When you work for an agency that provide intervention services to children for developmental delay(s), medical diagnosis, or a combination of both and you are one of the people that go out to evaluate these children, you subconsciously evaluate your own child or children to make sure they are meeting all of their milestones. Like I said before, I did that with both Kaleb and Kaitlin all the time. At first, she met all of her milestones such as rolling over, sitting up, babbling, as well as crawling. Then, I began to notice that she did not want to stand alone on the floor or any hard surface whether or not she had on shoes. We thought that if we put soft padding on top of our tile, she would eventually stand up and start walking. I was wrong on all levels. During one of her check-ups at St. Jude, I brought it to the Physician Assistant's attention when she was 11 months that she is not even attempting to walk. I was told that it was not a delay until she was at least 15 months. With a background in Child Development and evaluating children, I already knew that he was going to say those word but as a mother I knew something was not right and I would stop at nothing to help my child. I then went to her PCP at her 12 month check-up and asked them the same thing. The PCP asked if we would like to do the referral or they put in the referral. I asked them to send the referral because I did not want my employer thinking I was biased since it was for my own child. I knew the sooner the better with any type of intervention services and I did not want to wait until it was late in the game before she was able to get therapy. Once she was evaluated by one of my colleagues, she qualified for services based upon a gross motor delay. We asked for physical and occupational therapy because I wanted them to assist her with her gross and fine motor. After completing her Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), she had an evaluation completed by her physical and occupational therapists. When she first started therapy, she would only respond to them by shaking her head yes or no but by the time she aged out of therapy, she was telling them what she wanted and what she would or would not do. Kaitlin has always been shy so it was fun to watch her slowly come out of her shell. Of course Nic and I have quite a few videos of her weekly sessions. She was always thinking outside the box whenever either therapist gave her a task to complete and it was hilarious to watch her work around her task. She finally starting walking at 17 months and it was one of the happiest and most emotional moments of my life. Kaitlin aged out of Early Intervention Services at the age of three and I will always be thankful to both ladies with the impact they had in getting her back on track to meet all of her milestones.
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