo dot com. I check both daily and I'll do what ever I can to help.

By Daniel on Saturday, June 26, 2004 - 11:08 pm:

Palmbeachprincess
Your situation sounds alot like mine, my son was dx with autism June 03 with hearing problems I knew it was much more but he did have fluid behind the ear drums, I kept telling them of the strange behaviors but they said it was due to frustration from not hearing this started at 16 months and I finally went to the school district at 3 yrs. because he only knew about 25 words but could understand/accomplish many commands, he was evaluated by a school nurse and speech therapist they said he exibited odd behaviors and sent for psychological eval, she was with my son for about 30 min. and said he was autistic gave me all sorts of information that described my son almost to a t. I would suggest you go to the school district to ask them about speech therapy and tell them of his behaviors, the school district has to provide him with an education if he is a least 3 years, the school district gave me an answer within 2 months, it took his ped. almost 2 yrs. The earliest intervention is the best. My son is 5 has been going to preschool special ed. for about 13 months and now speaks sentences and has a 600 word vocabulary. Does his Doctor show any concern why there is no speech? How old is he?
You are his voice, I wish I would have made a bigger stink about my son, if you have a feeling act on it.
Good Luck
Natalie

By Texannie on Sunday, June 27, 2004 - 02:43 am:

Crystal, the son of a friend of ours, had language delays and mispronounced words. The docs kept wanting to test his hearing, but she was like you and said he could hear just fine. What they found out that while he could hear, he had fluid built up so he was hearing sounds inconsitantly..kind of like if you were to put your hands over your ears and then take them off and on while talking, your voice would sound different each time.

By Feonad on Sunday, June 27, 2004 - 07:09 am:

You can have plenty of characteristics of autism and not be autistic.


Can't wait to hear what the evaluators say.
(If you want to share the result with us)

My son has alot of what tink is describing. Actually ds was had more problems than tink's child in some ways.(speech) But ds doesn't have autism or pdd. Originally they said he tested autistic but was't autistic because his eye contact was too good. (So the only reason he wasn't autistic was because of his eye contact) At two years old I always thought he has excellent eye contact but parents aren't the best judge. Now I see what people are saying and his eye contact isn't as good as other kids.



Ds is much better now. He tested in normal range for speech this month. The only major thing I think he has now is he could sit better at circle time, and he melts down occassionally and sometimes he doesn't hear what you say

Like we bought tickets at the beach, then we were going back to the car to drive to another beach and park. Ds wouldn't listen to that we were going to the beach and cried for five minutes repeating beach not park. Even though I told him repeatedly we were going to the beach. This is never actually happens too often but is extreme example.

He is much better at the beach this year. Tolerating the sun screen and the baby powder to get sand off. Everything is looking up.

By Palmbchprincess on Thursday, July 1, 2004 - 04:12 pm:

They are supposed to call me back to set up an evaluation in our home. Is that normal (in home)?? What do these evaluations consist of? Cori, did you ever get my email?? I sent it to both addresses. Thanks again for all the support and input!!

By Amecmom on Thursday, July 1, 2004 - 04:29 pm:

Yes, in home eval is normal. Good luck.
I had my Early Intervention do an eval on my son in my home. Unfortunately his feeding issues didn't concern them, or his articulation, and his speech delay didn't qualify him for services because his receptive language was too high.

Ame

By Tink on Thursday, July 1, 2004 - 05:05 pm:

Yes, Crystal, I got it and sent you a monstrous letter in return. I will try sending it again. In home is usually the best because it is a more comfortable environment for Shane so they will get a better idea of how he acts. Just one less thing for him to react to that could skew the results. For example, some kids don't like flourescent lights and could react to that but not be able to tell the evaluators that they are disturbing. Usually, a social worker or a psychologist will come out and ask you a bunch of questions about a typical day with Shane while he/she observes Shane. What are your concerns with him, how does he react to different situations, health history of him and your pregnancy, etc. Then he/she will play in directed ways with him. Thry will ask him to copy them (maybe push a car, feed a doll, blow bubbles.) This gives them a chance to see how involved he is with other people and what language he has. They will be aware of his eye contact, if they are concerned about autism and look for unusual behaviors. They may want you to bring out crayons so they can see what he does with them and how he will react if they try to stop him. They may do more or less depending on what your state requires. I may be combining different evaluations because we have had so many of them now. It is pretty low key and low pressure. When do they want to do this? I will keep you in my prayers. Please stress about this as little as possible. It helped me to think of it as the problem was already there, these people were going to help me fix it. I'll send that e-mail out again. Let me know if you don't have it by this evening.

By Tink on Thursday, July 1, 2004 - 11:07 pm:

Crystal, did you get my e-mail? I sent one from AOL the other day and sent you one on Yahoo today that came back. I sent it out one more time. If you don't get it let me know and I will find out what the problem is. Please take it as easy as you can regarding this evaluation. It really is a good thing.

By Palmbchprincess on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 12:09 am:

Cori,
Try sending it to my yahoo address... who knows what the problem is. I'll give you my address and Nate's one of us should get it!! palmbchprincess at yahoo.com... tattoofireman at yahoo.com. I appreciate you resending it... it's odd it got bounced! I don't even have a spam filter on roadrunner! I do trust this eval is a good thing... I've been concerned for so long, finally getting him checked is a relief! Even simple things are hard with Shane, because he is so unpredicatable. I hate going ANYWHERE alone with them, because it turns into a major disaster. I just hope they can give me ideas to help my little guy!

