Early Childhood Intervention

Susan,
I have had 2 situation dealings with ECI with my youngest son. First when he was an infant one of his neck muscles wasn't developing properly. They came out and did a great job working on it and everything came out fine. The second time was his speech. His pediatrician noticed a small delay and he started with ECI but since he has passed the age of 3 he still attends speech once a week through the public school district.

I have nothing but good things to say about ECI. We were comfortable with all there decisions and meetings they would have with us to determine the next step of action, progress, etc. I hope things work out for you.

Have you had his hearing tested? My son didn't say much even at 2 years old, and since he was 4 months, my gut told me he just wasn't hearing things well. My doc wanted me to call ECI too, but instead I saw a pediatric ENT and found out his hearing was not well because he had really thick fluid in his ears. We had tubes put in and he started talking in no time! It only took about 6 mo for him to catch up with his classmates.

Do you take your child to a doctor? Why? You don't just follow your gut or ask your preschool teacher if she thinks he is sick or developing normally, you take him to a doctor to evaluate him. Why? Because a doctor is a trained professional and knows what to look for. Preschool teachers are trained professionals but they are not trained to evaluate speech and language development. ECI has people who are. You child was 2-3 months behind and now he is 7 months behind. It could be in areas that are specific and your preschool teacher doesn't take data on so she wouldn't pick it up. Many problems kids have can very easily be lessened with early intervention. That is the whole reason for ECI. His peers are learning language and he isn't. You and his preschool teacher don't have the tools to measure his development. I trained in speech and hearing and I would keep my child in ECI if I were you. Speech is very different than language. Speech is making the sounds. Language is the ideas, concepts, and thoughts, can he put them in words, how long are his utterances, how complex are they, ect. The standards for boys and girls are different. I am a strong believer in following a mother's instinct but you need to have all the information at hand. I have had my own kids in speech and language therapy and boy does it pay off years later. Ask for written reports or more information before you decide. Do research on the areas of the delays that they tell you.

We had a great experience with ECI, but my son has Angelman Syndrome so his delays were more pronounced in all areas. If it's only speech I wouldn't be too concerned, especially if the daycare is saying he's right around with the other children. Usually the raised concern comes if your child is having delays in more than one area (speech, cognitive, motor skills, etc). But you can always check his ears and hearing too- that's a good thing to eliminate as a cause. I would go with your intuition. ECI is a wonderful help, but it is an elective program. Here's a link to their website that shows average milestones for different ages: http://www.eci-lps.org/ECI/Typical.aspx That might give you an idea of if he's on target (according to their standards).

Hey Susan. I work for MHMR of Tarrant County (ECI is a part of us). Anyways, I'm just so happy to read all of the posts saying that ECI has helped them! I guess my only advice would be to voice all of your concerns to the case worker/doctor/nurse. They may not share the same opinion with you but they will listen!

We have had nothing but good experience with ECI and Ready Start. They are very thorough and they really know their stuff. You might want to talk with your case worker or whoever did your initial evaluation and see if perhaps there is a different speech therapist you can work with, just to get a second opinion. They are very easy to wrok with but sometimes hard to reach, as most non=profit federal agencies are. But it's worth it to get the best evaluations and assistance.

Weather he is delayed or not I wouldn't even worry about right now. My son also hit every other milestone just fine he just would not talk. We had his hearing tested and had him scheduled for EIC but before we even had our appoint ment he just decided to talk. That was quite literally one month before his second birthday. He went form not talking AT ALL to sentances in a week and we haven't been able to get him to shut up since. His firt word was a sentance.

Susan,

My son was with ECI when he was just barely a year old. We had an amazing set of therapists, an Ocupational Therapist, a Behavior therapist, and a nutritionist. The only one we didnt have was a speach therapist. We oved our OT, but the BT was not my favorite. We asked to see a different one, and they were very understanding. Once we had a team that we felt we could work with, we saw so many great improvements with our son!

The OT made all of the difference in the world for us and though my son is 4 now (ECI only assists until they are 3) we are still in contact with her and she has been a true blessing from God.

You obviously had enough concern for your son to talk to your son's dr about it, and she saw that there was enough concern to refer you to ECI. If you are not seeing any improvement, or just dont seem comfortable with your therapist, then ask to see another one. When you are both working together to help your son, you will see the results you are looking for. If you think he needs assistantce, then dont wait. It is better to catch all delays early than "waiting it out" becuase he will develop bad habits and you take the chance of him getting farther and farther behind.

