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Can anyone share experiences about what it is like to work with a regional center for a child with developmental delays?
14 mo. foster son, who we hope to adopt has been with us for about 2 months now, and has always seemed a little behind. We finally got someone from TIES to come out and do a quick screen for developmental delays. He comes out ahead in some areas like Gross motor skills, but is way behind in language and cognitive delays. Language we expected, because his previous foster placement was spanish-speaking and we only speak english with him. But the cognitive delay is freaking me out.
The next step is a fuller developmental screening through the regional center, which will take some time to get going.
Does anyone have experiences of working with a regional center and what to expect? Anyone have a child placed who was delayed and caught up with therapy?
From what I've been reading online, its pretty common for foster children to have delays. This child was placed in a foster home at 3 mo. mainly for neglect (he weighed the same at 3 mo as at 1 mo.). Weight is now in the normal range, but it seems previous foster home was not very stimulating. When he came to us at 1 year he couldn't feed himself, only played with toys by hitting them. After two months with us he pick up Cherios and eat them, can hold and play with toys, but still doesn't do some things a one year old should like stacking toys or fill and spill. He doesn't communicate by talking or pointing.
We don't think its autism, because he is very social and makes lots of eye contact. The pediatrician says its a very good sign that he's been improving since he came to us.
But still this is scary. Hearing similar stories would help a lot!
(and thanks for letting me vent)
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Our daughter came to us at 26 months, as a regional client and her background was similar to your sons. She has made HUGE progress. She is 9 now and still has some learning delays but she is a great kid!! She is much easier to parent then our son who is gifted. She really is a joy to us. The learning delays are just a side note. Your son will probably progress wonderfully!! Sometime the regional centers are not very proactive and you really have to push them to get anything done but the battle is worth it!!! Call your local school district too and see if you can get him evaluated for early intervention with special ed. They were wonderful with my daughter.
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My bio son has autism and was diagnosed through RC. We've had experience with Westside RC and NLARC. I had a great service coordinator and some good ones too. I would worry more about what agency your child is contracted with/vendored with. Some of the agencies are subpar IMO. PM me if you want, my son is a RC lifetime client.
We have had two kids placed with us that are Regional Center clients. The first was the little guy we adopted, he had delays across all domains from the time he was first assessed - about 5 months. He was diagnosed as stroke in utero and needed lots of extra help. He received O.T. weekly for over a year. We also had Early Intervention services at home twice a week at first, now once a week a tech comes to work with him on specific goals. He is doing wonderfully and I expect at his next assessment he will test above average in most, if not all, areas. The other child receiving Regional Center services is a sweet 2 1/2 year old girl that is a foster placement with us. She attends a therapeutic preschool 1-3 days per week, this preschool is overseen by the Regional Center. She is also doing very well and making strides :) Our experiences have been good ones.