moving on from EI, how much is based on diagnosis and how much on delays?

[marieangela]

My daughter won't be three until February, but I'm already thinking about what we will do when EI ends.  She recently had her annual review and testing.  She scored high average or above average in everything except for expressive language.  She can still recieve her PT and DV therapies due to her cri-du-chat diagnosis for EI, though.  What happens when EI is done, though?  Her therapists think that (when she goes to preschool) she won't qualify for a  DART preschool or the like, but might be able to have a spech therapist with her at a regular preschool?  Anyone have experience with this? 

So far, I'm used to everything being based on her genetic disorder.  Will this change when she is three?  Her lack of expressive speech definitely effects many aspects of her life and how she interacts with others.

[devon]

I don't know anything but to tell you we are in the same boat.  Our son will be 3 in April.  He has a genetic condition and cerebral palsy which qualifies him automatically.  We just had his eval and IFSP meeting as well, and he scored above the cut-off for everything but -2 standard deviations behind for PT.  He currently receives OT 2x a month and PT weekly. 

I know he'll be evaluated when he is 30 months for preschool through the school district, but I haven't gotten a good answer about how services will/won't be provided...for instance, if we decide to go to a private preschool versus the one through the public school for EI.  I'd love to hear some responses!

[khaoskat]

Things will be different state to state and school district to school district, as they are allowed to tweek things..but in general when we did the transition..

DS had to be at least 2.5 standard deviations behind in one area; or at least 1 standard deviation behind in two or more areas to qualify for an IEP.

Depending upon the diagnosis and needs, you may qualify for other services..but in my experience if they are not at least 1 standard deviation behind on skills, then they wont receive that services (ie has to be at least 1 deviation behind in speech to get speech therapy..).

There are a few exceptions..I know some behavioral stuff that really does not require an "extra", can be added for monitoring purposes.  We did this with DS2, because he didn't transition well, so we wanted a bit of extra support in place for the transition from pre-school to Kinder and the teacher put in some goals and extra one on one support and monitoring.

As for public school vs private, in general at that stage, most wont provide services unless the child is actually in the public school's program.