Today has been exactly one year since my son Vershaun’s death from Adenovirus. It’s crazy because his birthday and the date of his death were both in the same week. I think that made it even harder to deal with.
My son was in the early intervention program and he received speech therapy, occupational therapy and special education. I think early intervention really makes a huge impact on a child’s development (if you have the right therapist for your child). I think that is where things get a little tricky and confusing with early intervention. Initially, I think for the most part parents don’t know where to start to receive services for their children (I know personally I didn’t have a clue!). I decided I would ask my son’s pediatrician and she referred me to the Parent, Infant and Toddler group. At least now I had a referral and I thought I was a phone call away from solving all of my son’s developmental problems. Well, I was far from receiving the help I so desperately needed for my son. If you don’t know anyone who receives early intervention services, it is a very overwhelming process. I called the Parent, Infant and Toddler group hoping my son would have a speech, occupational therapist and an educator all by the following week (wishful thinking). I had so many evaluations, appointments, forms, and procedures to go through before Vershaun could get on a list to receive services.
The first step to getting quality services for your child is knowing your options. I had never heard about early intervention before having my son and I was very green to all of this. I think for a lot of first-time moms it’s hard to determine if your child needs services because you don’t have another child to compare them to! I thought maybe Vershaun is just a little slower to catch onto things and that he was just developing at his own pace. Also, (I know this was definitely true in my case), parents tend to be in denial about their child needing services. I don’t care who you are no parent wants to believe their child is “slow” or falls under the special needs category. If you are lucky you will get appointed to a Service Coordinator that is dedicated to ensuring your child is first priority and receives every service needed to help them thrive. Unfortunately, my first go at this my son was not appointed to a coordinator that was committed to his needs and it made our experience a very negative one.
My phone calls were not returned and I felt like my child was not a high priority. As my coordinator, she didn’t talk to me about my options with early intervention . . .and the occupational therapist finally admitted that she worked mainly with adults than with children and could not seem to “reach” my toddler son. I was very thankful that she told me so we could stop wasting each other’s time but at the same time I wasn’t sure where to gain other services. This whole rocky situation went on for awhile and I finally learn about an instructional playgroup for toddlers with delays through an organization called ARC (Association of Retarded Citizens). I soon found out that ARC offered early intervention services as well and that is where we found my son’s special educator and speech therapist. Through dealing with ARC, they informed me of my many options and how my son’s services didn’t have to come from just one organization. That was so very helpful to me because it is important to find therapist that are compatible for your child and in my son’s case that meant choosing this therapist from here and this educator from there. In the end, he had a service coordinator from children’s hospital (who I am still friends with today, Karen Christian), an occupational therapist from therapy resources (unlike his first OT Vicki Williams knows her stuff and my son knew not to play around with her because she meant business and she made him work very hard, and I thank her for that!) and a special educator and speech therapist from ARC. Although it took awhile to find my son’s early intervention “dream team” it was well worth going through the obstacles to find these wonderful people who played such an influential part in my son’s short life here on earth. These were not just therapist but people who truly love my son and cared about him.
My son thrived and developed so much during early intervention and I am here to testify to anyone that early intervention is so necessary and important to special needs children. It definitely could be the deciding factor between early special education and special education all throughout your child’s life. Contact with comments.
Early Intervention Services (Infants to age 3 years)
ARC Association of Retarded Citizens: wonderful instructional playgroup for delayed toddlers (that my son was a part of). It really helps children with social skills issues and transportation is provide in certain areas.
Childrens’ Hospital: great service coordinators and is better suited for children needing long term care and feeding issues (they have a feeding clinic for failure to thrive children). They also have a wonderful dental clinic.
Therapy Resources: If you are located in Ashland/Hanover location this is a good organization also for therapy services. My son’s Occupational therapist (Vicki Williams) came from here and I would recommend her to anyone. She also works for the Hanover County school system.
Medical Home Plus is a great resource organization that helps parents find all sorts of information concerning their special needs children. They are a great group for additional on anything concerning special needs and their founders are former pediatricians and very knowledgeable. They can help with finding in -home care, equipment and other services.
