Getting back his first Evaluation

When we got back his evaluation from Early Childhood intervention. They said he had a speech delay. He was about to turn 3, and his speech was 12 months receptively, and 21 month expressively. They talked about other children that they worked with that had Autism, but made it seem like that was not a concern with Aidan. Aidan only had a speech delay.

At that point, I was comfortable with their assessment. I did not want my kid to be stuck in a box with the label of Autism, and if we could avoid it, we would.

We were offered Speech Therapy once a week for 30 minutes, to help get Aidan’s speech back on track. Yes, just 30 minutes a week for a child with almost a two year speech deficit.

When we started speech with early intervention, it was awful. I hated taking him. It didn’t even seem like they knew what they were doing. There were two women working with him, one was a Speech Language Pathologist, and the other was just working for ECI with no prior experience. They would both give him direction at the same time, and they never seemed to be on the same page. Aidan would cry for almost the entire thirty minute session. It was a total waste of time. I was getting him to talk more just playing with him at home.

I would complain to my husband that they were wasting Aidan’s time, and that he was not being given the support he truly needed. We thought that things would get better once he turned 3 and was taken into the special Pre-K program through the school district. But, again, we were wrong.

The school district took their time putting together Aidan’s full evaluation (which needed to be complete before he could start school). They legally had five weeks to put everything together, and it was obvious that they planned on taking the full five weeks to complete the evaluation.

At that point, I knew I couldn’t sit on my ass and wait for help. My husband and I decided that I should move in with my parents who happened to live by a DAN! Doctor, and pay out of pocket for Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy.  We needed to get Aidan the help he needed NOW!