The Early Intervention Specialist completed the developmental assessment on Liam today. It seems that his main delay is in gross motor skills (sitting up, rolling over, etc). Of course, Liam didn’t roll over or do any of the tricks he can normally do. Very frustrating. The specialist asked me how I had heard about the Babies Can’t Wait program and I told her that our pediatrician had referred us and then went into my little spill that I had been an intern at the agency that had contracted to do EI service coordination, etc. She told me that they were about to move to a new model of services…from a therapy model (the therapist does all or most of the work) to a coaching model (where the parents are taught how to do a lot of the work). Personally, from an involved parent’s perspective I’m all about the Coaching model and was really excited when she asked me if I was interested in that model for our plan, etc. I jumped at the chance.

She told me that with the new cases, the therapy model would not be available and all cases would be using the coaching model…ughhh! That’s going to be hard. A lot of parents either don’t have the capabilities to be coached or the want to be coached to help their children. This new model “assumes” that the parent is competent enough to take care of the child’s needed services. That’s a little frustrating and not in the best interest of each individual child.

Okay I’m done with my rant for the day. Now back to the therapy issue for us…both of the reports are due back on the 14th and then we should hear back from EI the next week (since the 14th is a Friday). They have 45 days (I think from intake) to complete all evaluations and have a Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) in place. So services should start by the end of July…ughhh…I am very thankful that we have had a friend showing us some exercises and working a little with Liam while we are waiting. Liam would have been even more behind having to wait two months for services.