Basicaly you are the best assesment for your child. Not your dr (who only sees them for 15 min when you need them to) not your daycare provider ( she is biast since she cares for him. Maybe she is not teaching him the way he needs to be taught to thrive.) and not any one else on here.

You are an awesome mom for not only doing the best you can to raise your child, but you are doing what you think is best for him to thrive as a healthy little boy. Go with your heart. You will always know what is best for him.

Good luck. I am looking forward to hearing how he is doing in the future!

Hi I have a son who is now a second grader that had speech delays and motor delays as a toddler. I got him into ECI...it was free at the time and he did qualify for speech and a case worker from 18 months to 2.5 years. I did it bc 1. there was no cost to me 2. It was not going to hurt my son to have someone work with him and me 2 times a month 3. I felt as a mom that he did need the help and I got him additional private speech therapy as well. ECI was just a backup and another opinion. The private therapist put my son as significantly delayed while ECI put him at moderately delayed on speech. So I had a second opinion. At 2.5 probably due to the amount of private speecha and OT my son passed the ECI requirements and they said he didn't need their services any more. My son currently speaks fine albeit has some word retrieval issues and still some motor challenges but is in a gitted and talented program at school and is academically on track.

IMO you should at least keep your son on the ECI books! In the event you decide otherwise or something changes then you are already in the system. ECI is not going to hurt your son...you pay taxes for this and you are getting services that your son may not "need" as much as say a child with autism but it will help him. Why turn it down? Did they reevaluate and then tell you he is 7 months behind? You need to really understand the jargon, what tests they are using and why there are discrepancies between the original testing and 6 months later. Bc it would indicate he has made no progress or has regressed which is not what you say the day care teacher thinks. That is definitely something you need to push for answers. And trust me as any parent of a child who has needed resources/services knows you need to advocate and be vocal and ask questions.

Good luck!

I love ECI, my son has had alot of ear infections and he was about 4-6 months behind on his speech. His two therapists that come are wonderful. The work with him they play with him and he has really improved alot over just about two months. I love our therapists, maybe you should talk with them and see what they say. They are specialized in this field. hope that helps

We had the exact same issue. At my son's 15-month checkup, he couldn't say M. or dada or ANY words whereas the doc said he should be saying at least those and suggested we contact ECI to ensure there wasn't any sort of delay (he also had tongue-tie so we wanted to make sure that that wasn't hampering his speech). We were evaluated by ECI and they found him to be eligible for services based on his speech (expressive and receptive). They did NOT check his hearing at his eval so a few months later when we went to see the ENT about getting his tongue tie clipped, they checked his hearing and he had an extreme buildup of fluid in his ears which made it very difficult for him to hear. They put tubes in and it was as if the flood gates opened. He started talking up a storm and has not stopped almost two years later.

We did not discontinue ECI services - just reduced them to case coordination so that, until his 3rd birthday, SHOULD he need services, he's already in the system and we can just call them in. He still apparently qualifies in speech (even though he speaks whole sentences at less than 2 and a half). The standardized testing that they use when reevaluating the kiddos is such that if they don't perform that exact task on that day (i.e. follow unrelated, multi-step directions) then they can't give them credit for knowing how to do that and they score lower than their actual abilities. I didn't find ECI to be all that terribly helpful (and not to knock what they do or the person we worked with, it's just that once he got his tubes, it really didn't matter much if he worked with them once a week/month/whatever, he improved dramatically on his own). Essentially, as someone from ECI told me, it's very hard (once your child has qualified) to no longer be eligible for services. I think that ECI can be helpful - particularly to those who can't afford private therapy - but I would at least look into getting the ears/hearing checked. My son did NOT have any ear infections or problems with his ears prior to getting his hearing test so we had absolutely no indication before then that there were any issues with his hearing other than the fact that he wasn't talking when he should be

Hope this helps. Good luck!

My son started ECI at 25 months due to language and physical delays. I had awesome therapists and I think that is really the key. I had a preschool teacher tell me there was nothing wrong with him and I am very glad I did not listen to her. She was the one profiting from my son where as ECI was not since all of ECI's services are free and daycare was $100 a week. I ended up pulling my son from the daycare and following all of ECI's suggestions which included visiting an ENT for a hearing check that resulted in unnecessary tubes being put in his ears and a few months later we found out he had mild Autism.
Go with your gut believe who you have the most trust in and who you feel has your son's best interest at heart.

