Developmental Pedi (Vent)

[olivegoose]

I just scheduled DD's appointment with the Developmental Pediatrician...

It's on February 3rd, 2016. I was expecting a wait, but damn! We are on the wait list for cancellations as well. It's an all day appointment from 7:45 to 2:30 and we see 4-5 different practitioners, which seems to be normal from what I have read.

Now, don't let me psych myself out and not go. I could have schedule this last summer and I didn't... now I'm kicking myself. 

[mrsbuttinski]

I'm sorry. That's within the 6-12 months that is typical here for someone who accepts insurance. You can also ask to be put on the cancellation list should an opening come up.

It does sound like you'll be getting the full team eval; it's better to get a complete team approach in a year than see someone who isn't very good in four months.

[olivegoose]

They did put us on the cancellation list, luckily. The hard part would be swinging a last minute appointment if it comes up while my husband is at work. I'm going to put the grandparents on alert if something comes up.

Do you think it's worth it to look into seeing a child psychologist? My personal therapist mentioned it.

[mrsbuttinski]

The dev pedi probably has a psychologist on their team.

It's hard to say. I know a lot of families who got meaningful behavioral help from psychologists including mine; but they're a lot less likely to get as robust an eval- it's the 10 Blind Men and the Elephant. If I had a dollar for every kid I know with ASD who saw a psychologist who missed the dx, I could take a sweet vacation.

[olivegoose]

Feb 23, 2015 12:43:55 GMT -5 mrsbuttinski said:

The dev pedi probably has a psychologist on their team.

It's hard to say. I know a lot of families who got meaningful behavioral help from psychologists including mine; but they're a lot less likely to get as robust an eval- it's the 10 Blind Men and the Elephant. If I had a dollar for every kid I know with ASD who saw a psychologist who missed the dx, I could take a sweet vacation.

That is a good point. I just want to make sure I'm covering all my bases.

I wish there was a "So you think your child has special needs?" checklist that tells you everything you need to do to get services. 

[mrsbuttinski]

The book I mentioned is a good one for anyone navigating the IEP process with a child 3+.

[triplea598]

@olivegoose did you make the appt yourself or did your regular pedi refer y'all?

[leroybrown]

Feb 23, 2015 12:52:03 GMT -5 olivegoose said:

Feb 23, 2015 12:43:55 GMT -5 mrsbuttinski said:

The dev pedi probably has a psychologist on their team.

It's hard to say. I know a lot of families who got meaningful behavioral help from psychologists including mine; but they're a lot less likely to get as robust an eval- it's the 10 Blind Men and the Elephant. If I had a dollar for every kid I know with ASD who saw a psychologist who missed the dx, I could take a sweet vacation.

That is a good point. I just want to make sure I'm covering all my bases.

I wish there was a "So you think your child has special needs?" checklist that tells you everything you need to do to get services. 

We need to make one of these.

[olivegoose]

Feb 23, 2015 13:20:46 GMT -5 triplea598 said:

@olivegoose did you make the appt yourself or did your regular pedi refer y'all?

She referred us. They don't make appointments without referral at this office.

[olivegoose]

Feb 23, 2015 13:09:32 GMT -5 mrsbuttinski said:

The book I mentioned is a good one for anyone navigating the IEP process with a child 3+.

I will add it to my Kindle app. I'm reading "The Explosive Child" right now.

[triplea598]

Feb 23, 2015 13:27:04 GMT -5 olivegoose said:

Feb 23, 2015 13:20:46 GMT -5 triplea598 said:

@olivegoose did you make the appt yourself or did your regular pedi refer y'all?

She referred us. They don't make appointments without referral at this office.

Okay that's what I thought but I was double checking. I can't believe it's a year long wait.

[funchicken]

Yeah, I think we had a nine-month wait to see ours. It's so frustrating.

