Therapy Professionals

[MatureMomG]

We live in a small school district. We have requested services since shortly after birth (dd is 15 months now), and have been pleased with it. (Currently OT and PT, plus a Special Ed teacher, all in our home each 2x/month, 30-60 minute sessions.) The people who come are good, often have good ideas. I have a degree in child psych and have worked in this field some, plus I have 6 other older children, so I am pretty familiar with much of what is going on. So much is simple common sense.

My only question/concern that I throw to you all for ideas and suggestions is that the people who come, while trained and familiar with development schedules, delays, milestones, etc., have not worked with children with DS. There are 2 others in our school district, both in high school. So, with the exception of the one spec ed teacher, their experience with DS is quite limited. The younger staff have never worked with DS. I suppose much of what they do applies to the specific "delay" more than DS. I know I would like it a bit better if they had more experience.

Any ideas? There is a bigger town, but if I went there, I probably would have to travel, they would not come to my home. And it is not that much bigger, so while they may have more experience, it would not be tons more. There are private services, but they are even further away.

TIA.
Yours in Christ,
Kathy

[justinsmom]

Hi Kathy,

Have you thought of perhaps getting referrals to the other places you mentioned. Maybe just doing an evaluation type thing to make sure what is being done at home is what should be done and maybe they would have some other ideas to pass on to those who do come out. Just a thought and maybe just use those services in the next city or wherever for re evaluations, say like every 6 mos to a year.

[meghans_mom]

Kathy - here on Long Island (NY) our early intervention therapists come from the county, not the school district. Is your EI paid for by the school district starting at birth?Ours doesn't start until age 3.
All our therapists are county approved so they are private professionals or those working thru agencies who are on the county list - we can also get our therapists approved by the county, as long as both parties agree...
Do you have agencies in your area that deal solely with early intervention? If you dont know of any, try contacting your local/town/state DS group and see if they can make recommendations of an agency. I think you should be able to go outside of the school district for therapists and still have them pay for it...you may have to fight a little - but it's worth it sometimes.
good luck - laurie