The Immeasurable Benefits of Early Intervention

I can't believe that our last blog post was in September. It seems like the pandemic really wore us down the last few months of the year, as I'm sure it did for all of you as well. We promised you all more content, and failed to deliver. Believe us when we say that there is sooooooo much more that we want to share. And we promise you an update soon on how we closed out 2020.

As we are early into 2021, it is a time for fresh starts, and for taking early action on making our lives better. It reminded us of how truly important Early Intervention was for Hudson... and for us. Despite how intelligent and amazing Hudson is, he would not have made the progress that he has made to-date without it. I was traveling 50-75% of the month for work when our journey with Early Intervention started, leaving Kayla to handle these uncharted waters on her own. Here is her experience, in her own words.

Kayla

I’ve never been shy about Hudson’s Early Intervention experience. In fact, many people have approached me and asked me how to go about getting services.

When Hudson was 18 months old we noticed that he only had a handful of words in his vocabulary. Some of those words that should’ve been clear were not ("Mama", "Dada", etc). I brought it up to his pediatrician and she assured me he was "right on track" and would probably explode with a new vocabulary within the next few months. But instead of exploding with vocabulary, it completely stopped two months later. That’s when we really started to worry.

I was out with my two best friends one night, and I brought up my concern. One of my friends is a speech pathologist and I wanted her opinion on what to do. She brought up contacting Early Intervention through Public Health at our county. I had heard of it but didn’t really know what it was. She explained to me to contact our pediatrician and to get a referral and that (after an evaluation) he could get speech therapy at home at no cost to us.

The next few days I went into research mode and searched public health and services and made phone calls to the doctor’s office. For anyone wondering - you DO NOT need a referral from the pediatrician (you can still get one, but it is not necessary). Once I reached out to public health they helped me set up an at-home evaluation.

I initially met with a public health official and we went over my concerns. A couple of weeks later, we did an evaluation with a psychologist and speech therapist. They spent about an hour and half interacting with Hudson. About one week later they reached out and told me he would be getting a speech therapist twice a week, if they could find one.

Fun fact: Early Intervention therapists are very hard to find, especially in a rural area.

I was very lucky in that one of my coworker’s son had a speech therapist that agreed to take on Hudson once a week; still not exactly what he needed, but better than nothing. They also told me they were going to find him a special instructor to see him twice a week. This person works on everything from OT skills, speech, and even some PT skills. Special instructors are also a bit like unicorns, but we were very fortunate to find one - even if it meant that she was driving 45+ minutes (one way) to see him.

I was honestly flabbergasted when they recommended a special instructor. I only wanted speech for my child; he did not need help anywhere else. However, I let them schedule it and thought that this special instructor would agree with me and say that "Hudson didn’t need it" and that she would cancel his services within the first month. Luckily for us, that never happened.

Hudson's special instructor began meeting with him primarily while at daycare. And, while fully admitting that she could not offer a diagnosis, she was the one who recommended that we have Hudson tested for Autism. I HATED her for saying this and would roll my eyes at the things she would say or write down in her notes. We thank God everyday that we didn't brush her off and followed through with her recommendations.

My husband and I decided to schedule the testing, even though we were unconvinced that Hudson was on the Spectrum. As time went on I worked more and more with this special instructor. She not only became a friend, but a support system as well. She was there after we got his diagnosis and sat with me as I cried... assuring me that he would do great things. When Hudson aged out of her services I cried as we had to say goodbye to her. We knew we would all miss her, and although Hudson has another wonderful special instructor, we still think about our first special instructor and how much she did for us. There's a sad irony in knowing that these special instructors are only part of a child's life for a short time, and yet their impacts can last a lifetime.

Between my best friend recommending Early Intervention and our fantastic special instructor helping us, I don’t know where Hudson would be now without Early Intervention. I owe both of them so much. I was naive at first, but I’m glad I listened to them and took their advice. If you are ever concerned about your child, reach out; there are so many resources out there that you might not even realize exist. Working in a school I see therapists coming and going nonstop... and I never really thought about what they did. Now I see them as superheroes.

Since his time in Early Intervention, Hudson has had four different therapists (OT, PT, Speech and Special Instruction). Hudson adores each of them, as do we. It’s people and services like this that can make all the difference.