Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Can you Hear me now? {An Update}

{Another long boring post}
Last week we took Barrett for an evaluation for the Early Intervention System.  {Here's last week's post for the reason we were doing this.}  We were anxious to say the least.  I thought I was going to vomit in the parking lot before we went in.  We were early for our appointment so we were able to chat with the women that do the evaluation for a few minutes while they finished their lunch.  They were all so nice and we immediately felt at ease.  The evaluation process itself was fairly simple for us.  There were three women, one of them talked with me about Barrett while the other two were in the floor "playing" with him.  They were trying to get him to do the things that he should be doing at 15 months.  He did several of them but there were several tasks he wasn't able to complete.  They were so helpful to Patrick and I giving us several things to be working on with him.  We asked when we would hear back from them and they said in the next day or so.  Meanwhile I was gathering as much information about Early Intervention as I could.  I was so surprised to know how many people I know had used the program or been evaluated.  I was hearing nothing but good things.  
Fast forward to yesterday, I hadn't heard from them so I decided to call fully expecting them to say that he didn't qualify.  I was a little shocked when she said that not only did he qualify but he qualified in 4 of the 5 developmental areas.  He was borderline physically which combines gross motor and fine motor skills.  My biggest concern was communication.  They told us that more often than not when there is a delay in communication it will affect other areas. 
This has been a hard thing to hear.  No one wants to hear that their child has a 25% delay in 4 developmental areas.  While it's not the easiest thing to hear, I'm so thankful that our pediatrician saw a need for the referral.  I never thought he was as delayed as he is.  Part of that is because I'm his mom and didn't want to see it and part is because I just wasn't really sure what a 15 month old is supposed to be able to do.  I'm also thankful that if he was borderline it went in the direction where he qualified.  I would hate to think he had a 23% delay and didn't qualify.  I'm also thankful that this program exists.  I'm trying to not let myself feel like I've failed.  I know it's not my fault.  I know there are probably things I could do better but I'm a good mom.  We are eager and excited to start this process.  We are waiting to be assigned a service coordinator.  She will sit down with us to write out a plan and then we'll work together to get Barrett caught up to where he needs to be.  
We will also have a hearing test scheduled for May 7th to rule out any form of hearing loss.  Once again we think he's fine but want to be sure.  
Thank you all for your prayers and support. 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks so much for the update! I have been thinking about yall since the last post. Please don't be hard on yourself, I can tell you are a wonderful mom!