Concerned About My Daughter's Development

Have you tried asking your pediatrician? I recently found a wonderful practice in Cape Coral. Dr. MacKoul's Ped.'s near the hospital. Dr. Jones is wonderful too. Perhaps a quick visit would help put you at ease.
Also, I work at Trinity Lutheran School which has a pre-school. Next year we will only have four year olds. If you want to put in an application call them I think our number is ###-###-####
Good Luck
L.

1 mom found this helpful

A.:

You can have her evaluated through Florida Diagnostic Resource (FDLRS) ; It will not cost you anything !
There number is ###-###-####. Express your concerns and
set-up an appointment. There is a wide spectrum which is known as pervasive development disorder (PDD) and you daugther
may fall under it or nor. She could just have a language delay.
Good Luck!

funny. I just posted a question a question about my son's speech condition (known as Cluttering). I recomended having her evaluated by a speech language pathologist. They have helped my son tremendously, and knowing what was actually the problem allowed me to stop worrying and focus on helping him.

If you dont have insurance, or it isn't covered, try your local school board.

Best of luck to you.

Hi A.,

I would recommend having your daughter formally evaluated by professionals in the field as soon as possible. It may be nothing to worry about, but if there is something wrong, the sooner the interventions and therapies begin generally the better the prognosis. Try contacting the Early Steps program through Miami Children's Hospital (you can find the number on their website) or call information. Also, if your daughter is found to have a particular diagnosis or developmental disabilitiy, check with State of Florida-Agency for Persons with Disabilities and get her enrolled, as their is a huge waiting list and the sooner a child gets on the better. Keep in mind that APD only accepts children/individuals with (Mental Retardation, Autism, Spina Bifida, Cerebral Palsy, and Prader Willie Syndrome) at this time. Hopefully she won't need these services, but if she did, just wanted you to be aware of this additional resource.

as for fluid it's easy, take her to her pediatricians to check her ears or any urgent care and they will tell you whether she has fluid or not. even though she's 3 years old therefore does not qualify to be evaluated by the early intervention progam (state funded free program) your daughter's pediatrician will be able to give you the info how to contact child find (also free).
did you pediatrician do an evaluation of her development at the 3 year old appointment? what was it said during that checkup?

people in your daily life, non-professionals, do not know nor are they able to diagnose your daughter. what you need to do is find the right agency/people to do the evaluation.
the fact that she took long to potty train does not mean a thing. mine are almost 3 and i have not even started potty training.
the language-read to her, also when you talk to her to not asnwer instead of her, let her communicate the best she can and then correct her. if she has a word of her own for water, let's say, and she says that word, you correct her; this is water. do you want water? etc.
there are things you could do to help her find 'language.' in meantime get to work and get her an evaluation. she definitely sounds to be behind in language, not sure how much for receptive and expressive language. that is why there are professionals to make the exact determination and recommend speech therapy for her. if you qualify through this agency the speech classes will be for free.
one of my girls had speech for a few months. she started barely saying a thing and now talks in full sentences. she is not even 3. i realized there was a problem and i did something about it.
so no reason for you not to do anything about it
good luck
V.

If I were you I would get her ears checked and get her tested for developmental delays.

I would definetly take her to her pediatrician and discuss your concerns with them. They should then let you know whether or not you should see a psychtriast for diagnosis if they believe it might be autism. My son is autistic and we had to get diagnosis from neurologist and psychiatrist. If you feel that there is something wrong it is better to find out now than later. If there is something wrong the treatments have a better chance of working the sooner you start implementing them. If you have any more general questions regarding autism, please feel free to ask me. My son is 7 1/2 and was diagnosed at age 3.
A.

hello, try contacting Cheryl @ Early ____@____.com work with getting different types of therapy together for the kids. 3 of my kids were and are getting speech, occupational and behavoiural therapy. they are awsome, they will work with you pediatrician and you. it is covered thru your insurance or them selves if needed. i was worried about asking for help but i am SOOOOO glad that i did. my 3 year old is doing so much better and it even helped get him into a voluntary pre-k program at endeavour elem.

good luck and it is at least worth a call and if it does not sound like it is something for your family, you are not forced to participate.

B.

hi angie! as a speech language pathologist, i can assure you that the only way you'll calm those nerves down is to have her evaluated by early invervention based SLP. the evaluation may be covered by your insurance. the 'echo' or echolia as its called in the field is whats concerning me. a full evaluation should evaluate her expressive, receptive and pragmatic use of language, but should also include a behavioral/play analysis. let me know if i can provide any assistance and best wishes!

Angie,
My daughter experience much of what you are describing and i asked her teachers to give me a referral for testing for ADD. They did and then they did some testing of their own. We found that she is not ADD, she just has different motivators. She has poor speech, will need speech therapy, but ther's nothing "wrong" that won't resolve as she gets older. Ask your local preschool or friend who has a preschool child for a referral. Most places are willing to screen her. I wouldn't get too worried about it, I found it to be fruitless in the end. Good luck and God bless,
M.

Check with CHILD FIND, or Early Steps. You should be able to find them in the phone book. They can evaluate her for everything you are concerned about. Have them check her hearing also. Anything your insurance won't cover is covered by the state.

I don't think the things you described sound like Autism or ADD but I'm no expert. If they are concerned that she may have one of these problems they have to go through many steps before they can give that kind of diagnosis. So I wouldn't be extremely concerned with her being misdiagnosed. However, please keep in mind that there are a few things that can mirror these disorders. Things like Auditory Processing Disorder, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, and Landau-Kleffner syndrome, have been misdiagnosed because some of their symptoms are like those of ADHD or Autism. You may want to look these up and do a little research on them, because they are not all that well known.
Hope that helps.

Hi Angie
I am a mom of a 4 1/2 yr old boy who has some deveolpment delays also. You definately need to get this checked out. I dont know where you live but the state of Florida offers evlauations and therapy for free. It is through a service called CHILD FIND. MY son has had speech therapy for the last year and a half with them, it has been very helpful. We also sought out a deveolopmental peditrician who diagnosed him with PDD which is a mild form of Autism. AS a parent, that seems like a scary word to hear but it is not. MY son is learning and developmenting every day. If you need more info, I'll help however I can, just e-mail me ____@____.com
K.