Re: evaluating the evaluators

[Guest guest]

Is lack of eye contact also a symptom? If so I guess that's why when I tell my

daughter to look at me she will look in my eyes for just a second and then look

away.

----- Original Message -----

From: Ma. M Sarmiento

... My son goes to a preschool that suggested he needed assistance and

a professional evaluation on his delayed speech and lack of eye contact . . .

[Guest guest]

Hi Vicki,

It is wonderful that you took the pre-school's advice and are seeking

evaluations. I don't know if your son is receiving any early

intervention services now. If you are in the US, you may want to

contact them right away for an eval. You'll only have a few months

since children age out at 3. Then the local school district takes

over. They'll also do an evaluation, but many of us believe it is

important to have a private one as well.

Sometimes it is hard to get an appropriate evaluation because of the

child's participation. The first neurologist we went to could not

give us a clear diagnosis b/s my son was uncooperative. It was only

because of the Early Intervention reports and speech evaluations that

I believe he even came up with apraxia. By the time my son saw the

developmental pediatrician he was so use to evaluations that he was

much more cooperative and we got a clearer diagnosis of his issues.

My son at 2.7 also had few words and very little eye contact. We kept

saying " look at me " and would get right down to his level.

Sometime a cue like touching his chin helps as well. Eventually you

drop that and he'll just look.

It is difficult to evaluate the recommendations, that is why it is

important to go to someone you are comfortable with. This way if

there are areas you do not agree with it can be discussed openly. The

important thing is to start therapy whether it is speech, OT or even

PT.

Here are some links that maybe helpful from our archives. Also if you

look in the bookmarks section of , I have started a list of

helpful information

/message/4613

/message/5375

/message/6877

Good luck to you.

> To everyone,

>

> I am new. My son goes to a preschool that suggested he

needed assistance and a professional evaluation on his delayed speech

and lack of eye contact . . . He is 2 years and 7 months. Finally, I

have gotten appointments this January with professionals . . .When I

talked to one psychologist, she warned me that each professional will

have his/her own observation and consequent recommendation. I

would like to ask if the members of this egroup for any advice on how

to evaluate the evaluators and guidelines in deciding options. . .

also are there any books on early intervention or websites that I can

review . . .

>

> vicki sarmiento

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Vickie

My son was evaluated on Sept 11th( of all days). When the evaluator told me

that he needed to be seen by some other professionals I was so taken aback and

somewhat in shock I think. I went home and cried and cried. It was a comb of

crying for my son and crying for me and crying for the people of NY. Anyway my

point here ( I do have one LOL) is that listen to what the evaluators have to

tell you and then decide what is best for your child. I really took out a lot

of anger on the evaluator who did my son's first eval. Now when I look back at

it, I realize that without her honest input and her directness, I may not be on

the road to helping my son the way I am. Good Luck - listen and learn all you

can.

Stacey

>Hi Vicki,

>It is wonderful that you took the pre-school's advice and are seeking

>evaluations. I don't know if your son is receiving any early

>intervention services now. If you are in the US, you may want to

>contact them right away for an eval. You'll only have a few months

>since children age out at 3. Then the local school district takes

>over. They'll also do an evaluation, but many of us believe it is

>important to have a private one as well.

>Sometimes it is hard to get an appropriate evaluation because of the

>child's participation. The first neurologist we went to could not

>give us a clear diagnosis b/s my son was uncooperative. It was only

>because of the Early Intervention reports and speech evaluations that

>I believe he even came up with apraxia. By the time my son saw the

>developmental pediatrician he was so use to evaluations that he was

>much more cooperative and we got a clearer diagnosis of his issues.

[Guest guest]

Vicki, I too am new to apraxia. My son will be 4 in

March. In December his preschool teacher suggested I

go through the school district to have him evaluated.

Instead of waiting to meet the school's evaluation

schedule, I took him into his pediatric physician for

a 4 year old well visit. I discussed my concerns of

his lack of ability to speak compared to other 3 year

olds. His physician referred us for an audio test and

then for a speech evaluation. His audio was fine but

the speech therapist told us he had verbal apraxia.

Sometimes physicians and specialists come across as

wanting to take a wait and see approach. As a mom, I

told them this was not acceptable because if there was

an issue I wanted to deal with it now and not in a

year from now. My recommendation is to as much

research as you can and hold your ground with the

" specialist " . You know you child best and you need to

stand up for him. Good luck! --

--- " Ma. M Sarmiento " <vms@...> wrote:

> To everyone,

>

> I am new. My son goes to a preschool that

> suggested he needed assistance and a professional

> evaluation on his delayed speech and lack of eye

> contact . . . He is 2 years and 7 months. Finally,

> I have gotten appointments this January with

> professionals . . .When I talked to one

> psychologist, she warned me that each professional

> will have his/her own observation and consequent

> recommendation. I would like to ask if the

> members of this egroup for any advice on how to

> evaluate the evaluators and guidelines in deciding

> options. . . also are there any books on early

> intervention or websites that I can review . . .

>

> vicki sarmiento

>

>

> [Non-text portions of this message have been

> removed]

>

>

>

__________________________________________________