[bubbalicious]

Call more than once a month to check in on the list. Nice as possible too. Just checking in kind of thing. If it is a large academic medical center, it might help but if is a smaller office I would do so sparingly.

[numbbears]

Ugh. Wait lists suck. Hope you get a cancellation spot.

We had a long wait also, but on the plus side for me, it gave me a lot of time to prepare.

[triplea598]

Sorry to hijack @olivegoose but I'm wondering if I should go ahead and call DS' pedi ASAP so she can get the referral in now or just wait until his 18 month appt (which will be in a few weeks)?

[mcribster]

Yikes, that is a lot. Is there anyone you can see sooner? We went to an autism center and saw a neurologist and had a 3 month wait.is there someone you can see in the interim and then later go to this appointment. Between services and addressing my sons hidden medical issues we were almost out of ASD territory within a year. I'd hate to see you waste a bunch of time and not be getting help.

[numbbears]

Feb 24, 2015 2:10:50 GMT -5 triplea598 said:

Sorry to hijack @olivegoose but I'm wondering if I should go ahead and call DS' pedi ASAP so she can get the referral in now or just wait until his 18 month appt (which will be in a few weeks)?

It wouldn't hurt to do it now. If at the 18 month appt, the pedi suggests something else, you can always call back and cancel the referral.

[mrsbuttinski]

Feb 24, 2015 7:12:44 GMT -5 mcribster said:

Yikes, that is a lot. Is there anyone you can see sooner? We went to an autism center and saw a neurologist and had a 3 month wait.is there someone you can see in the interim and then later go to this appointment. Between services and addressing my sons hidden medical issues we were almost out of ASD territory within a year. I'd hate to see you waste a bunch of time and not be getting help.

But you're in an area that has a lot of resources. Not everyone is as fortunate as we are to have best selling authors about ASD within walking distance.

I would also suggest holding out for a dev pedi over a neurologist unless there is a seizure concern. IME, they see ASD in a more 360 context. I would also wait longer, to see the best available clinician. Most often insurance will pay for one developmental assessment- you want to start with the best person not the first available. 

[typeset]

Feb 23, 2015 15:45:35 GMT -5 bubbalicious said:

Call more than once a month to check in on the list. Nice as possible too. Just checking in kind of thing. If it is a large academic medical center, it might help but if is a smaller office I would do so sparingly.

Have your husband call. It's sexist as hell, but they tend to give my husband more information. 

[olivegoose]

Feb 24, 2015 2:10:50 GMT -5 triplea598 said:

Sorry to hijack @olivegoose but I'm wondering if I should go ahead and call DS' pedi ASAP so she can get the referral in now or just wait until his 18 month appt (which will be in a few weeks)?

I would call now. My daughter has her 4 year we'l check today and I called 2 weeks ago for the referral.

[olivegoose]

Our pediatrician referred us to a child psychologist (at the same office of my therapist and psychiatrist) because she wanted to see if they could at least help us with some strategies while we wait to get into DP.

[KC thepouchh8r]

Feb 24, 2015 2:10:50 GMT -5 triplea598 said:

Sorry to hijack @olivegoose but I'm wondering if I should go ahead and call DS' pedi ASAP so she can get the referral in now or just wait until his 18 month appt (which will be in a few weeks)?

For an 18 month old, i would wait the two weeks. It isn't going to make a difference in the grand scheme of things especially since you can still access services under 3 without a dx from EI. Even if you have to wait a year 2.5 is still plenty young. For a kid 3+ I would have a different answer.

[KC thepouchh8r]

Feb 24, 2015 9:12:12 GMT -5 mrsbuttinski said:

Feb 24, 2015 7:12:44 GMT -5 mcribster said:

Yikes, that is a lot. Is there anyone you can see sooner? We went to an autism center and saw a neurologist and had a 3 month wait.is there someone you can see in the interim and then later go to this appointment. Between services and addressing my sons hidden medical issues we were almost out of ASD territory within a year. I'd hate to see you waste a bunch of time and not be getting help.