Susan,
I work for the University and the program I'm with works closely with ECI. I think it's a great program, maybe ask to see if someone else can evaluate your son. I have been concerned about my son who is 2 1/2 now, I haven't had him tested by ECI, but the professors in my program tell me I'm more to blame for his speech delay... He just has to cry or point and I give... I've gotten better and he's also trying to talk more, sometimes you can understand him some times you can't. He by no means talks as good as his siblings when they were his age, also, he was with a babysitter who has a daughter 2 months older than him, and she talks way better than him too. He's very smart without having to say anything, I sometimes think he knows if he talks, he's not going to be mommy's little baby... Seriously, he understands everything you tell him. As he gets older I do see him talking more.
So personally I would keep ECI, it's free until he's 3 anyway...

We had our son evaluated for language delay issues at 16 months and again at right around 24 months. The first time he was evaluated it was because of concerns that my husband and I shared. The second time he was evaluated it was because of concerns that his Montessori Guide had. Each time ECI evaluated him they determined that he did not qualify for speech therapy because his delay, if any, was insignificant. I, personally, found the ECI evaluators to be very helpful and not at all overly eager to treat.

Susan, Your instincts as a mother are the best guide for you. I have triplets that were all seen by ECI for about a year for physical therapy. ECI is a great organization but they cannot evauluate a child the way you or you daycare provider can. They just don't see them enough. I finally just told ECI that I didn't think my kids needed their service anymore and they hesitantly agreed. You can pull him from it and have him evaulated at a later date if you see a delay. Good luck to you. Elizabeth Beall

Just tell them that, for now, you just want to be in the follow-along program. He can get services until he is 3...so maybe hang in there but not totally remove him just in case you decide he needs the speech therapy. Once you're out of the program I don't think you can get back in.

I used ECI for speech for one of my daughters and had great success, but we also had a great therapist. If you aren't comfortable with the one you have then you have a right to ask to switch and they will let you. I did it! :)

Hang in there!

I don't know about ECI but if it is a 'for profit' org, I would be suspect to what they are saying to you, particularly if preschool teachers are telling you that his language is fine. It's good to monitor it but at 24 months, I wouldn't be overly concerned about a delay (assuming they are giving you accurate information). If at 4 or so, you are still noticing it, then I would pursue something. I'm a mom of 2 teenagers, former preschool teacher and currently teaching elementary (1st/2nd). Don't stress!

Honestly, if they are offering help, take it. My son had lots of issues (sensory integration/speech) that ECI never picked up on and refused to treat. I ended up using my private insurance to get him speech therapy and OT and PT and it was WELL worth it. I was pissed that ECI never felt like he needed it when he obviously did. If ECI is saying your child needs help, then I would accept it - it is only to his advantage.

-L.

My daughter was with ECI for 2 years and we had a great experience with them. The testing they do is based ok theory and not totally on what other kids are able to do. If you see that ECI is helping him to improve with speech then keep it up. While we had a great experience with ECI, we never had much luck in keeping a sperch person (because we didn't live in the metroplex). Follow your feeling about what to do. Also try working with your child yourself. Carry on a conversation with them. If he gives any response, keep going. Read with him and know that he will talk. Some kids don't talk at the specified time because others talk for them or their needs are met so they don't need to talk. Try whatever motivated him and use one word or two when giving it to him. I wish you all the best as you are doing a great job being a mommy to your child.

I've worked in public school and preschool and have had a couple of interactions with ECI through those. I have always been impressed with their care for the kids. I have seen their intervention in more extreme cases (autism, etc) not just speech problems. As a professional working with them, they have done a good job. However, if you feel uncomfortable with their diagnosis, maybe you can work with the public schools or private speech therapist to get a 2nd opinion on his development in language. Best of luck to you.

I'm sorry you've expereinced such concern for your little boy. I can sort of relate. My son had "passed" all of his pediatrician's "screenings" until his 2 year check-up when he didn't fall into the right category of words-per-sentence for his age. I was alarmed at the speed at which she whipped out a brochure for ECI, pidgeon-holed my son, and named all sorts of disorders. Honestly, after the anger wore off that day, I blew her off and threw away the brochure. Our son is a very communicative, analytical (being a boy) and curious boy. He will talk when he's ready. He's not around kids but 3 days a week and she didn't even consider that verbally with me. I've found a different pediatrician with a much better bed-side manner!

When he is about four, have him rechecked. The elementary schools will do this for free. Have the doctor check his ears, also not accurate until around four when he can tell you if he hears or not but they can see if anything in there or something does not appear correctly.

