The Parent Struggle: Where do I start

 


You have had questions about your child's development and either people have brushed off your concerns or are not much help.  The reality is, yes sometimes kids develop skills later than others, yes, sometimes toddlers have sleep issues they grow out of, yes, sometimes dropping dairy does the trick.  The thing is...sometimes it's more than that and your parent gut is telling you it's more.  There are things you can do to help with sleep and development etc...but what do you do, how do you do it, and how do you know if it's working?  Hard Truth: it's a lot of guess work and trial and error.

But what do you do first.  Well...that I can help with.  First if your child is under age 3 look up your county  Early Intervention Program, your pediatrician can refer your child or you can refer your child.  They will do a FREE developmental evaluation.  I referred 2 out of 4 of my own children and had a great experience with them both times.  They will also help you find and refer you to providers that can come to your home.

What if your child is older than 3?  Call the local public elementary school and ask to have your child evaluated though the special education preschool program.  They will do the evaluation and if qualified the school will provide services.  Yes, that's right your 3 year old can go to the elementary school for just the services they qualify for.  It may turn out that your child qualifies for a district preschool program which look different everywhere you go.  All of these services provided by the school are FREE.

Transition from Early Intervention to public school services usually requires a reevaluation, an exit meeting (to end the IFSP...the Early intervention version of the IEP) and a meeting to develop an IEP.

What if your child is already in public school? First communicate with your child's teachers, do they have similar concerns?  Are they seeing different things in the classroom than you see at home?  Then you should request an evaluation for your child.  This evaluation will include academics, language, social emotional skills and functional skills, and will determine if your child qualifies for an IEP or a 504 (more on the difference in another post).  

First things first...get the evaluation.  The evaluation will give you the information needed for the next steps.

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