But you're in an area that has a lot of resources. Not everyone is as fortunate as we are to have best selling authors about ASD within walking distance.

I would also suggest holding out for a dev pedi over a neurologist unless there is a seizure concern. IME, they see ASD in a more 360 context. I would also wait longer, to see the best available clinician. Most often insurance will pay for one developmental assessment- you want to start with the best person not the first available. 

Ditto. I saw a neurologist and a psychologist and both were not helpful (in regards to asd anyway). The neuro completely missed it and the child psychologist said she couldn't have it because she was able to pretend play with baby dolls. *eye roll*

[mrsbuttinski]

Feb 24, 2015 15:09:51 GMT -5 KC thepouchh8r said:

Feb 24, 2015 9:12:12 GMT -5 mrsbuttinski said:

Ditto. I saw a neurologist and a psychologist and both were not helpful (in regards to asd anyway). The neuro completely missed it and the child psychologist said she couldn't have it because she was able to pretend play with baby dolls. *eye roll*

Things have changed a lot in the 15 years since DS was dxd.

Back in the day, there was no clear consensus about which pediatric subspecialty "owned" ASD. There were precious few dev pedis in the days before the ASD "Epidemic" and many of them were focused more broadly on things like Down Syndrome and Kanner's Autism with ID. Fifteen years ago there were entire states without a dev pedi. In many cases, pediatric neurologists, and neuropsychiatrists and clinical psychologists were what was available for the evaluation and tx of the higher functioning kids. We lucked out on getting a dev pedi because we went to one of the largest and most prestigious university affiliated pediatric hospitals. Most of my friends whose sons were dxd around the time mine was saw either a neuropsych or a neurologist. There was considerable posturing about which was the best approach. 

DS's psych "got" him; but he'd had a 30 year career at that point in dealing with kids with HFA and PDD-Nos. The neurologist who did his educational eval for LD issues and such never suggested we screen for ASD. We hadn't shared the dx because the school we needed the report for did not enroll students with ASD at the time. I really wanted him to attend, so we kept quiet about the ASD.

[hopanka]

It can happen. We were seen thanks to a cancellation within 2 months. My appt was originally like 9 months away. I called UCLA about once a week to check. One day it finally worked as the lady said they had just had someone cancel that day.

[jmski]

If the Dev. Ped. Is part of a bigger group, like a hospital, there is one more loophole that worked for me and my son. I called to make an appt for an ASD eval at our Children's Hospital and they said they were no longer accepting referrals for evaluation from the county where I live (rural). They were giving me other places to go when they asked if my son saw a psychologist or psychiatrist and I told them he saw both. They asked if it was someone at their hospital and it was. Sooo, if you see another doctor in a hospital and THEY refer you to the Dev Ped. you will probably get in faster. Our wait went from not happening at all to being seen in 2 months because they believed that if his psychiatrist suspected autism then it needed to be followed through on faster.

[olivegoose]

jmski, they are, but we haven't been seen by anyone in that hospital.

[jmski]

Feb 24, 2015 22:28:15 GMT -5 olivegoose said:

jmski, they are, but we haven't been seen by anyone in that hospital.

You might be able to try seeing a psychologist to talk anxiety or behavior. Most likely that waiting list is not very long.

[olivegoose]

Feb 25, 2015 21:38:33 GMT -5 jmski said:

Feb 24, 2015 22:28:15 GMT -5 olivegoose said:

jmski, they are, but we haven't been seen by anyone in that hospital.

You might be able to try seeing a psychologist to talk anxiety or behavior. Most likely that waiting list is not very long.

We are seeing a local psychologist.

[kmc2]

Olivegoose, just wanted to say I hope you don't end up having to wait this long, but even if you do it sounds like you have an excellent team of people set up to do a very thorough evaluation/assessment versus just some half-assed screening. The waiting sucks though I know, its so frustrating.