taking some action

There's no looking back now.  We are officially past questioning the benefit of speech therapy for Alex.  I feel like we went from questioning the benefits of speech therapy to basically accepting all the help we can get for Alex.  I think I was in some denial about the significance of Alex's speech delay.  I've come to accept the fact that my 20 month old is way behind the curve at this point.  I have not come to accept the fact that there is an actual problem.  Does that even make sense?  I think I have a very intelligent little boy who feels no need to talk at this point.  So perhaps I'm still in denial.  We had Alex evaluated for early intervention services that are offered through our state of residence this past week.  There was no question about it.  He qualified.

The evaluation was done using the Battelle Developmental Inventory (2nd Edition) (BDI-2).  I am adding the z-scores to this post for documentation purposes only.  And perhaps it will be of resource to another parent searching the world wide web for answers.  A child qualifies in any developmental area if his or her z-score is less than -1.50.    

Adaptive: 0.00
Personal - Social: -0.20
Communication: -2.00
Motor: 0.20
Cognitive: -0.47

So what does this mean?  Our service coordinator has written us an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP).  We have elected at this point to have Alex receive in-home speech therapy on a biweekly basis for 60 minutes.  This will be of no cost to us and Alex can remain in the program until the age of three or until he is on target developmentally for his actual age group.  The program will help us to find other resources, should we need them, when Alex ages out of the system.   We are also going to private speech therapy 1x per week for 30 minutes.  We are fortunate that are insurance company is actually covering a portion of these therapy sessions.  We were told they would only be covered if Alex had a pre-existing condition that prompted a greater need for speech therapy.  We have come to find out that being a preemie is a pre-existing condition.  This is great news! (not that Alex was a preemie but that insurance will cover part of the costs)  We had some delay in getting our private speech therapy set-up due to unexpected cancellations.  However, I have been super impressed with our speech therapist on the couple of visits that we have been able to go to.  They do not develop a plan of action until we have met for at least a month.  I will be sure to update once we officially develop a plan.

So where is Alex at this point with talking?  Our little man still only says "Mom" with any regularity though we swear we have heard other "words" during his spontaneous moments of babble.  And the babbling has increased quite a bit over recent weeks.  There is less grunting and screaming and more distinct sounds coming from our little guy.  We are also officially in signing boot camp!  Alex now signs "more", "eat", "milk", "mine OR my turn" on a regular basis without any prompting from us.  We are also working on several other signs with a great amount of vigor.  

So that's all I got at this point.

I would be fibbing if I said I was not worried about our little man.  That's natural for a parent.  I've noticed that I have become very protective of Alex in recent weeks.  I guess you could call it "Mama Bear" syndrome.  I also see a lot of myself in Alex.  So I know some of what our little boy faces down the road.  I just hope that with a bit of early intervention our little man will be talking up a storm in no time and on track with his peers.  And if down the road we are given a  true reason to remain concerned then I will just be glad we took steps early to try and get Alex as much help as we could.

I think this little man is about as perfect as they come these days!

Mary