Psychologist for 3yr old - rec

Not really sure if this is the right place to post this but I am grasping at straws now to find a psychologist that will see my 3 yr old.... My daughter just turned 3 and is having major aggression and anger issues, on top of nightmares for the past year (pedi confirmed they are not night terrors). Her pediatrician kept chalking it up to terrible 2's until recently, now we are looking into a child psychologist. However no one that they can recommend will take her age, so we tried contacting a developmental but she does not fall into any of the categories they test for. She is not mixing with kids her own age anymore, has been excluded from play groups and I think this is making things worse. If anyone can recommend a dr. or has had a similar situation any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
TIA

Message edited 6/26/2013 10:48:06 AM.

Re: Psychologist for 3yr old - rec

I would request a psychological and an educational evaluation from your school district (CPSE --Committe of Preschool Special Education) to rule out any difficulties with processing of information which can lead to frustration and behavior problems. It's totally free and it will provide you with a starting point. Does she attend daycare/preschool? If she does and she is also exhibiting difficulties functioning in that environment, the school district will want to hear from them as well to get an overall picture of how you DD is functioning in different settings.

If for some reason she doesn't qualify for services under CPSE, you can always call any agency and pay out of pocket for play therapy and parent training from a psychologist. A Psychologist who is a BCBA (Board Certified Behavioral Analysist) might also be a huge help in developing behavioral plans, reward systems etc. to eliminate problem behaviors and to determine the underlying cause of the behaviors.

Re: Psychologist for 3yr old - rec

Where do you live?

I initially saw someone in Massapequa. He made the recommendation to continue with the school district/CPSE eval (he also is on the Board for Kidz Therapies which is a contracted provider through the school districts).

It would personally get too expensive for me to pay OOP for someone private. Even with insurance, I still paid OOP for co-pays back then and many people don't even take insurance, which is a big thing I ran into.

The good thing about the school district is the services can also be provided in the community.

DS got a SEIT to focus on the behavioral stuff, and she went to his pre-school in addition to my MIL.

Now he has OT and she goes to my MIL's while she watches him while I am at work.

I also wouldn't worry about a label. You don't need to disclose, and honestly, more people than not seem to have services for their kids these days.

Practically every parent I know personally, it seems to come up in conversation that their kid has an IEP.

Psychologist for 3yr old - rec

I had a hard time finding someone with availability to help my 6 year old son. We ended up going to the NYU Dept of Child Study, but paid more than 50% of the fees out of pocket for the evaluation (time was of the essence, I couldn't wait 60 days for the CSE evaluation because things were going downhill at school).

I agree that if you can start with CPSE eval it would probably be valuable, but would request an OT evaluation in addition to the behavioral/psychological eval they will do. OT has helped my son immensely, and I had not even known that I could request a private OT eval or know what sensory processing disorder was 9 months ago.

Re: Psychologist for 3yr old - rec

Also note that it may be a huge fight to get OT initially. Even with an eval.

DS also has sensory stuff going on and they didn't feel there was enough to justify it after the eval.

Only after the SEIT pushed it mid-year did he finally get it.

I also had to write a letter about problems that were amplified after he lost his structure from Hurricane Sandy.

Now is the perfect time to start the process with the school too, because you should get everything together in time for the new year (I don't think they start services over the summer because it goes by school calendar).

It was super difficult to find an OT mid-year because providers already had caseloads.

I've heard similar in general on here for people trying to get services mid-year.