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Up until this past November, Beauty had a speech therapist coming to the house each week to help her advance her language skills. It made a world of difference, but our move in late November derailed that progress a bit. Paperwork was lost, and information misguided. Beauty was “on the list” for a reevaluation, but missing all the past reports of her speech therapist seemed to keep pushing us back farther and farther. Last week, we were assigned to a new branch of Child and Family Connections (CFC) and we’ve already had a partial reevaluation, which I detailed a bit here. For whatever reason, though, they did not book us an evaluation with a physical therapist (scheduling issues, I think?) so that will take place tomorrow.
Suffice to say, I’m anxious to hear what they’ll say about Beauty’s incessant toe-walking. Time and time again we’ve been “blown off” by numerous therapists/evaluators, stating “she’ll grow out of it”. Aside from our pediatrician, no one has taken us seriously about this concern. However, at the last assessment, the physical and speech therapist were appalled–almost horrified, even–by the lack of concern shown by Beauty’s previous evaluators. I could’ve cried tears of joy: finally, someone who shares and validates our concerns.
Now, I pause to state that your child’s pediatrician can be your most invaluable resource; we are lucky to have a very pro-active pediatrician who maintains a well-rounded focus on all areas of our children’s development. However, even with her referral for physical therapy, we ran into quite a few dead ends. Several didn’t take our insurance and charged absolutely insane amounts for forty minutes every other week; others were booked until–and I kid you not–2012. So even while Beauty is this close to aging out of CFC’s Early Intervention Services, we now have the attention for which we’ve been searching. As Beauty begins this next leg of her journey in early childhood education, all of her strengths and weaknesses across the board will be evident in black and white. I am currently breathing a sigh of relief.
So what do you do when no one seems to be listening to your concerns about your child’s development? Keep going. Keep pressing on. Keep asking for assistance. Voice your concerns. No one knows your child better than you do. Keep a journal–a dated, written record–recording your concerns with any facet of your child’s development. Look outside the box; we went through CFC and moved to Easter Seals for another reevaluation. Still, no one felt physical therapy was necessary for toe-walking. Only after we moved to different CFC branch did we see any movement, even with the wholehearted support and aid of our pediatrician. Ask what kind of evaluations are available. Request reassessments every few months. The best thing you can do is ask, ask, ask. If you keep voicing your concerns, chances are good that someone–somewhere down the line–is bound to assist you in obtaining the therapies needed for your child.
