UPDATE IN #1 EI evaluation

[ArizonaGirl]

UPDATE

We met with the coordinator and discussed my concerns and based on my concerns and her observations she also suggested that we be evaluated by the feeding therapist due to DD's weight, lack of teeth and texture issues.

Both the physical therapist and the feeding therapist came out within a week and spent over an hour with us evaluating DD and asking me questions about her.

The feeding therapist said that currently she didn't qualify for any services, but did give me some tools to help me try to get more calories into her and combat her frequent vomiting.

The physical therapist said that she gave her a test called the Bayley test that measured her gross and fine motor skills and said that a score of 70 indicates a 50% delay, DD scored a 76. She did suggest some exercises that we could do at home to increase her core muscle strength.

She didn't qualify for any services, but all in all I am glad that I made the call and had her evaluated. They are going to write a report for me that summarizes their findings and give any suggestions that they might have. They said that if I have any more questions or concerns I should feel free to get in touch and they can come back out.

Thanks everyone for your help



Hi all,

Some of you may remember that I posted some time ago about my DD and possible developmental delays. Brittone was particularly helpful, thank you everyone. I have decided to contact EI regarding an evaluation.

I am not sure if she will qualify for any services, but my Mommy Radar is going off and I feel it would be remiss of me to ignore it. However, my DH thinks I am completely over-reacting.

My questions are about what to expect now. How long does it usually take to get the ball rolling with regards to scheduling an evaluation? How does the financial piece of this work? I understand this info will vary a bit from location to location but any information you could share with me would be great.

TIA

[crl]

My experience is now nearly eight years ago and was in Arlington VA. I called and they scheduled a intake meeting at our house with a coordinator. That was about two weeks after my call. Then the coordinator scheduled an evaluation with a ST and an OT (the team members were determined based on her observations and my concerns). That was about another two weeks. Then after the evaluation the team wrote a report with their findings and recommendations. The coordinator came back to give the report to me and discuss. I think that was another two weeks or so.

They found ds was significantly behind in speech (my initial concern), had scattered fine motor skills but with some areas with significant delays (not a big surprise), and that he had significant sensory issues (never heard of it before). They will not diagnose and the intake coordinator suggested that ds' constellation of symptoms could be something other than just delays so she recommended that we have ds evaluated by a developmental Ped or a neuropsychiatrist. The team recommended weekly OT and ST.

We accepted the services. We chose to have EI bill insurance so we paid the co-pays for services until we ran out of visits covered by insurance. Then we switched to their sliding scale payment, which was only slightly more than our insurance co-pay to finish out the year.

It was a very positive experience for us and ds very much benefited. He went on to have an IEP through first grade and got many services which also benefited him greatly. At ten he no longer receives services of any kind, is at grade level academically and plays on a competitive baseball team. I am positive he would not be doing all of this if we had not gotten him help early on.

Hope that helps,
Catherine

[megs4413]

it's really dependent on location. IME, it's quicker to get an initial eval if a doc is the one who gets the ball rolling. Most areas have a legal requirement of how long they have before they get an eval scheduled....then you'll have the eval and you should have recs/results from the eval within another specifically defined amount of time (i think in our state at the time, it was 10 days). Just make sure you stay in communication with EI and keep up your end of the bargain and hold them to theirs!

For us, with the doctor initiated eval, we had someone there within maybe 2 weeks. The eval we did for DD without a doc's help took much longer, so we ended up going private for her eval. She wasn't delayed, but still needed OT help, so we stayed private for her as well...

Good luck!

[baileygirl]

Are you in AZ? If so, there were some changes in the last year or so that families participate in paying for services. This should help: https://www.azdes.gov/AzEIP/Family-Cost-Participation/

DS1 receives speech services thru the school district (started just before 4th birthday). We do not pay for it, but he only receives minimal services so we have supplemented with private speech therapy as well.

[PZMommy]

I'm in Cali. When we contacted EI for an eval, we had to fill out and send in a bunch of paperwork. Once that was submitted, it was a few weeks to get the initial eval. Then it was shortly after that we had a meeting with his case manager and services started. At first he just received PT, but over time OT and child development services, and now speech have been added. They will bill your regular insurance so you are responsible for your co-pay. However, if your insurance will not cover the services, the state pays for them. There is a yearly fee of $150 though. The services stop at age 3. My EI starts transitioning them to the local school district at 32 months old, so that way everything is in place when they turn 3. Overall, it has been a really good experience, and they have helped my son out so much!!

[Simon]

We graduated from EI a little over 6 months ago. Since EI is part of a federal mandate there will be some similarities across the states. For instance, I believe they have only 30 or 60 days from the time you call until they complete their evaluation. In my state, I called and self-referred (Dh and the Ped wanted to wait) because I knew things were off and, for better or worse, I was right. I first had to schedule a parent meeting where I met with a case coordinator and gave a very lengthy background. They will only do this in person here, but I could pick the time/place. Then after that they scheduled the eval. Part of the reason for our first meeting was to determine who should do the evaluation (OT, PT, SLP). We ended up with an SLP and an OT. They did the eval and gave me some immediate feedback and then I had a follow up with our case corrdinator plus one of the original evaluators to go over the scores in depth and determine what types of services Ds needed. We also talked about the $ at that time and it was our choice to provide (or not) our insurance info for billing. We also provided some info on our finances and they gave us a price sheet showing the full cost and an estimated cost based on our particular situation. We also got to choose how often we had therapy so we could control our OOP expenses. We had very little cost but started off with therapy only 1 hour every 3 weeks, which was less than I expected but Ds was young to be doing speech therapy so there was an acknowledgement that he was delayed but also a desire to "wait and see" how he did once we implemented the exercises ourselves at home.

[ArizonaGirl]

updated

[crl]

Thank you for the update. I'm glad it was a positive experience.

Catherine