Early Intervention

Jacob will be 10 months old in ten days. He can't/won't get to a sitting position on his own (though he can hold a seated position easily if placed in it). He also can not crawl. He rolls and kinda sorta gets around, but is WAY less mobile than his brother, who crawls all over and wants desperately to walk... I know, I know-- never compare!! But, that's hard. I don't want to worry unnecessarily, but I also don't want to miss a chance for EI if it's warranted.

Honestly, I think that his issue is mostly that he's really happy and content right where he is, developmentally, and he just doesn't NEED to crawl, so he doesn't. He does try sometimes, then gets frustrated, flips over, taps his toes together (he LOVES to "clap" his feet), and giggles. He has a great personality! I don't really think something is wrong, but milestones are milestones!

Anyway, for those of you who've been there, I'd love to hear your opinion of whether I need to pursue EI, or at least what made you pursue it.

Thanks!

 

Personally, I would call for an eval. It won't hurt to have them come in and assess him to see if he would qualify for services.

 

The crawling isn't as much an issue than the inability to get himself to a sitting position. Does he roll around? Is he mobile at all on his own? Marcus didn't crawl until he was 11 months, but he did move around and do an "inchworm" type movement. Yet, he walked before his brother who had been crawling since 8.5 months.

I would go ahead and give EI a call--you have nothing to loose, and everything to gain!

 

QUOTE(MichelleL @ Apr 5 2008, 07:19 AM) [snapback]706157[/snapback]
Personally, I would call for an eval. It won't hurt to have them come in and assess him to see if he would qualify for services.



QUOTE(sharongl @ Apr 5 2008, 07:23 AM) [snapback]706159[/snapback]
I would go ahead and give EI a call--you have nothing to loose, and everything to gain!

I agree!

 

FWIW...yours sound just like my 2. James took forever to figure out how to get into a sitting position - he would sit fine if you put him in a sitting position, but really didn't seem too interested in doing it himself. Will, on the other hand, figured it out quickly and then proceeded to crawl. James was almost 10 months before he got the sitting up on his own thing figured out. Within a week, he started to crawl as well. I never had an EI done because James has always been about 4-6 weeks behind Will on physical milestones. If it would make you feel better, get one done. It never hurts to check.

 

I was an early interventionist before kids. The earlier the better and take all the services he might qualify for. Hopefuly he is fine, but you are really on the ball to realize things might not be developng normally for him. Good Luck!

 

I would say if you are concerned, listen to your instincts and go for it. It cannot hurt at all!

 

we just had our ECI eval done a few weeks ago at 9.5 months for some of the same concerns... you can check out my blog in the siggie for more details but it has been a HUGE blessing. their first PT session was this Wed. & davis was pushing himself up into a sitting position by the time he went to bed that night!!! sometimes they just need a little support to really take off.

i am a strong believer in early intervention & if you have any doubt or concern, i say go for it! the services are free & the resources are abundant. keep us posted!

 

Sorry I can not be much help but I am having similar concerns about my DS. Mine are younger then yours so sitting has not become a concern yet but for months DD has been standing assisted and DS just won't. The Ped said DD is just ahead and DS is not behind yet and that was a month ago. A month later there is no progress so I am getting concerned. They are 33 weekers and at the NICU they said they may need some PT in the future. I just recently heard about ECI from a friend. Can anyone give me more info on this?

 

Your tax dollars pay for EI so why not? It's true that the earlier, the better. If there is something wrong, it will be better to address it now and fix it rather than later.
When DS was 17 months old he was only saying dada and duck. I took him to EI and they put him in speech. His hearing had been tested at birth and he had no ear infections, etc so they weren't worried about hearing problems. So, he did speech therapy for about a year and started saying more but still not as much as someone his age should say.
This particular facility just go a new portable hearing test thing. Basically it looks kind of like an ear thermometer and it measures the vibrations of the ear drum. DS flat-lined on both ears! They thought something was wrong with the hearing device b/c he was talking some. Turns out he only had 50% hearing so he was hearing the way we would hear if we put our hands over our ears. You can still hear, but not clearly. Turns out DS had so much fluid in his ears his eardrums could not vibrate. He NEVER had an ear infection! They did surgery on DS (the day after he turned 3 years old) and it was like someone turned on a switch. He hasn't stopped talking since!
I can't help but think that if I would have waited then he would have gone even longer without hearing properly because he could hear enough to pass the field tests (ie. standing behind him and calling his name, etc). Also, the speech therapist had DS mimic her mouth for words so that helped his speech since he wasn't hearing properly.
I'm just a fan of better safe than sorry. If nothing else then they'll say he's fine and there will be no need to worry anymore!
Rachel

 

Hi!

Caleb has been enrolled in the EI program since he was 7.5 months for gross motor, mobility, and solids refusal. He is not mobile either. He can scoot from side to side, but not forwards. He does not go from lying to sitting and he does not get up on his knees. Braxton can get around quickly (army crawling) but still has trouble going from lying to sitting. He did not qualify for EI. Now, please don't torch me, but I have come to the conclusion that in the case of MY baby, they can send out every therapist, specialist, the SWAT team, WHOEVER and Caleb is just not going to do things until he wants to do them. With the eating, we tried everything known to man and he threw an all out fit-to the point where they were going to send out a speech and language pathologist because surely something is "wrong". One day he just ate and hasn't stopped since. No one taught him how, he just did it. The same with sitting-he went from sitting for 5 seconds max (this is when I called for the eval.) and by the time the EI team came for an evaluation 2 weeks later, he was sitting for at least 5 minutes at a time. That said, I do think you should call them just for your own peace of mind, but I will tell you don't expect them to be miracle workers like I did. I honestly think that things will just happen when they are supposed to with babies. My husband made me see this a little more clearly when we were arguing over the need for PT. I said that he's just not going to get mobile on his own-we have to "teach" him. He reminded me that we never "taught" him how to turn in circles on his belly either, he just figured it out. I by no means regret calling EI and I love that I have someone come to my house and give me some tools that will encourage mobility but I also believe that even if I hadn't, he would get it on his own timing as made evident with the sitting. In fact, most times when we do our PT exercises and he's had enough (doesn't take long) he will literally shut down...just make his body completely limp, put his thumb in his mouth, and dare me to try to make him do anything else. Sorry to make this so long. My advice to you is to call for the evaluation and if for nothing else just take advantage of the chance to know that you did what was best for your baby. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the actual process and the PT. We have sessions twice a month.

 

Call if your concerned. FWIW most babies cannot get themsleves into the the sitting position until AFTER they start crawling.
Both dd and ds could sit unassisted at 6 months, but ds could not get himself into the sitting position until he started crawling at ~10months. They were both walking at 11 months.

 

Thanks, everyone. I really appreciate each of you for taking the time to respond! You're all so great!

 

Mine didn't go to sitting on their own until after they were crawling, so I don't tknow that that would bother me. THen they could practice all the time and even then it took a couple of weeks to learn after crawling.

 

had my boys checkd w/ easter seals @ 4 mo; they qualified; (they are now 6 mo and not rollin over etc). evals are free, so why not! youll feel better knowing.

 

I would do it! I've actually just send my papers in to get my DS seen because we're haing issues with him too.