How Early Intervention Changed My Son's Life
'Free access to quality care accelerated his recovery after a prenatal stroke.
The doorbell rings at our apartment eight times each week, and my son knows it’s time to play with one of his friends. Patricia helps him learn to walk up the stairs. Lauren helps him use both hands to roll Play-Doh. Alaina helps him profess his love for macaroni and cheese.
We have an All-Star team of cheerful and experienced therapists dedicated to helping him navigate the world. It has already changed his life, and it didn’t cost us a penny.
This is Early Intervention, a national program created in 1986 to help children under age 3 who have developmental delays and disabilities. In New York State, where we live, the program serves nearly 70,000 children each year who have conditions like autism, Down syndrome and vision impairment. Some children, like my son, have a mild disability, and others have more serious challenges.
I had a mostly uneventful pregnancy and delivery, and our son appeared healthy. Then at 4 months old, I noticed that he favored his right hand and often held his left in a fist. A night of frenzied Googling found that children his age shouldn’t prefer one hand over the other.
His pediatrician sent us to a neurologist, and an MRI of his brain confirmed that he had had a stroke before he was born. Yes, babies can have strokes. I had no idea. They affect as many as one in 2,300 babies.
Our son’s stroke happened on the right side of his brain, so he has weakness on the left side of his body. The doctors ran a series of tests and couldn’t find an explanation. They said we would most likely never know why it happened.'>>>
https://parenting.nytimes.com/childrens-health/early-intervention-benefits
= new reply since forum marked as read
I have no sons!
