So last week Anthony had his one year post surgery with the Pediatric ENT and the next day he had his 2.5 well toddler checkup. He passed his hearing test and the tubes are both still in there and should hopefully last all through winter. Both his pediatrician and the pediatric ENT said that he should be evaluated for a speech delay. He is just not talking as and as clearly as his friends in class. He's using 2-4 word sentences, but very rudimentary from "thank you" to "no baby, boy now". His classmates even say his name better than he can.

It's kinda a mess getting set up. It's free through the state up to age 3, but you're supposed to call your school district, and they don't have a direct link on their website. Then you get bounced around from the "oh he's not in school yet, we're for school age kids, you want this number" and finally it's "you need to call this state agency and then they will call us and then we will call you." So finally I'm set up for his evaluation appointments in October. He needs two of them, one with the state agency and one with the school district person. Luckily the state agency person completely understood the whole "no I can't take two different days off work" and scheduled for right before my school appointment and she will come to my house and then follow me there. I've got a ton of paperwork to fill out.

I swear kids eat up all your sick/vacation days. Not just when they are sick but just for appointments. He is also going to the dentist every month because they want to watch a tooth.

Lara Amber

FYI, up to 3, it's early intervention through the state. At 3 your school district is supposed to provide services for eligible children. You do not have to wait until he's three to get him tested for that. Start asking about "what happens when he turns 3" as soon as this round of testing is done. Hopefully he'll just transfer over to a preschool an it'll be great, but better to start asking about it in advance to give you more time in case there are any paperwork problems.

Good luck!

It's kinda a mess getting set up. It's free through the state up to age 3, but you're supposed to call your school district, and they don't have a direct link on their website. Then you get bounced around from the "oh he's not in school yet, we're for school age kids, you want this number" and finally it's "you need to call this state agency and then they will call us and then we will call you." So finally I'm set up for his evaluation appointments in October. He needs two of them, one with the state agency and one with the school district person. Luckily the state agency person completely understood the whole "no I can't take two different days off work" and scheduled for right before my school appointment and she will come to my house and then follow me there. I've got a ton of paperwork to fill out.


I'm just catching up after being out of town for a few days, and haven't read the whole thread yet, but I can add a few things here. You do need to talk to the Early Intervention folks who will do the screening and figure out what services he needs. You do not need to call your school department when he turns 3. That transition should all be handled and coordinated by the Early Intervention folks as part of their job and ensuring that he does get the services that he needs.

Early Intervention generally came to my house for my kids' appointments, but we did start going to the various providers at some point, so you might have to arrange for him to be able to get to the provider. Once my kids turned 3 and the services were provided by my school district, they were able to come to DS at daycare, but I needed to have him at a daycare in town to get that done. That was a big driver in making sure that I had them in the in-town daycare (we only had one) and he got his services there.

You do need to keep track of all of this and make sure that he is getting what he needs along the way. You will meet some really helpful people, but there are also some that aren't quite helpful, so you need to be on your toes to deal with them. Get informed about the timelines, and remember that timelines typically get triggered by something in writing, so put your requests in writing to preserve his rights, even though they will tell you that you can just call them. You don't want anything to get lost along the way.

Good luck.

You do need to talk to the Early Intervention folks who will do the screening and figure out what services he needs. You do not need to call your school department when he turns 3. That transition should all be handled and coordinated by the Early Intervention folks as part of their job and ensuring that he does get the services that he needs. (emphasis added)

Just because something should be handled doesn't mean it will be.

And I still suggest calling the district in advance of turning 3 to find out what their requirements are.

I actually got a call back the day after they called to book my two appointments. Since Anthony was 2 1/2 they wanted more time at the appointments and to send me more paperwork so that if Anthony does qualify for intervention, his transition stuff for six months down the line is already set up and there is no break in service.

Lara Amber