2 year old being referred for developmental help (dyspraxia, hypermobility)

[embomumof1]

My daughter (2 last month) had a follow up from the health visitor today after being globally delayed on her 2 year check. They’re referring her for inclusion funding, slt, ongoing attention and listening sessions, paediatricians and portage. They’ve agreed with the childminder she would benefit from me looking at nurserys as opposed to the settings she is in for more routine and structured support. She thinks she has dyspraxia and potentially hyper mobility. I’ve looked into it and it suggests they don’t usually diagnose until the age of 4. I was expecting some extra support following concerns raised by her childminder and noticing more of her behaviours (clumsiness, being in her own world etc etc), but wondered if anyone has had such support from such a young age before and their experiences? I’m hoping she will catch up with some extra help before school age but I’m overwhelmed by the whole thing. And is it normal to have such support so young or is it because they think her symptoms are severe? can anyone share their experiences of portage?

She is my absolute world and a ray of sunshine and wouldn’t change her for the world 🌞

I would say it's great they ve offered all these referrals now, my autistic son had many referrals at 2 and it can take a while to see people so better to be on the lists now and I wouldn't say it necessarily meant anything with regards to severity or future outcome getting them at this point.
Going with a nursery worked out better for my son than a chuldminder would, having more adults around enables them to do more group interventions with the children that need them and it's more practice communicating with more adults.

Portage is different in every council, we ended up getting 8 hours of play therapy and then specialist teachers got involved at nursery after that, they gave a lot of advice on activities to do for development.

As an adult with dyspraxia, I d say take all the support offered, it's very variable as a condition and I d say you really couldn't guess at this age how things turn out, I can't drive or swim (I know people with dyspraxia that can do both of these things) but otherwise even though some milestones I ended up multiple years delayed on I ve found my way round everything else.

Thank you so much for taking time to reply. I’ve been so emotional about the whole thing (I am also pregnant with baby number 2 so it’s heightened).

I’m relieved she’s getting so much support and in my heart I think there may be a little more going on that they wouldn’t be able to confirm until she’s a little older by the right people. She’s very vocal but barely verbal and not following anything at all. She’s also zoning out much more and throwing her head back and talking to herself (or something in the sky) and has to have absolutely everything in her mouth. She has zero sense of danger but do appreciate that’s most toddlers. I took her to a sensory room the other day and she absolutely loved it and spent most of the hour there with her little face against the fish lamp. She’s so funny!

It’s been difficult until this point as my husband and his family haven’t necessarily seen or agreed with the concerns I’ve had, but I think it’s more in defence of her as she’s very well loved. That in itself has been very isolating though and while I’m not a very assertive person, I do know my little girl. They’re more on board now that the HV has had her input, although still disagreeing she may have SEN. I’m going to go to some of the SEN groups they have locally here in the mean time to meet some other parents who are going through similar too :)

Definitely a great idea going to the sen groups, other parents are the best knowledge source when going through something like that. Honestly I was never an assertive person before having my son, now I m ridiculously so, you end do end up becoming what they need whatever that is. I hope you start getting less pushback from your husband's family soon.