What Families Say About Early Intervention

"My child was born healthy, but premature. My daughter, although quite small and jaundiced at birth, was able to go home with me five days after she was born. By the time she was ten months old, it became obvious to our family that something was wrong. She was not developing the speech sounds that a typical infant should develop. When we confronted our pediatrician, he told us that we should take a "watch and wait" approach. We did until our daughter was 18 months old, then we decided that we would wait no more.

Doctors finally told us that she most likely had moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears and would need hearing aids. We scheduled another round of test and made our first phone call to South Bay Early Intervention. I always tell people that we ended up at South Bay because 'they answered the phone.' My first call to another EI program sent me to a voice mailbox. So I called the next center on the list- South Bay. At South Bay, someone answered my call, listened to my concerns, and scheduled an assessment for that week.

The team that came to assess my daughter was wonderful. They developed a great report with her and were an invaluable network of support to my entire family. They helped us to find appropriate resources and programs to further help us. Her diagnosis changed during those first few months and we found out that hearing aids would be of no use. Our services evolved with her needs and included SLP services, OT services, sign language instruction from MSAD, and a language therapy program at Emerson College. These services were all provided to us through Early Intervention.

My daughter had struggled with even the simplest things, such as learning to drink from a straw and open a cup, to manipulating a spoon and fork to get food to her mouth. She especially struggled with learning language. At 18 months old, she had almost no intelligible speech sounds at all. Finally at age two, my frustrated little girl was given the gift of sign language, and in weeks, was communicating with close to 30 words.

Today, she has moved on to a special education preschool program in our community. The transition out of Early Intervention was difficult, but I had a wonderful team of people supporting us through the entire process. She is still using her sign language along with her expanding spoken vocabulary, and she continues to make progress every day in her sensory and motor skills. It is our hope that by age 5, when she enters kindergarten, she will require minimal to no special education support to participate in school. Early Intervention has helped my family navigate these crucial early years in my daughter's development, and better cope with the special challenges faced by a child with special needs."

Beth
Tewksbury, MA

"My daughter was born in February of 2003 with Pierre Robin Syndrome. Thankfully, a neonatal medical team was on hand to intubate her. Two days later, a tracheostomy was performed and after a month, a feeding tube was surgically inserted in her stomach. For the next few months, all I could do was hold and love her. She was not holding up her head or even rolling over when she should have been able to sit without support, bear weight on her legs, and use consonant sounds.

When my daughter was six months old, I called South Bay Early Intervention for professional help with my daughter. A team came to my home and evaluated my daughter and discussed their findings with me. Together, we developed an Individualized Family Service Plan.

Within weeks, I watched my daughter start to use her feet to push and roll over, lie on her stomach, and lift her head. Team members showed my family how to work with her while protecting her tracheostomy tube and feeding tube."

Debra
Tyngsboro, MA

"Our family has benefited from receiving Early Intervention services through South Bay. My son started Early Intervention because of difficulties in key developmental areas. He was having trouble crawling, walking, and talking.

He started attending South Bay's playgroups with other children and also receiving treatment at home. These services helped him tremendously. He soon caught up to his age appropriate development in many areas. Early Intervention also improved his social skills prior to attending daycare and now preschool.

I have also benefited by attending South Bay's Single Moms Group. The group has helped me become a better parent and to improve my relationship with my son's father. I am one of many examples of the benefits of Early Intervention."

Stacey
Brockton, MA