Early Childhood intervention/Infant Toddler Services

That is not at all the experience I had w/ the EI SLP that my children had. She was awesome. She played with them almost the entire time, with maybe a suggestion or 2 at the end.
Is there another SLP available?

hang in there till january. I went through the same thing with them. but with them I was garanteed a spot in ppcd which is what you are talking about. Now with ppcd I have noticed a huge difference but very little with eci. Hang in there bite your toungue and you only have 3 more months then the good help comes. When it comes to evaluation ask for everything including a child physcologist. Demand it. Meanwhile you work with him off of what you find on the internet.

Things will change in January, but you don't have to wait. Ask for another one. My son's PT provider also trained people. I already knew she was wonderful, but I got to see first hand how great she was, and how great of a fit for my son and my family she was. You have to find, and insist on finding, someone that is a fit for your family. If you aren't comfortable, it isn't right.

I can't answer your question about infant/toddler services directly, because we chose to go to a private clinic (our insurance covers it) and our experience has been mostly GREAT. I say mostly because we had, and still have, a fantastic OT and PT. However, we started out with a young SLP who had no experience with sensory kids and, frankly, didn't know what she was doing. It was 5 MONTHS before he talked to her at all. She used play therapy only to get him to interact, and we got nowhere. And every week at the end of the session, she say brightly to me, "Keep up the work you're doing at home!" and scurry away to meet her next child. But even when asked, she couldn't come up with anything concrete for me to DO at home. I was so frustrated.

I wish I hadn't let it go as long as I did - after all, I hard could I rock the boat? Would wagons be circled? But finally I changed our schedule so we weren't available when hse was, and were paired with another SLP who has years of experience and she took charge immediately. In addition to play therapy, she manually manipulates his lips, cheeks, and jaw to help him form sounds. He hates having his face touched, but after three sessions he figured out that she was in charge and wouldn't give in to his squiming and whining. She sends home copies of flash cards with sounds so we can practice them.

If you have access to one-on-one therapy with a different SLP, definitely tap into it. I wasted almost a YEAR and I am kicking myself. Although kindergarten is almost two years away for my kiddo, I am truly worried. He has MILES to go before *most* of what he says will be understood. We're also trying to break him of using words he adopted early on: "yewk" (milk), "yewt" (music) - there are dozens. Re-training a bad habit is VERY hard and very frustrating for all of us - if you can catch it before it starts you'll be so glad you did.

Do you know about this site: The Autism File Team <____@____.com>
they put out a biweekly email about all sorts of issues and ideas having to do with Autism.
Where to go? The absolute best place in the US for Autism training is at the U of O in Eugene, Oregon.
People from every country in the world bring their autistic children there.
Autism training is hard work and as we know many who have it wind up well trained and integrated into society and many are locked out due to their condition.
I wish you luck getting the right help so that your son has a worthy life.

My son had what was called an ITDS specialist. She only seemed to focus on his speech though. I hated the way she worked with him. She was young (and very nice) I just didn't like the way she made him cry for about half of each session. How can he be learning anything when all he's doing is crying. I finally asked to change and requested an SLP. (If we were only going to focus on speech, why did I have someone who wasn't an SLP in the first place)?!
I love the lady we have now. He hasn't cried with her yet and he talks to her more. I wish I had changed sooner. That being said, after I asked to switch it took a couple of weeks to get the first meeting set up. The first meeting was just her asking me questions to see where he was at. Then she actually started sessions. Since your on turns 3 in Dec, I'm not sure that have time for him to get much benefit from changing.

My cousin's son, is now almost 20, and is autistic. (And doing wonderfully, I might add!) Because of this she went back to school and completed her degree last year and is currently counseling middle school and high school students with disabilities. I figured she would be able to give some answers so I called and asked her about your question.

She said it sounds as if they're trying to get you off to a good start with family training, home visits and parent coaching, as Early intervention is designed to serve children with disabilities under the age of three, AND the families who care for them. She also said she hopes you've been following all suggestions through with your son as far as showing him pictures and adding words and said to continue doing so because even if it seems it's not working, it is.

She referred me to a site that goes over Early Intervention and the services it offers, and stayed on the phone with me to point some things out. E/I offers "A network of professionals offer services including: screening and assessment; family training, counseling, and home visits; speech therapy; occupational therapy; psychological services; audiology services; vision services; social work services; and transportation. These are provided, with some exceptions, at no cost to the family." She said it's up to you to seek out what your son needs in these areas.

She pointed out on page 2 that for children with disabilities age three and older, special services are provided through local school districts (the good help as Denise S called it) and that you as his parent should already have contacted the school, which it sounds like you have. The reason being because even if you are receiving services through Early Intervention, these services will stop on the day of your child’s third birthday, and Terri said they do STOP. She agreed with what the site says: "School districts often take months to observe, evaluate, and make recommendations for your child. Keep in mind that public schools keep different hours and have different staffing during the summer months. Start the process as early as possible, as your child’s first placement is particularly important."

So:
~ Start the transition process into your local school district early, at 30 months of age
~ Take notes of all communications with school personnel
~ Seek independent evaluations (she stressed this)
~ Talk to other parents
~ Do your research and ask questions
~ Remember the two P’s — be positive and persistent

All of the above are gone into greater depth on the site, there's 7 pages of helpful information:
http://www.firstsigns.org/treatment/EI.htm

I told her you find it all exhausting and are frustrated and she said she understands completely, but to help your son as much as possible you need to get past it, and to always remember your number one priority is to get your son the best help available, follow suggestions and recommendations, and never give up being his advocate, your job has only just begun.

God's blessings.

I used to work in ECI and that is not typical of the services we provided. Do they have classes he could attend? Otherwise, I would ask for another therapist.