BabyUniversity.com › Forums › Ages & Stages › Terrific "T"s › Early Intervention Programs
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Early Intervention Programs

post #1 of 8
5/19/08 at 9:29am
Thread Starter 
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need some insight, QUICK!!

For those of you that have had your child in the early intervention programs, what was it like? What is the intake all about? What can they offer me?

I am asking b/c we have a intake appt. at our home on Tuesday afternoon. It kind of irks me b/c if it's an actual child assessment, then assess the child, not my home. I just have a major disdain for things such as this. The only reason we are doing this is so Ry can have further evals for his speech and eating issues and the places that will do the evals require him to be in the "early intervention" system first. I already have him in speech and OT and I have no desire to switch to their therapy b/c the county is overrun with people that need help. I already have my "help" in place and will not switch. I was told that in Early Intervention my insurance will be charged first, just like our current providers. Ry knows his therapists and I am NOT putting him through switching. He's going to have a hard enough time dealing with the new people that will be evaluating him at UW.

Sorry for the ramble/rant, but I HATE being forced to do things like this. I'm sure there is something good and worthwhile here, but I'm not seeing it right yet. Then to top it all off, my paranoid sibling thinks all they want to do is try to take my kids away.
Reply
post #2 of 8
5/19/08 at 10:41am

Re: Early Intervention Programs

We've been through it twice. They come to your home ask you tons of questions about your kid. Observe your kid. Then there are tons of questionaires and possibly parenting videos to watch which tell you stuff you probably already know. They fill out tons of paperwork. You fill out tons of paperwork. You sign tons of paperwork. They give you copies of all of it which is impossible to read. You get together with your care coordinator and all the specialists that have seen your son. You talk about goals and come up with a treatment plan. They give you copies of the results of all the evaluations. Some more paperwork and signing goes on. And then you meet with your coordinator once a month and the specialists arrange appointments for however many times they are going to see your son every month. It goes this way for a year and then you do it all over again.

I always make sure my house is spotless for this stuff. It is exhausting. Good luck!
Reply
post #3 of 8
5/19/08 at 1:09pm

Re: Early Intervention Programs

Good luck KIM

My bad!
Reply
post #4 of 8
5/19/08 at 4:02pm

Re: Early Intervention Programs

Good luck Kim and keep us posted!
Reply
post #5 of 8
5/19/08 at 10:31pm

Re: Early Intervention Programs

Good luck Kim!!

i'm sure they are there to see you and Ry not to inspect your home

i would be hating it and nervous too!
Reply
post #6 of 8
5/20/08 at 10:30am

Re: Early Intervention Programs

For our intake appointment, the school psychologist and a parent liaison came out and gave us a packet of information about the different programs in our county. The psych gave Jonathan some foam puzzles and toys to play with and watched him do them. They just asked us some questions about his development and our concerns, and they set up a time for us to come to the school for them to do the testing. They stayed in the living room the entire time and just talked to us and observed how he acted around us and how he responded to us if he responded at all. I think they have a checklist of thing to watch for and look to see what they can do, or what they choose to do on their own. Just kind of observing the child in their own environment. They asked what his favorite toys were, characters and snacks he liked (to try to motivate him, they had a few of these thing on hand the day they tested him), if he had problems with feeding, and things like that.

Once they did the testing (a few weeks later), they told us what he was eligible for (free pre-k, speech therapy, OT, etc.) and asked us which of the programs we were interested in.

Oh, and they gave us a questionaire to fill out and bring with us when we had him tested.
Reply
post #7 of 8
10/4/08 at 2:53pm

Re: Early Intervention Programs

They never came into our home. They did all of our meetings at their office and observed Christian there. Then they decided to stick him in the IEP preschool where he was with his speech therapist all the time.
Reply
post #8 of 8
10/4/08 at 4:23pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Early Intervention Programs

LOL! I guess I forgot to update this one!

Early intervention here is just that they come to your home to see what your child needs and what their program can offer. They come to rural homes so you don't have to drive. However, I already have Ry in OT & ST, so they will cover his appointments b/c I already have a provider and they are way stretched for therapists.

As I said before.... my sibling is a little paranoid about things. It's not a home evaluation. In my first post I was a little irked because that was the requirement BEFORE seeing a Developmental Physician.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Terrific "T"s
BabyUniversity.com › Forums › Ages & Stages › Terrific "T"s › Early Intervention Programs