16mo referred to educational psychologist

[BibiThree]

Dt2 has been for her hearing test this afternoon (after constant nagging from me to hv about the fact that neither she nor dt1 say anything other than a fw babbly noises, neither walk etc nor are hitting their milestones)
They don't think her hearing is a problem, but because she is delayed in so many other things (as is dt1 who they aren't seeing until next week) they are referring her to ed.psych.

What I want to know is, what does this mean? Is this serious??? How bad is it? I KNEW I should have taken time off work and gone too, Dh is off work so he took her and I just knew he'd come out of there having asked no questions and with only the bare bones to tell me.

Don't know how to feel, I've known from early on they're behind developmentally but being 5 weeks early we expected that to a point, but will they be delayed at everything forever, or is this quite normal for some children and will pass?

Bibithree, no personal experience, but I know of a friend of a friend (I know, but please bear with me!) that her dt's were quite slow initially, to the point that they were still crawling till well after 18 months and barely talking at two...but now at three have caught up with where they were expected to be.

I don't know if they were early or not though. Perhaps you could put a call into the hv tomorrow to get her to fill in the blanks? I'm sure she'd be happy to go through it with you. Hope it all works out for you and the dt's.

Is she only 16 months? The educational psychologist normally gets involved (from my one experience) when a child is due to start nursery or school and a statement is needed for 'special educational needs' statement.

I may be wrong, but I would have thought they would have referred her to a developmental clinic to carry out further tests and perhaps involve a portage worker and may be refer her to physio/occupational therapy.

It will pass. By age 2 I bet money on the fact that they will have caught up. It's not uncommon by the way for a 16 month old to be just babbling. My ds is 15 months, wasn't premature (8 days over due actually) and has only just started trying to use words, even then most of it just sounds like babbles, nothing really too clear, just sounds. It is very normal.

As they were 5 weeks premature it is very normal that they are delayed even further than 5 weeks if you see what I mean?

I would wait until the assessments have been done and see what they advise but it doesn't sound to me as if there is a problem.

I understand that you are panicking a bit, it's normal to feel that way, but you will be able to ask as many questions as you like and get a proper assessment from the right specialist and hopefully some help with understanding why your DTs might not be hitting milestones and maybe get some tools to help you with dealing with it. God that's a long sentence.

I have an 18 mo who was full term, didn't walk until he was 15 months, and still says nothing at all except woof and miao.

Do you have the numbers or contact of the educational psychologist department of the hospital where you are referred? Can you call them and ask them what the apointment will be about, what they do and what they will assess?