First Steps Referral

Hi! I'm new to the boards. I posted a few times when my boys were infants. Then, school started and I can barely keep up.

I need emergency help! Does anyone have experience with a government funded program called First Steps. We took the boys for their one year check-up. Logan is pulling up and cruising the furniture. Connor won't pull up and doesn't cruise. He is crawling great but not until 11 months. They were born at 36 weeks and weight just a hair under 5 pounds. Pedi said she wanted to refer them for First Steps.

So, today was their evaluation. Logan did not qualify. Connor qualified for physical therapy because of gross motor delay.

How worried should I be??? Anyone else have a one-year old that isn't walking???

 

Welcome to TS! I think it's great that you were able to be evaluated. I'm not sure what the norm is, but I do think it varies widely from child to child. Ryan didn't start walking until he was about 11 months.

I'm sure you'll get some great advice from others who have had similar experiences.

 

I know many who did not start walking until 13-15 months. I think they say the developmental timeframe for learning to walk ranges anywhere between like 8 and 16 months. At this point I would not be worried if there are no other issues.

 

QUOTE(NicoleT @ May 24 2007, 03:57 PM) [snapback]267630[/snapback]
I know many who did not start walking until 13-15 months. I think they say the developmental timeframe for learning to walk ranges anywhere between like 8 and 16 months. At this point I would not be worried if there are no other issues.



There doesn't seem to be any other problems

 

Welcome my Jessy didn't walk till 16 months (she also crawled at 11 months). Its really not that odd expecially among twins

 

Both of my girls have gross motor delays. Bella was born with clubbed feet and dislocated hips, so we expected her to be behind. Josie is perfectly normal though, and she qualified for Early Intervention for a gross motor delay - I think this is similar to First Steps. At 11 1/2 months actual age (10 months adusted) when she was first evaluated she wasn't rolling very often (even though she could) or crawling or pulling up, etc. Now she's 15 months actual age (13 1/2 months adjusted) and she's crawling, climbing up the steps, pulling up to standing and has just started cruising a little bit in the last week or so. Her PT told us that the "normal" range for walking is 11-15 months, but some kids walk as late as 18 months, and it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them. Some kids just need someone to show them how to do things. I think Josie was late to get moving because she's a very cautious baby.

Good luck

 

QUOTE(Sara26 @ May 24 2007, 07:31 PM) [snapback]267848[/snapback]
Both of my girls have gross motor delays. Bella was born with clubbed feet and dislocated hips, so we expected her to be behind. Josie is perfectly normal though, and she qualified for Early Intervention for a gross motor delay - I think this is similar to First Steps. At 11 1/2 months actual age (10 months adusted) when she was first evaluated she wasn't rolling very often (even though she could) or crawling or pulling up, etc. Now she's 15 months actual age (13 1/2 months adjusted) and she's crawling, climbing up the steps, pulling up to standing and has just started cruising a little bit in the last week or so. Her PT told us that the "normal" range for walking is 11-15 months, but some kids walk as late as 18 months, and it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them. Some kids just need someone to show them how to do things. I think Josie was late to get moving because she's a very cautious baby.

Good luck


Thanks Sara26--did they evaluate for social, emotional and cognitive? Connor scored as well as Logan in all of those areas. I was much more emotional about this than I thought I would be...it is very difficult to get twins this far and think you've dodged all the bad stuff that can happen with twins and then find out things may not be okay yet.

Also, I wonder if we had the same set of issues...no pulling up, no cruising and weren't premature would we have been referred? Can you tell me what to expect in PT?

 

Both of mine get PT through our county's Birth to Three program, they automatically qualify due to low birth weight. She was coming 2x/month, but we have dropped it back to 1x/month. Mine were born 3 months early and both started walking at 13 months. I think PT really depends upon the child. Sometimes she has even given us different homework for each of them, more so when they were younger. Now they are both pretty much at the same place. Now we are working on walking backwards and container play. But an example of things she does is when they first started pulling up and standing we worked on going from standing to sitting and then worked on squatting. It's really going to depend on what she sees him doing and thinks he needs to work on. I love the extra support. I can ask her questions and it really eases my mind.

 

Grace qualified for Early On, but we opted to do the therapies ourselves, as she is consistently improving. She crawled at 12.5 months, and started pulling up, getting back into the sitting position, and cruising at 13-13.5 months. We could have had PT work with her but I think she's doing fine and catching up, she is just on her own timeline. The Early On rep just comes and meets with us once a month.

Lots of kids don't walk by a year - that is perfectly normal. Pedi is feeling quite confident Grace will be walking by her 15 month appointment. We have a month, so we'll see.

 

I didn't have my kids evaluated but while my DS crawled at 8 mos my DD didn't crawl until 10.5 months although she was standing and cruising before crawling...DS took his first steps on his 1st birthday and DD caught up 2 weeks later and is walking now better than her brother! I think its individual to each child...oh and mine were born right at 36w also and were 3.5 and 4.5 lbs at birth...

 

Yes, they evaluated the girls in all the categories. But they only did an actual standardized test for their motor skills, both fine and gross. The other categories nobody had concerns about, so they just asked me questions and watched the girls play.

Our PT comes out twice a month and really just plays with the girls and watches them to see what they're doing. She spends about a half hour with each one. Sometimes she brings toys for them to play with. Sometimes she's able to get them to do things I can't or I haven't even tried. For example, when she was here yesterday she got Josie to stand in the middle of the room by herself for about three seconds. I had no idea she could do that!

Nobody referred my girls to Early Intervention - I called on my own. The people who did our testing evaluated them based on their adjusted age, since they were 6 weeks premature. But I think even had they not been premature if they weren't crawling, pulling up, etc. at one year they probably would have been evaulated.