Early Childhood and Beyond - By Krystle Huelsmann
When our oldest son was not reaching his milestones, we were given information by his doctor to receive at-home evaluations and services for his mental and physical sessions. Early Childhood therapists helped my son grow by coming to our house and working with him. I remained a stay-at-home mom for a couple of reasons during this time. All of the local child care centers were full with multiple month-long waiting lists. It also helped that I stayed home so he could receive the therapy he needed with me there so I could also learn what he was doing and implement it in our daily activities.
As he aged and progressed enough after weekly sessions, he was able to attend the local school because they had programs for children who needed extra help. Between Pre-K and Kindergarten, he was diagnosed with ADHD and Hyperactivity, which helped a little during his daily life. He was still getting in trouble at school and seemed that he needed a very steady to almost strict schedule and procedures. We had gone through therapists who said that he "wanted to be a good boy" but needed extra time for him to adjust. It wasn't until about his 2nd to 3rd school year that he tested as having Level 1 Autism.
Since then, with the combination of medication for his ADHD and weekly therapy with Emergent Learning along with help from his caseworker at school, he has improved. We still have daily struggles, ranging from changes in routines, understanding life that is not straightforward in a black and white format, to lashing out verbally or physically. Only in the past 7 months have I been able to work a constant job (at home) after almost 10 years. Even though we have 10 hours of services for his Autism, we don't have much other than medication for his ADHD/ Hyperactivity, so we had to search for programs to keep him active. Currently, he takes cello and piano lessons, swimming lessons, and gymnastics every week. The most difficult and frustrating parts are being active in his treatments and not seeing any results only to find out later that other diagnoses were involved.
Thinking back, I am not sure what I would ask to improve on the services for Early Childhood. Both therapists were wonderful and helped my son greatly. Currently, it is the transition out of the programs that would be appreciated. I want to know which programs are best for different diagnosis, what child care options support those with diagnoses, and how to navigate through the financial ends of each; those would be my top searches.