ECI Evaluation Issues

I definitely call and discuss things with the pediatrician so you can get down to the bottom of exactly why they want to do a full developmental evaluation.

I know it's hard, but if ECI noticed something, I'd follow up. It could be nothing. But if it's "something" the earlier they intervene, the better. There are plenty of "somethings" that can become "nothings" with proper early developmental assistance.
The ECI people would be in a better position to assess her because they spent more time with her. The pediatrician could miss it now, only to notice she's behind a year from now. Meanwhile, you could be getting her the help she needs.

Hey, M..

As the mother of 2 children who were both born with birth defects and a pediatrician who just didn't seem concerned, I would go ahead and let ECI do what they want to do. Early intervention is the key...which is why they exist. If it's only that she's laid back, what harm could it do to get some services that are either free or billed to your insurance.

My first born daughter has a birth defect that was well-detected by our ped but later she exhibited some autistic-type behaviors that the ped didn't seem worried about and never referred us to a specialist until I asked for the referral. Turns out my daughter has an "autistic spectrum" disorder. Then, my second born had cranial synastosis that our ped was in denial about and hesitated to give us a referral to a cranial specialist. It wasn't until I pushed and advocated for my daughter that the ped finally caved in and referred us. They took the x-rays and determined she had left coronal synastosis which is where one of the plates in the skull fuse prematurely and can cause severe assymetry or facial distortions. It was correct by surgery at 2 years old.

I would say, if you're not sure, ask your ped to refer you to a developmental ped...they are the specialists when it comes to your child's development...not a regular ped.

I agree with most of the other moms here. Just have ECI do the evaulation, its free, and more then likely they won't find anything wrong at all, they have strict reqiurements in order to qualify for the ECI program. It can't hurt at all. My son was in ECI from 2 1/2 to 3 he had a speech delay and knew he was behind and I wish I would of enrolled him earlier because it really helped him, he is now in the Allen district school seeing a speech patholigist there and has tremoous improvement. When ECI did the evaulation I thought he would not qualify but he did so Im glad I got the test done, this will prevent delays later once he starts school. So if you are worried just get the test done, and it will put your mind at ease. Also peditricans really can't tell much during a 10 min vist since they don't live with you, to see what your child does everyday. By the way my peditrican said everything was fine too, when he asked about my son's speech at his 2 year old check up. Turned out that was not the case.

It never hurts to investigate further. Doctors aren't always right...a second and sometimes even a third opinion are a good idea.

I agree with Michelle's response to you about ECI. Like her, we found ECI to be nice but not aggressive when it counted (by 'aggressive', we mean their therapy sessions were weak, w/little or no results). We switched to Kidscare after 6 months with ECI. The caliber of staff and care at Kidscare was noticably better and we started getting results.

I do NOT recommend ECI for physical/occupational therapy because, although they were polite and seemingly professional people, they still wasted six valuable months of our time by doing speech therapy to "encourage" my child to articulate, when all along my child's hinderance to speaking was a physical issue that required occupational therapy. My child was trying so hard to articulate for those ECI people and couldn't; I can only imagine his frustration inside! My original referral to ECI did not come from my pediatrician; early on, I had heard all good things about ECI. After a few months, I was getting frustrated seeing no progress but I kept trusting ECI - then suddenly, my pediatrician referred us to KidsCare for therapy. I told the pediatrician we already had ECI; the pediatrician STRONGLY suggested we switch and thank God we did! Upon telling the ECI therapist that we were switching to KidsCare, the therapist admitted off the record that was probably a good idea because ECI can't really offer truly effective physical/occupational therapy. Later, the therapist's manager admitted the same to me on the phone. Yet in the meantime, they were sure willing to keep coming out and keep getting paid for as long as they could keep stringing us along. Having had both ECI (for 6 months) and KidsCare (for 8 months now) I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that KidsCare is FAR, far better. KidsCare has my son just about "finished".