By Tink on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 01:33 am:

I tried your yahoo account. Let me know if you don't get it, I'll try Nate's. Sorry that this is so difficult. I totally understand how you are feeling and how you don't even want to take him anywhere alone. I felt the same way. No matter what the problem, there are coping methods out there and someone will help you find them. When do they want to do the evaluation? *fingers crossed*

By Palmbchprincess on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 02:37 am:

I just sent you a novel back!! LOL!! Thanks Cori!!

By Feona on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 06:38 am:

Actually, now I think of it - a developmental psychologist does the evaluation to see if a child has ppd or austim. John had one when he was 2 years old. (They said he didn't have those problems, but gave him 7 hours of aba a week anyway. (to encourage copying)

You can ask for a developmental psychologist to evaluate your son, because you are afraid he has pervasive development delays or autism. Call your early intervention coordinator and speak to her about that.

That is how it was done in new york anyway.

By Feona on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 06:41 am:

They still have to evaluate your son's speech and gross and fine motor skills also. The developmental psychologist is just looking for mainly social problems. (that overlap speech and ot and pt too) Sitting and completing work - developing self control - Following directions - Copying - eye contact - everyone(speech - ot - pt) works on that.

By Pamt on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 02:09 pm:

Crystal, for birth-3 y/o's home-based evals are the norm. Typically it is a through assessment of speech/language, fine motor, gross motor, social, play, and educational skills. The evaluator may initially be a social worker or psychologist who screens Shane to see if he may need more extensive testing in one particular area. It really varies from state to state. Home is a great environment to evaluate in since the child is more comfortable, it's a natural place to see how the child interacts with siblings and parents (and vice versa), and the examiner can use toys familiar to the child to elicit responses. Please keep us posted. I'm looking into getting involved in our home-based early intervention services one morning a week, so I'll be interested in your thoughts.

By Tink on Monday, July 5, 2004 - 07:48 pm:

Crystal, did you get my e-mail? You may not have a reply but I didn't want another problem of each of us thinking the other person should be responding. Let us know when they set up the evaluation.

By Palmbchprincess on Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - 04:33 pm:

I did get it, I had typed up a reply but for some reason the PC froze. Same thing with the email Brandy sent me. I added you to my yahoo messenger list, I figured you had messenger since you have an email with them. I'm twinsmom603 on there, so if you see me on let me know!! I got a letter form The Child Team discussing their programs and eligibility, and stating someone would contact me in the next few days. That was Friday, I'm going to call them tomorrow. There was some improvement on DS's vocab this week, he has had a lot of time with me and Nate, and my BIL. It just seems like it's 2 steps forward, 1 step back! Thanks!!

By Feona on Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - 07:13 am:

Good for you! Some people are too scared to do the evaluation.

By Palmbchprincess on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 04:50 pm:

An update:
The coordinator was supposed to come by yesterday. I gave her explicit directions, because our street is new, and sometimes hard to find. It is only 4 turns off the highway, and I gave her street names for every turn. She called to say she was on her way, and an hour later had not shown up. When we called she said she had gone to our address number, but on the street before ours. I asked why she didn't call when she didn't get an answer, and she said she thought we had to run or something. Ok, it's cool, everyone makes mistakes. She asks to reschedule later on about 4pm. I say ok, just call when you are on your way. She never showed up OR called. Now I'm upset! I know these people are busy, and overworked, but she shouldn't have rescheduled if she couldn't make it, and a freaking courtesy call would be nice!!

By Tink on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 09:42 pm:

How rude and totally unprofessional! Not to call once is already a little irritating but to not show up or call a second time is really over the top! I would have been really upset too. Will you give her a call tomorrow to find out what the heck is going on?

By Palmbchprincess on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 10:03 pm:

I'm going to call the director of the team tomorrow, since I've not gotten so much as a phone call, even today. *If* there had been an emergency, she should have called this AM. I agree it's totally unprofessional, and we were not happy since our day was pretty much screwed waiting around for her.

By Amy~moderator on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 02:37 pm:

What a bummer! And, yes, I agree that was totally unprofessional. Let us know what the director of the team says. Hopefully, you will get things straightened out!

By Tink on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 11:30 pm:

Crystal, were you able to call the director? Are your dks gone for a week? Will you just reschedule when they get back? Keep us updated.

By Palmbchprincess on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 01:09 am:

I didn't call today, I had an early morning call from my lawyer, so I went up to his office, which is an all day production. The DKs are gone for the week, I'll let you know when I reschedule the appointment!

By Tink on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 09:29 pm:

I know it is too late now but just a thought I had...they may wonder why you waited so long to call. You may want to call on Monday even if you aren't ready to reschedule just so that the woman's irresponsibility doesn't fall through the cracks. Enjoy your free time!!

By Palmbchprincess on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 10:37 pm:

LOL, she did call twice yesterday. The first time Nate answered, but told her I would call to reschedule, since he didn't know when was good for me. The second she left me a frantic message trying to explain her slip up, and saying call her back at my earliest convienence (sp?). With so much going on, I've missed calling her back, (I'm horrible at these things! Returning phone calls is my worst...) I'll let you know what happens Monday!

By Amy~moderator on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 03:05 pm:

Crys, how did things go?

By Tink on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 08:01 pm:

Crystal is in the middle of a move and the twins are at their dad's. She will reschedule when they get back home. She said she would be offline for a few days, starting today.