The A word.

Today was Jacob's evaluation with Early Intervention. I wouldn't say it was worst case scenario, but it was close and it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I was looking forward to the eval, to discussing ways to help Jacob start communicating better, I was looking for relief and reassurance that everything would be fine...I got the complete opposite.
We met with our case worker at the beginning of the month just to go over Jacob's history. And today 3 women came to our house to observe and evaluate Jacob in 5 different areas, motor, adaptive, personal-social, communication, and cognitive. You only need to show a delay in one area to qualify for services, Jacob showed a delay in all 5. Which just blew my mind. I thought his only issue was speech. His low scores concerned his team of evaluators and they suggested further testing to see if Jacob places on the Autism spectrum.
As soon as they said the "A" word I started tearing up. First of all my extended family thought I was crazy for even having him evaluated, reassuring me that he will talk eventually and "he is just a boy"...so the fact that I was almost convinced to not even bother with EI, let's just say I am proud of myself for trusting my mother's instinct! But I was certainly not expecting him to need further evaluation. It had never crossed my mind that Jacob could be on the spectrum, he is a friendly adventurous boy, he makes eye contact, he shows and recognizes emotions, he doesn't have any odd behaviors... So I want to say that his "team" just caught him on a bad day, but I also don't want to undermined their years of experience and training. I don't think they would throw that word around carelessly. My cousin who works for EI in a different catchment says sometimes kids do terrible on their eval and surprise the team when they start services. She said prepare for the worst but hope for the best and that is exactly what I am doing!!!
His team let us know that there is a wait list for the test he needs anywhere between 3-6 months. Which is the main reason they rushed the "A" word because in the next 6 months he could make vast improvements but if he doesn't we would need that appointment and getting on the wait list then would just delay his therapy. They told us they would rather be over cautious and get him help sooner if he truly does need it.

So for now they left us with a plan of meeting with our case worker in the next week to go over the final report and to set up weekly therapy services (occupational and speech). We do not need to wait for the psych testing to start therapy which is good!!! The motto seems to be  "the sooner the better"
Then we need to meet with our pediatrician for a referral for the extensive testing, and also we want to get her opinion on the whole situation. At Jacob's two year check-up she said she had no other concerns besides for speech, so I am hoping she can read the EI report and let us know what she thinks. A second opinion never hurt anyone!

This was all so much to take in and I look at Jacob and I think, what am I missing?! What do they see that I don't? & I am just praying that we figure it all out.