Early intervention eval this morning

I had posted some time ago about Kevan's lack of babbling/consonant sounds, his drooling, and his generally delayed oral skills....the ped agreed that we should contact EI.

I'm so glad we did! There were three different evaluators, each looking at a different area. Turns out, his gross motor skills are great, and fine motor skills are still emerging, but basically on track. His social skills are great -- he flirted and charmed the heck out of these people, LOL.

His "play" skills (who knew there was such a thing?) are slightly delayed -- he doesn't hand objects to us, although he will put them in and out of a container. He doesn't show much interest in rolling a ball. He doesn't play peek-a-boo. And, there were a few other things, but it didn't sound like too big a deal.

But, his speech/oral skills are severely delayed -- basically at the level of an 8-month-old, at best. So, he'll definitely be getting therapy for that. The speech/language person this morning did agree that the lack of tone in his facial muscles is most likely the culprit....she said a good six-month goal for him would be to hold his mouth closed (it's almost always open right now), which would help a lot with the drooling. And, a good one-year goal would be saying a lot of individual words. She suspects that he won't be on track by age 2 with using two-word phrases, unless he does some serious catching up. So, we'll see...

Another thing she said that was interesting -- the vast majority of kids she saw that had any type of oral surgery in infancy had some speech delay. Kevan had an epiglottoplasty at 11 weeks to alleviate his laryngomalacia, and although his ENT swears that it's not related to this issue, the speech/language specialist from this morning claims otherwise.

Anyhow. I'm so glad I didn't put this off any longer, even though the ped was pretty relaxed about it. I'm thinking the more help he gets now, the better off he'll be...

Thanks for listening!

(Oh, and in the few weeks since I first called EI, we've heard a little bit of "buh-buh-buh-buh" and "dih-dih-dih" -- so, progress!)

 

Becca, I'm happy that Kevan will be getting the help he needs. :good: He'll do great, you said that he's already making progress! :Clap: Keep us updated on how he's doing with therapy.

 

yay! i'm so glad it went well and that kevan will get the support he needs to catch up! that's wonderful news....yay for ei!

 

That is very coincidental. Thomas has his evaluation yesterday for all the same issues. He drools, he doesnt say anything and he totally mouth breaths. We didnt qualify by 1 week. My twins were born at 36.6 and they adjusted for 36.

They are coming back in 2 months to evaluate him again.


Good luck........ I bet he will be yapping in no time.

 

:good: Great news!

 

I'm always interested to hear the "symptoms" of things that need to be seen by a professional. Thanks for sharing. I'm glad Kevan will get the help he needs.

 

EI can provide great results! I am an EI teacher, the one who works on those play skills! Oral low tone is more common then you would think, make sure to ask his speech person about oral stims, such as chew tubes and oral vibrators. good for you for contacting ei! Good luck!
Tracy

 

Kids are so resilient and grow so much with just a little "help". You'll be amazed at the progress. I am a speech therapist and really believe the sooner therapy starts the more dramatic and quick the results. Good for you for getting this going.

 

Good luck with his therapy. :hug99: Keep us posted!

 

I'm glad it went well! :good:

D, w/Rianna and Justin

 

Glad that he will be getting the help he needs. Keep us updated on his progress!

 

Hey would blowing bubbles help with that ? I'm thinking the cheap dollar bottle of bubbles the kind with a stick or even blowing into water like in the bath tub or pool to make bubbles. (with parental supervision of course)

Using a straw to blow bubbles into milk or water. Might not be exactly what you want to teach them...

Glad to hear you are getting support !!