Not qualifying for services

March 10, 2000

Hi, thought I'd add my two cents in here :0)

I read on digest so am always a step behind everyone else - sorry if

this is old news!

has MDS and will be 3 at the end of April. He has never ever

qualified for any services at all. He has exceeded all of the

milestones (sat unsupported at 4 months, walked the day before he turned

10 months, talked early too - he now used mostly 5 and 6 word sentences,

etc.) I don't say this in any way to brag (really I don't) but rather

to explain that MDS is not an automatic indicator of services. I used

to work in the developmental field and as of 2 years ago the requirments

for 0-3 were that a child be more than 50% delayed in any given area in

order to qualify. Most agencies will write their evaluations slightly

worse than they need to in order to insure that the child will qualify

for services. never even qualified for a referral to 0-3. We

have him evaluated by his pediatrician and a developmental pediatrician

who specializes in DS, plus I follow his development closely on the HELP

charts.

Initially I think it was frightening to have him not qualify - thinking

that I would be kind of left alone with any problems...thankfully there

have been none. The biggest problem we deal with is that he is shy -

but since both my husband and I are as well I think we'd have been more

worried if he wasn't :0) Anyhow, I love reading the list and seeing old

friends here - for those of you who remember us from the old days we

have maintianed our decision to not share the MDS diagnosis with anyone

outside of his pediatrician and if we move and change doctors the new

one probably won't be informed either. My gut feeling is that this is

's diagnosis and his to share if and when he chooses. Not that I

don't understand the opposite view as well!

Thanks for listening to my ramble!

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