Evalution part 2

As I mentioned before, about a week after Jake's initial evalution an appointment opened up at a developmental clinic in the area. I was eager to go since I didn't feel as if is his initial evaluation was very thorough, and  was hoping to gain a bit more insight on what was going on with Jake. I was also hoping we might get a bit of advice and direction on what steps to take next.

     The clinic is located in a local hospital. The evaluation took place in a small room with a couple of chairs, a counter and a small table.  After getting his height and weight a pediatric nurse practictioner came in to speak with us. She asked my husband and I some questions and we expressed our concerns. We also saw a child psychologist d and an educational specialist. Each evaluator brought in a few different manipulatives and attempted to do some basic activities with Jakob. I wish I had started this blog earlier as I would have a better memory of exactly what was done. I do remeber that a lot of what they did was similar to his initial EI evaluation. 

    Afterwards the 3 evaluators met to discuss their findings, then one came in to speak with us. She very kindly went over the results. This is the part I always find the most difficult. While I am obviously aware that Jake has some developmental delays, it is always hard to hear the facts from someone else. At the time of the evaluation Jake waas 19.5 months old. He scored at 12.7 months cognitively, 8.8 months for language, 17.5 for gross motor, and 12.5 months for fine motor. Those were some hard numbers to swallow. (I wish they would have given scores for cuteness, personality, and affection as he would have scored off the charts!) Then she asked if anyone had mentioned autism to us. (We hadn't mentioned his previous diagnosis as we were hoping for an unbiased evaluation) I explained that our pediatrician had brought it up at his 18 months well visit and that was what had brought us there. She said that he was displaying some characteristics consistent with an autism spectrum disorder, but that she didn't want to give an actual diagnosis yet due to his young age. She was happy that we were alredy working with EI and recommended we come back when he was closer to 2 for further evaluation and diagnosis. At this point I was thankful for the evaluation we had done prior to this, as the diagnosis of PDD-NOS opened the door to increased therapies.
     On the way home I asked my husband what he had thought of the evaluation. He said he felt it was more thorough, but that he didn't like what they had to say as much. As I said in my prevvious post, the last doctor we saw for an evalutaion came right out and said that Jake "definitely wasn't autistic". I know that my husband was hanging on to that statement,and was still in a denial. While I wasn't happy to hear what the evaluation showed, I was glad that my husband was able to hear the "A" word from a professional, as I don't think he completely believed my concerns. Still, he is holding on to the hope that when we go back for further evaluation they will tell us that he is NOT on the spectrum.
     As soon as we arrived home I gave our service coordinator a call. With the diagnosis from the week before and the write up we received at the second evaluation, we had enough proof to warrant an increase in services from EI. He put in for an increase in both ST and SEIT. We were approved for 3 45min sessions of each per week. My next step was to continue my research and to try to chose what therapy/services would be best for my little guy. More about that journey in another post.