As for your daughter...when my son was 6mo old, he too was content to be rather inactive. It turned out he needed a lot of upper body strengthening to get his swallowing/speaking mechanism to work right. Can you get your child to lay on her stomach & play w/a toy for more than a few seconds? That requires upper body strength. Is your child suseptible to pneumonia? Does it go down the wrong pipe when she's drinking, more than a usual amount of times? If you hold out a toy does she instantly try to reach for it? That too takes strength. Weakness can often be mistaken for laziness; weakness can lead to developmental delays in all kinds of areas. Then again, your daughter may be just fine but I'd say get a 2nd opinion from KidsCare. I'm not positive, but I think Kidscare offers a free evaluation (?).

KidsCare Therapy, Inc.
9330 Amberton Pkwy, Ste 2140
Dallas, TX 75243
###-###-####

Good Luck,
A.

My daughter participated in the ECI program from when she was approxiametly 15 months to 3 years due to speech and other delays. I wish I had started earlier with her on it. It didn't hurt at all and the cost was very minimal. They came out to my house and did the speech therapy. I saw an improvement in my daughter and it helped me get her into a special program at the school where she is flourishing. They may think that your daughter may need just a bit of extra stimulation since she is so laid back and it's probably nothing to worry about. Think of it this way, it will do more good than harm. I would definitely look into it more. If you ever need to talk to someone who has dealt with them and gone through it, send me a message and I will be of any help you need. :)

We've had a really good experience with ECI. However, that being said, they can only work with what they see. When they first evaluated our daughter, there were certain things she didn't want to do that day. She has since demonstrated that she can do them. On the other hand, there are areas where she is behind, and they are working with us on those. They have really listened to us as the parents and asked a lot of questions as we (together) have planned what to work on.

Of course, there could always be an ECI employee somewhere that's not as helpful/cooperative as the ones we've worked with, but that has been our experience.

If I were you, I would talk to the pediatrician about it and have at least one more meeting with ECI, where you can discuss your concerns with them. They may be able to provide you with more specifics about why they said what they said and what they are concerned about. And you can go from there.

An example: with our daughter (who is older than yours), there was one thing they tested for that she didn't know because we had never thought to teach her...the concept of "all." It just never came up in our daily conversation. At her age they expect her to differentiate between "one" and "all." Well, she knew "one" but she didn't know "all." Now we have started teaching "all" - "Give me all the blocks" - and she's getting it. This is what they call "lack of opportunity" as a reason for not knowing a skill, and does not represent a serious delay at all, but it caused her to score lower on her cognitive reasoning.

So there are lots of possibilities.

B.

Personally, I would get a second opinion with another pediatrician. I don't have much faith in ECI. They evaluated my son because our insurance at the time wouldn't pay for therapy. The lady tested his hearing by hiding behind him and whispering. He looked, so they said he didn't have any hearing loss. How ridiculous. When we took him to the ear/nose/throat specialist - his tympanogram was completely flat and he has massive hearing loss. I continued to use the ECI therapists while I fought for our insurance to pay for private therapy. The ECI therapists were nice - but not very aggressive. One every two weeks isn't going to do much for a 2 year old. Also - our therapist changed frequently, and they were always new graduates. Nothing against a new graduate, but I was happy when our insurance agreed to pay and we went to Cook's for private therapy. Our therapist had many years of experience and had him speaking in no time, and continued to work with him after his surgery to catch him up to his age-appropriate speech. I have heard other similar stories from parents. If you have insurance, please get a second opinion at Cook's - it will be well worth your time to speak to an expert. Good luck!

