Xander's Evaluation

So we just finished Xan Man's evaluation!  This evaluation was NOT to test for autism.  Basically it was to see if Xander would qualify for services, and which services that may be.  I knew for sure he would need speech therapy (duh.. he doesn't talk!) But other than that I was kind of going in blind. Overall it went... ok.

The evaluator came in and explained the process.  Basically if Xander wualified he would get an IFSP (individual family services plan) which is an IEP for toddlers (makes total sense to my teacher brain!!

The evaluation started out with her asking me a bunch of questions about what Xander does/doesn't do.  Can he walk? Can he feed himself? Does he follow 1 or 2 step directions? Can he differentiate between familiar/nonfamiliar people? Does he engage in play? Does he express different emotions? Can he express his needs/wants? Does he show appropriate separation anxiety? there were many more but those are the ones I remember.  Most of the questions were a "rarely" or "never" for Xander. 

Next, the evaluator started working with Xander.  This was a complete flop.  She would try showing him toys and doing some object permanence games with him and stuff.  At first he would not engage AT ALL.. he was just chasing after me and crying trying to get me to pick him up.  I decided to sit on the floor across from the evaluator with Xander on my lap.. basically holding him forcing him to engage with the evaluator.  When I did this, Xander actually did really well with the games and was able to complete almost all the tasks.  The one he failed miserably was when he was playing on the couch and she rang a bell from across the room.  She rang the bell multiple times and Xander didn't turn to look towards the noise not one time.  She also called his name several times and he never acknowledged her.  She said based on those 2 things alone he would qualify!

So in order to qualify for services, Xander would need to score below 25% in 2 areas or below 45% in one area.  She said she can't give me official results.. but off the record he definitely scored below 45 in speech and language structure.  She is extremely confident he will be getting speech and language services.

As she was leaving, I asked the evaluator if she thought he was strictly speech and language delayed or if she thought he might be autistic.  She said she didn't know.  But she said if we are concerned, we could get on the waiting list to have him officially tested at Vanderbilt for autism.  I told her our pediatrician said he couldn't be tested until after age 2 and she basically said that is untrue.  She did say this is a test that takes several hours and that the waiting list is 8 or 9 months.  But we can tell our services coordinator if we are interested in getting this test done for Xander and she will get us on the waiting list.

So there it is!  The next step is waiting for the service coordinator to call us to go over the results and get started on his IFSP.  We will map out some short and long term goals for Xander and decide how many/how often/ and which therapies he will get.

I'll let you all know when we get started on the next step!  Prayers for my sweet little dude.