We spent about an hour this afternoon with an intake lady from Early Intervention. She was on the phone back to her office lining up the formal evaluation about 10 minutes into the meeting.


On the 29th, Catherine will be evaluated by an SLP and an OT. Gina, the intake chick, said she thought Catherine would definitely qualify for speech and possibly for OT for sensory issues. She said if Catherine hadn't started to eat table food (and she has started to eat a few things in the last week or so) and wasn't a good weight, she'd have the OT here tomorrow. But I think we're over that hurdle. The evaluation on the 29th will last about two hours and they'll use the Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP) for the evaluation. I need to look that up as I've never heard of it. The intake chick will get copies of all Catherine's medical records, and we have to take her to her ENT on the 22nd for a hearing test.


All in all, I'm very pleased with Early Intervention. By the way, it's not free here. They use a sliding scale based on income, and Gina said medical insurance usually covers it. The evaluations are free, but any
therapy won't be.

Oh ... Gina said no more sippy cups as they do nothing for oral development. Straws or open cups only.

I've never heard of the HELP program, either. Then again, I have not done much research into speech issues as of yet.
I was wondering if E.I. was free...I kindof figured it wouldn't be, but ya never know!
Does the sippy cup thing go for those w/oral/feeding issues or speech aswell??

]Does the sippy cup thing go for those w/oral/feeding issues or speech aswell??


Sippy cups are only good for parents, not kids. Many docs have told me the same thing, and I've chosen to ignore it. Not any longer.

Lesley,Our Child developement worker has used HELP for Zoee...it has worked for her. It is a really good one.I can't find my sheets on it to explain what it does...I think it does have thing that making gestures(facial gestures, pointing to their faceetc,) Stacking blocks, find an object under something in somethingetc...) I am not explaining it very well...Sorry! I hope that maybe it give a tiny idea for you!

I'm so glad your pleased with the appointment. Are the sensory issues related to Catherin's feeding behaviors? I'm just curious, since I can't remember you mentioning any other sensory issues. It sounds like you are hooked up with the right people!

BTW, Noah can't drink from a sippy *unless* its a straw sippy, so I supposed we were doing things right and I didn't even know it, lol!

Are the sensory issues related to Catherin's feeding behaviors? I'm just curious, since I can't remember you mentioning any other sensory issues.

I don't mention a lot ... it's just part of our everyday life and I don't want to be whining about the same stuff day-in and day-out. She has a lot of what I affectionately label "OCD" behaviors like not being able to stand dirt on her hands or face or grouping "like toys" and getting upset it the grouping is messed up . She's also extremely tactile ... nothing makes her happier than letting her touch all the carpet samples at Home Depot! Gina said for non-verbal kids, touching is their way of gathering and taking in information since they can't verbally obtain it.

I don't mention a lot ... it's just part of our everyday life and I don't want to be whining about the same stuff day-in and day-out. She has a lot of what I affectionately label "OCD" behaviors like not being able to stand dirt on her hands or face or grouping "like toys" and getting upset it the grouping is messed up . She's also extremely tactile ... nothing makes her happier than letting her touch all the carpet samples at Home Depot! Gina said for non-verbal kids, touching is their way of gathering and taking in information since they can't verbally obtain it.

The ds of a good friend of mine is a lot like Catherine, from what you just described. At his recent 2yr check up, the Ped said that this can also be characteristic of kids that are very technically minded - will like science, computers, etc.

The Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP) evaluation is just a checklist of behaviors that typically occur at certain ages of development. There is a checklist of all the areas of development - gross motor, fine motor, self-help, social- emotional, cognitive (thinking skills) and language. The SLP will use the language checklist. She will observe Catherine and get information from you and check-off things that Catherine does in order to get an idea of what receptive (understanding) and expressive (use) language skills she has and doesn't have. Although she may use to come up with a age score for qualification purposes- it is NOT a standardized test meaning that if the age scores that it produces have not been compared sciencfically to a national sample group.

You are right about early intervention not being free. Every state handles it own program so it varies from state to state. Your entitled to the free evaluation but medical insurance can be billed for services and families may be required to pay out of pocket for services not covered by insurance. Some states may have enough monies in their bugdets to off-set some of the costs that insurance will not cover but do not assume that services will be free.

Lesley

Glad to hear the initial eval went well and it seems like catherine will be getting some help soon
Thanks for the info about the sippy
I give Ava both a straw and sippy but she can't drink using either and gets soaked

Good luck with the next eval...

Interesting appt. Lesley... I'm glad you shared. I'll have to stop using sippy cups.... are the cups with straws ok to use? You're right though... they are convenient for parents. LOL

I'm so glad that you'll be able to get speech and hopefully also the OT for the many sensory issues that Catherine is having. Please feel free to PM me or better yet to e-mail me if you have any more questions or concerns re: the sensory stuff.

Its great that theres a plan now lesley, i hope that it all works out. Its really positive that you are taking care of all of this now instead of waiting until shes older.