Take any and all help you can get for your daughter. Suppose there is something she may need help with, but you realized too late that you could have done more! You would feel terrible. I would much prefer to find out nothing is wrong, than to wait and discover what I should have done. You obviously know your daughter best, but ECI is full of trained professionals, who have nothing to gain by letting you know how your daughter is doing. I have never had to use these services, but lots of friends have and are so grateful they did. Even for little developmental things, that will overall just help her to be a happy and thriving little girl! I dont want to alarm you, but have you ever seen shown on autism, or any other kind of disorder, and heard the parents say that the pediatricians told them for years that nothing was wrong...a pedi can not tell in a 10 minute visit what is really going on. So, I would schedule the evaluation, and be grateful that someone else is looking out for your little girl! Good luck! ~A.~

We had ECI do an evaluation on our son when he was almost 2 because he wasn't speaking very clearly and didn't have much of a vocabulary. If I remember correctly, their evaluation freaked me out a little bit because they said he had fine motor skills like a 12 month old. But they were really nice through the whole process. They have been seeing him at his daycare once a week since then and I've seen much improvement. I don't know if the improvement is just because he's getting older or if they're actually helping. I figured that any help he can get is better than not doing anything at all. I have to give my child the best chance he can get, so if someone was going to offer to improve any of his skills, I was going to take them up on that offer. You can email me if you have any other questions!

Well, do you see her interested in anything at home? Does she look around and seem interested in any toys? I think you would know if there was anything wrong, especially considering she is not your first child. Are they wanting to charge you for the full evaluation or is it free? You may have just got an over-zealous or new ECI representative. I agree with some of the others here, you should call your doctor and discuss it with him before doing anything else.

My child was in the ECI program from age 18 months to 3 years old. She's now 4 and 1/2 and she's in the school district preschool for disabled kids and receives services for several significant developmental delays. When she was young she was just normal enough for professionals to consider me an over reacting mother and she would have received no services of any kind if I hadn't taken it upon myself to investigate it further. I've not had a pediatrician yet express real concern for my child's problems. And I've gone to several searching for the best. So I think that just because you're pediatrician is not saying anything to you means nothing in my book.

My point is that sometimes the problems are subtle but significant and can totally be overcome with therapy services. Many people overlooked my child's problems, but now that she's a little older it's obvious she needed help and I would have kicked myself if I had let it go. The fact that someone is noticing something in your child doesn't necissarily mean there's a terrible problem. But if it were me, I would definitley not blow it off. At least have the evaluation. There's no risk and you can take it from there. One thing that confuses me a little is that you say your daughter is 6 months old. I was under the impression that they wouldn't even evaluate a child under 18 months. But maybe that was just my specific situation.

I will say, ECI did not impress me that much but I have some friends who had more experienced therapists than I did. So I think your experience with them will depend somewhat on which people you get assigned to you. But either way they are professional, my daughter really liked them and they are free -- at least for the evaluation. And they come to you so it's really convenient. I don't see what it could hurt to look into it.

I wish you the best.

I have worked with many children over the years (I have been a practicing speech-language pathologist for 15 years). As a professional, and a mom, I urge you to allow ECI to assess your child. From the assessment you will gain one of two things: Peace of mind that your child is developing at a typical rate, or that your child requires some form of intervention. Avoiding the assessment will not change the outcome - but it could make you regret your delay if intervention is later found necessary. An ECI intervention is non-invasive. You are given the opportunity to speak with professionals about your child's development, and receive assistance with any necessary therapy that might be required.

Your request is somewhat unusual, as most of the parents with whom I have worked with, are concerned that their child does NOT qualify for ECI sevices (because they do not meet the delay requirements).

Please feel free to contact me if you should have any questions ###-###-####, ____@____.com).

You are fortunate that your child is in a care situation that has provided you this opportunity to learn more about your child's development. You might want to ask the caretakers what your child typically does during the day. Does it differ from what she/he doeas at home? If so, could your child be overstimiulated at the day care? There are so many factors. Hopefully an ECI meeting will put your concerns to rest.

S.

I know what you're feeling. I wanted to be in denial that there was anything wrong with my son. And I even let some people tell me things like "well, boys are slower to talk than girls" or "well, he doesn't need to talk because you anticipate his needs." So i didn't seek help extremely early. But I did later...once 2 different adults (childcare/school professionals) made comments to me about his speech delay. That did it. ECI came out and did a free evaluation...and yes he had a significant delay behind his peers.

