When I started writing about our adventures in Early Intervention, I never anticipated it would become the next Star Wars Trilogy. But these things sort of happen when it comes to your kids, their well-being, and your need as a parent to advocate for them. So here we are, 13 months later and the saga continues. If you missed the first two installments, you can find them here and here.
Ryan was tested for Early Intervention services again last Monday. He is 28 months old. The range of normal, I believe I was told, is 85-101 and he tested in the 90’s for everything except the category regarding pathways to independence. In that category he scored an 83 because he doesn’t use pronouns, talk about himself in the third person, or eat well. That one made me snicker. My picky eater failed a speech test because he doesn’t eat. But there are no categories at his age that grade him for not being able to string multiple words together to form a cohesive anything or categories which outline being able to be understood when you talk to someone other than your mom. Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot.
But I digress. So, of course, he didn’t qualify for services. Again. And I was told had he been 30 months old that the standards would have been different and he might have qualified then. With that I am pretty much over State funded speech intervention for my kid. I have insurance, I’ll pay for it out of pocket. End of story. Or so I thought.
After Ryan’s evaluation the speech pathologist and psychologist sat with me to discuss their reports and how he scored and gave me information about next steps and other ages at which he can be tested to try to get him qualified for services. They told me before I do anything else I need to make an appointment with our pediatrician because Ryan is nasally and they want me to verify that his adenoids or tonsils aren’t enlarged or malformed.
Now, truth be told, my kid has a funny voice and I kind of just chalked it up to the way he talked. But he does weird things like hold his breath for prolonged periods and then just exhale all at once. He’s a mouth breather. And he puts everything in is mouth. I even have pictures of the kid laying flat on the floor deep throating a door stop. Lord help me. So perhaps he just has some idiosyncrasies. But there’s a chance he has some other more physiological issues too that are preventing him from correctly forming words.
So we made an appointment in early June to see our pediatrician. From there the recommendation was to wait until July, when the twins are 30 months old, to have Ryan screened again through private practice and get him into speech therapy. While this was a lot to absorb, I was okay with the directives we were given.
Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon when I got a call from our case worker who has been handling Ryan’s file for the last year plus. She urged me not to leave the testing of his adenoids and tonsils up to the pediatrician. And then also gave me information about when and how to contact our school district to have Ryan transitioned from private therapy to therapy provided for the school district through the Committee on Preschool Special Education. From July through November he’ll be working with a private speech therapist, and by November he should qualify for public services. I don’t really care if we pay or our tax dollars pay at this point, I just want my little boy to stop hitting himself, me, walls, everything because he can’t talk. It is so frustrating for all of us.
I kept his appointment with the pediatrician, but also made an appointment with a pediatric ENT. As nice as it would be to blame his adenoids or tonsils on the reasons he isn’t speaking and isn’t speaking well, I really hope that they are normal. The idea of having him go through any kind of surgery makes me feel sick.
