The Importance of Early Intervention
One of the things I believe helped my daughter’s development more than anything else was how young she was when we discovered there were issues, and how early in her development we were able to get her treatment. I’ve had many conversations with parents over the years, and it always seems as if the younger the children were when they began receiving services, the stronger and more dramatic the benefits they received. Additionally, the state of Tennessee has a wonderful early intervention program that was really a godsend for my daughter and me.
Tennessee Early Intervention System, or TEIS for short, immediately contacted me once Aisling received her first diagnosis of Development Expressive-Receptive Language Disorder. Kathy Jeffries was assigned to be my Service Coordinator, and there were many times I was convinced she must be a Guardian Angel sent to assist me in dealing with these new and often overwhelming challenges of raising a Special Needs child. Kathy Jeffries first impressed me because she came to me. She called and got directions to my singlewide trailer in the extremely remote, rural area in Greene County where I lived next to my grandparents. Even though I was attending East Tennessee State University, working towards my Bachelor of Arts in English, and was making the 45 minute commute to Johnson City on a daily basis, she still insisted on observing and testing Aisling in her home environment where it was more comfortable and convenient for us.
Kathy Jeffries was a real advocate for my child, and was an amazing source of information and tools. She performed many of the basic preliminary development tests on Aisling in the home, and then helped me set up speech therapy through the university I was currently attending. She gave me literature, worksheets, workbooks, ideas for activities and exercises that were designed to help Aisling with her developmental delays. Kathy also helped Aisling get on the waiting list for one of the regional leading experts of autism in child psychology, so that eventually we were able to get a diagnosis of both autism as well as sensory integration dysfunction. She referred me to the Tennessee Infant Parent Services program, or TIPS, who would come out to my house on a regular basis and offer further ideas and literature on ways I could assist in the development of my daughter. Understanding that I was a single mother attending college full-time without any financial assistance from the other parent, Kathy also referred me to the Social Security office to apply for Supplemental Security Income benefits. Additionally, she encouraged me to apply for fuel reimbursement each month, since Aisling’s programs and therapies were all a rather long drive from home. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, where I needed to go for help, who I needed to contact, or what services my daughter really needed, but Kathy Jeffries and the Tennessee Early Intervention System were able to answer all these questions and guide me towards establishing a strong and healthy foundation to assist my daughter with her pervasive developmental delays.
When people see Aisling today, they are often shocked to learn that she’s autistic because she’s so incredibly high-functioning. When I tell the story of where she was at the very beginning of her treatment – how she never made eye contact, how she avoided hugs and touching, how she spent all her time stacking her toys and lining them up in rows, how she spun around in circles and could only say the word, “no,” they can’t even believe it. I remember picking Aisling up from child care at East Tennessee State University during her first week at the center. She was sitting in the sandbox, pouring sand through her fingers in a highly repetitive fashion. She was staring off into space, and she didn’t acknowledge me when I was standing there, when I talked to her. I had to get down on my knees beside her and gently shake her in order to get her to respond to me. Even though we wouldn’t get a clear diagnosis for another six months, I think that may have been the moment when I accepted that she was probably autistic.
All of the services she received in those early years helped jumpstart her progress such an incredible degree. She had an amazing team of speech therapists through East Tennessee State University, an amazing group of child development specialists working at the child care center who took an active role in implementing the various treatments as she interacted with other kids, she had an excellent child psychologist who was incredibly knowledgeable about autism and was able to provide me with excellent ideas and methods I could use to assist her, and she had a wonderful occupational therapist who found incredible and creative ways to combine work on motor skills with sensory integration therapy. Over the next few weeks, I want to spend some time in this blog focusing on each of these areas, and how all of these early intervention services helped Aisling make incredible and unbelievable progress in all aspects of her life, and how these services have helped shaped the person she is today.