Bilingual? Always takes kids longer. Some boys don't hardly talk at all until school if that so why learn to speak correctly? Depends on him.

We went through something similar. My son was a late bloomer and it took untill he was four to tell us he doesn't always hear correctly. Of course I knew but he couldn't confirm it. I was uncomfortable with the ECI. Made me feel like social services.

I took him to speech therapy at the school during the preschool year (4)and it did wonders. I praise his therapist. He brought my son from non coherent to being able to communicate well.

If you can understand him and his teacher is saying he seems fine, I wouldn't worry too much but be sure to run this by your pediatrician so you can rule out any physical abnormalities.

Always remember, this is your child. If something doesn't seem right it probably isn't. If you are uncomfortable, might be a reason why. You make the final decision in his care. Not them.

Good luck and God bless, C.

Hi Susan, I have had experience with ECI with my oldest who is now 6. We started the process when he was 2 1/2 and he was not talking except for a few words. It was recommended by his daycare teacher at the time. I was not as impressed with the speech therapist as I was with the occupational therapist. I ended up stopping the program after 6 months. In hindsight, I wish I had continued since the services were not that costly and can;t hurt. Fast forward a two years and my son was diagnosed as slightly autistic, I say this not to scare you, but to just tell you our experience. It all ended fine - we started an intense Applied Behavorial analysis therapy for a year and a half and he is at par and even ahead of his peers in reading and language. He was my first child and we just thought he was a late bloomer, but I do believe early intervention is the key to giving your child the help he/she needs. Good luck and hang in there - trust your instincts.

Hi,I had a great experience with ECI. At almost two,my son wasn't talking much at all. just a few words. We had the best therapist come out. And I mean nearly 40 miles in the middle of no-where,to our house. My son had her un-divided attention. Playing, while learning. Within just a few months,something "clicked" with my son and he started putting words together. They used a combination of sign-language and verbally saying the words. At four now,he never shuts up!
You haven't said what the peditrician now says of his verbal skills? And,I am not sure why you would take the word of the daycare teacher over the therapist? Is she qualified to give you an oppinion on the subject,other than she has been teaching pre-schoolers for 23 yrs. Your MOm intuition should tell you if your child is behind or not. Listen to that and you will have your answer. Good luck and have a good day.

What does your pediatrician say about this? Do YOU have any concerns about your son's speech? You don't HAVE to have ECI involved, you have the right to refuse services.

We were referred to ECI when my daughter turned one year because she wasn't pulling up to standing. The came out, did the the evaluation, and said she was behind in physical development with the crawling and walking, and also behind cognitively. I completely disagreed with the cognitive delay. It's been three months since they did the evaluation, and we still have not seen a physical therapist. The general case worker comes every two weeks for an hour and plays with my daughter and gives me ideas of what I can do to help her walk, but it really hasn't been helpful. I asked them to reevaluate the cognitive, they did, and she's ahead now...so I guess I don't really trust their evaluation system! I mean, I do think she's on target or a little ahead cognitively, but to say she was three months behind in December and now all of a sudden say she's ahead doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'm also frustrated that the physical therapist has not been out to see us when that's what the whole basis for the referral was.
That's been my experience!

I have a good experience with ECI. I started with them when my daughter was 1 1/2 and now she is 2 1/2, she started not saying barely any words and now says many words and talks so much better. She started doing so well that I requested to get her re-evaluated by ECI and then dropped her service from 2/mo. to 1/mo. Now she is getting evaluated by the school because she will be 3 soon and then they will take over services if needed. If I were you I would ask ECI to come in and re-evaluate him and then if he is doing well, just have services 1/mo. until he is closer to 3 and then let the school evaluate him just to be on the safe side. It doesn't hurt anything to have ECI still come. And they can't tell you how far behind he is until they actually evaluate him again. Why stop something that is good for him and won't go too much longer anyways because he will be 3 soon. That is my opinion anyways, hope it helps.

My dd started ECI at 2 something. She had speech and a little developemental delays. And I know they weren't wrong about the speech, all of us were frusterated trying to understand her. She made very slow emprovements in the speech (she has a very short attention span). She was tested for the school program in the spring and they said she qualified (ECI stops at 3). But during the summer she started bursting with new words and sentence. She had her tonsiles removed; was sick a lot that year and didn't sleep well, which affects the brain. She likes the school program - play with someone other than little brother, learn different things, and teaches her more disipline getting her ready for big kid school. (she doesn't go to daycare) Maybe your dr can give you a second opinion.