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| Thu, 11-10-2005 - 7:26pm |
Hello.
I am new to this board. Who do you take your child to for an evaluation? I think that my 4 year old ds has high functioning autism. I have an 8 yr. old with adhd and mood difficulties (They are not labelling him bipolar yet, but it looks like that is the mood problems.) and a dd (10) who is also adhd. DS is probably heading towards adhd too. But I don't know where to take him. I'm having big problems with the IU for getting him in for speech and OT. I don't know where to turn. Please help. Thank you.
Diane

Diane,
Where in PA are you?
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Hi Tina.
We are in Delaware County. We were in Chester County last year and had him evaluated with the IU there. One of the therapists mentioned that he had some Autistic tendencies, but nothing is documented. It was a horrible experience that began in Jan. and they never accomplished anything by the time we moved in Aug. That is a really long story but they didn't do a good developmental evaluation at all. I took him to Dupont for a Developmental Pediatrician during last spring and she mentioned the autistic tendencies but that was it. The regular pediatrician said nothing. I have been taking him to Theraplay because the IU hasn't pulled through for us in DC either. Danny is 4 1/2 years old. He has severe speech difficulties due to his fraenulum being too short; this was not discovered until May. That was taken care of immediately. Is a Pediatric Neurologist the best way to go? I couldn't get another appointment with Developmental Pediatrician until the spring for a follow up. Danny goes to preschool 2 mornings a week, but I don't think he is doing really well there. I feel like I missed this because I was trying to get my other children settled on the right diagnosis and meds. That isn't even accomplished with my 8 year old. Who would you recommend for the Neurologist: Dr. Falchek (I think that is his name.) My ds and dd went to him years ago when we first started the ADHD trail. Sorry for rambling. Thanks for listening.
Diane
I just moved from Delaware County about a year and a half ago and boy am I glad. My son Jake who has PDD-NOS was first seen by early intervention there and they are hopeless.They are severely understaffed and especially for speech therapist. He didn't qualify for half the services he recieves now since we moved.We are moving back there next year and I am very worried we will run into the same problems as you have described because Jake will be turning 3 and then he will go to the I.U. I took Jake to about 4 different doc's and nobody could see the issues I saw. I finally took him to Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and within minutes they had him twigged. They do have a waiting list but not terribly long.
HTH
Teresa
Diane,
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Teresa,
Thank you for your response. What kind of doctor did you finally take Jake to see? The funny thing about the DCIU is that I wasn't really impressed with them when my ds (8) went with them for speech. They didn't even pick up on the adhd then. I kept telling them that among other issues that they over looked. I was very disappointed in the CCIU and thought that DCIU was going to pull through for me this time. No such luck. Since Sept. I have spoken with 2 different STs and neither one of them can fit him into their schedule. He is getting OT 1x a week there and 1X a week at Theraplay. ST had to be stopped temporarily at Theraplay because insurance stopped paying. So, we are pushing on that end too. Theraplay has done wonders for him but it has to be consistent. If you are happy where you are, then why do you have to come back to DC? We came back because the kids weren't happyand neither was I: family and friends were all in DC. But it was beautiful in Chester County where we were; sometimes I miss it because there wasn't as much stress. Thanks again.
Diane
Hi Diane
I just thought I'd add my $0.02 - I'm not from your area so I can't give specific names but I can tell you what we are doing. Our DS's pediatrician (who has a son with autism) recommended one of three options: a child psychiatrist, neurologist or neuropsychologist for the initial diagnosis. Her particular preference is for the neurologist (we have our first appt on Dec 15). He had a very long waiting list (our appt was originally scheduled for Feb 2006 but we got in on a cancellation). She also warned us that the neuropsychologist tends to be very expensive and many insurances do not cover it.
Good luck - just passing some info along.
Christie
(37 yrs, SAHW&M, two DSs - oldest 7rs and youngest 16 mos, lives in suburb West of Cleveland Ohio)
We are moving back because all our family are there and we don't know very many people here in Allentown. I have decided to look into what kind of therapy Jake will qualify for in DC before we move. If I'm not satisfied with it then I might hold off for another year just so he can get the therapy he needs.I know your issue with the speech therapy problem. My sister lives in DC and her daughter had a pretty severe speech delay and E.I sent a special ed teacher to help because they are so short on ST.My husband works with Alot of neuro's and I asked him for a recomondation for a neuro for you and he agrees with me that if it's possible to take your son to CHOP. It's a 2 day thing, first your son would see a ST for an eval and then an OT. After that they will videotape the child "playing" with the doc.The whole team get together and watch the tape and together they come to a conclusion.It costs about $200 out of pocket but we later got that back because Jake has a diagnosis and he is entitled to medical assistance.
HTH,
Teresa
Thanks, Christie. I'll look into which neurologists our insurance will help us with. Alot of the psychiatrists are not covered under our insurance and it is costly. Also, my experience with psychiatrists is that they'll just medicate. Thank you very much for your information.
Diane
Thanks, Teresa.
The IU was to send an itenerant teacher to Danny's preschool once a week. The woman calls me from school and says she needs my permission and she couldn't find him. It took 2 weeks of phone tag before we spoke and she had been in the wrong school. Anyway, she is a special education teacher and I said what exactly will you be doing there. She told me she didn't really know, she'd have to read his file and then talk with his teacher and him. Wow; they are really on the ball. Let me know some recommendations if you get a chance. I appreciate your insight and experience. I feel half of the time that it is such an uphill battle for everything these days for our kids and it shouldn't be because the knowledge and awareness is there. It seems like we have to go in ten different directions before we find the right way.
I know what you mean about being far from family. I was an hour away from my family and it was a long and lonely year. That is why we came back to DC. Good luck with your decision. Thanks again. All information is greatly appreciated.
Diane
funny you should mention the issue of psychiatrist and medication - that is the exact reason she (our doctor) did not recommend going there. She said as a physician she is giving me the option of seeing a psychiatrist, neurologist or neuropsychologist for eval. She then said, as a mother with an autistic child, I'd recommend the pediatric neurologist. So that is the route we took.
Take care,
Christie