And really, on the big picture, grand scale of things...a developmental or speech delay is not the end of the world....it's not devasting news. It's OK if your child has this. Intervening early with therapy can reverse it and help her catch up with her peers sooner.

Like someone said before...I finally came to the realization that if they come out and do therapy every week or twice a week...and then next week my son is reciting monologues...then I can stop the therapy but I need to do all I can do now when others can see a delay in him. It's the type of therapy that can only help a child...any child in development.

Some people told me that many key figures in history had speech delays [i guess to prove that fact that it has nothing to do with intelligence] and that 'so what' if he's delayed. but that's not facing the reality of what's expected from him. his peers and other adults want and need to talk to him...and he couldn't communicate his feelings/wants/needs to them. and he missed out on class interaction, games, behavior skills, friendships, etc.

We did ECI and now that he's 3 ..he's been in early childhood school in Plano ISD full time with speech therapy there. And he's been doing great there!

Hi M.,
I would take all the information collectively....let ECI do the eval...doing that does not force you to agree to anything. The more information the better you can decide what is best for you and your child. I know pedi's should flag developmental stuff, but being a special educator for preschoolers...it is amazing how many pedi's never referred these children to ECI. Not that they don't know this stuff, but their concerns are more medical I think some developemental details are overlooked unless it is severe. Let them do it, early intervention works!!!

K.

Please go ahead and get a full evaluation. I wish we had gotten help that early with our 1st son (he's 5 now). He was a very content baby who did most everything late, but it did catch up with him at around 2-3. My son didn't roll over until 6 1/2 months and didn't crawl or pull up until 10 months. My ped. thought he was lazy or laid-back, but he was wrong. My son has had therapy, but still has poor upper body stregth (which effect his writing/fine motor skills) and receptive speech delays. This is something we have to deal with every day.

Do what you can now, whether you decide on help through ECI or another place. I think you would regret it later if you didn't. And just think of the peace of mind it will give you if they find that she has NO delays!!

I work at Children's Medical Center and refer families to ECI often. I think their services are helpful, but here are some other things to think about before you make your decision. Have you looked up what a 6 month old should be doing? I think babycenter.com has a pretty good list of what babies should be learning to do each month. That might give you an idea of where your daughter is. Does your older son do a lot for her? Sometimes kids with older siblings just let the sibling do everything for them. How does she compare to your 2.5 year old when he was 6 months old? It also depends on what assessment tool ECI used to evaluate your daughter. Sometimes children do not "perform" the tasks required of them during the evaluation because they do not know, or are scared of the instructor, are sleepy, are hungry, etc. Your pediatrician might have some helpful information too. Did ECI evaluate everyone in your daughter's class at daycare? Hope these questions, or others things to consider, are helpful. It wouldn't hurt to see what ECI says after their full evaluation...

We used ECI for therapy issues when my son was little. I was very impressed with their program. They sent the sweetest ladys out to our house. I am sure they are just talking about some light play therapy. I am not sure but I think the services are free? You might check into that. I would not worry at all. You might talk to them and find out what they were observing. Maybe you would want them to come to the house and talk to you. They could observe in a quiet location that is her own home. She may just be uninterested at school because there is so much to look at and listen to! It would at least put your mind at ease! Just might be something you might look into. Your doctor is not in a play situation with your little one. I am sure there is nothing to be concerned with. I just wanted to say we had a great experience with ECI. The very best to you!

It never hurts to go through ECI. I have had
friends that have used it for their child and
have been very glad that they did. ECI may
further evaluate her and find that she is
developing normally. If she does have a need then
early treatment is key.

After the age of three, ECI is no longer available
and specialists are very expensive - not to mention
that your child's condition could get worse without
treatment at a young age. It is better to get
treatment now then to regret it later.