Question about Pediatric Neurologists

When did you decide it was time to visit one? DS has been approved for eating and speech therapy under EI recently. We have not begun the therapy yet, but I have been reading about speech and eating disorders/delays and see some symptoms of oral apraxia. Not strong symptoms, but there are some things there. When we had our meeting I did ask the evaluators for ideas about what is causing his speech/eating delays and I was told at this point, no but the therapist treating him may get a better idea of what is happening. It was recommended that we get a hearing test to rule out hearing problems, and I will do this, though his hearing honestly seems fine.

So I am following up with our pediatrician about the EI evaluations and will ask her about this as well, but I wanted to know when other parents decided to take this step. Please fm if you would rather not go into it here. Guess I'm wondering if we should wait and see how the therapy goes, see what the therpist thinks, or get him checked out sooner than later. I should add that his other tests showed average capabilities, and his receptive speech is very good, but there is a very big gap between receptive and expressive speech. This and his eating delays qualified him for EI services. He is 21 months.

TIA!

Re: Question about Pediatric Neurologists

We saw a neurologist at 17 months. It ended up being a waste for us honestly.

IMO, you should hold off and see what his therapists have to say. They will be the ones to diagnose and treat apraxia anyway.

Do you have an SLP chosen already? If so I would ask her if she does PROMPT therapy. From what I understand that is best for children with apraxia.

I don't know what area you are in but our SLP works with apraxia and feeding issues. If you would like her info. FM me. We are in Suffolk.

Re: Question about Pediatric Neurologists

Thank you for sharing your experience. I felt like my message didn't make sense after writing it!

We live in western Nassau, and I do not have an SLP yet, but the agency is referring someone to me who has dealt with feeding issues also. It does sound as if it makes sense to wait and see what the therapist says about him. I have not heard of PROMPT, but I will ask the SLP about it.

I've been reading a lot, and I have to say the only speech disorder that made me think yes, this sounds like this is it, was oral apraxia. So I do want someone to explore this more. It's also possible he has a speech delay and no disorder, or hearing or another problem that hasn't been detected yet is causing this.