[Mommyby40]

Does DFPS still cover the cost of daycare if foster parent works outside the home full time?

[embuck]

Yes they do. In Houston they use NCI and foster kids automatically are eligable as long as there is enough funds. I have yet to hear that there were not enough funds in Houston though.

[Mommyby40]

Thanks!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[HthrRenee]

Does anyone know if they will cover daycare expenses for a program like mother's day out? I now work out of my home as an independent contractor, part-time at best.

My current placement consists of a newborn and his sixteen month old sister. She is behind in speech and social skills, but highly intelligent. I know she is fully capable of learning - just needs someone to feed her the information to soak in. Between running interference to protect her brother from her and trying to get a little work done, I don't feel I can give her the full attention she needs to catch up quickly.

[Mommyby40]

We just had the cps coordinator for daycare speak at our last pride class and in order to qualify you have to work full time.

[MommyofClarafirst]

the issue with a MDO program is whether or not they will accept payment from the state. not all of these programs will - ours does not. I do work full time, though.

[bethy724]

Please have your 16 month old tested for speech therapy -Medicaid pays for it & some therapists come to the home - I was given the names of 3 agencies that go to daycare or home so I think it is common. Start w/ her MD to order a speech eval, however I think I had to wait until my son was 2 for it to be recegonized as a problem.

Good luck - speech therapy does wonders!!!!!

[HthrRenee]

I don't know why I didn't even think about speech therapy. I've been trying to figure out how to reach their case worker and I'm sure she would have suggested this to me at some point.

It would help to know if her family spoke Spanish or English. Every time I say what little I remember in Spanish she acts as though she has no clue what I'm talking about, but responds to English quite well. Perhaps my Spanish is so horrible she can't understand me.

I was originally concerned if maybe her hearing is off or something. Her balance is non existant. She is constantly falling hard. She can walk and even run great as long she manages to remain upright. I've seen her run straight into door frames and walls, so now I'm thinking vision issues maybe. At first, I figured it was due to her possibly being a fairly new walker, but after observing for awhile I am a little concerned. Definitely going to bring this up to her doctor.

Thanks for the great suggestions!

[MommyofClarafirst]

Your caseworker should be able to give you information for an ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) Evaluation. In Texas, all foster kids are now supposed to be evaluated.

[speaknspell71]

... interesting discussion, and thanks for the nice "plug" for Speech Therapy bethy...

I'm a Speech Therapist and love our field! Although I work primarily with adults, I will say that it is rare to label a child "speech delayed" at 16 months. From my training I recall that one developmental milestone is a vocabulary of 50 words by age 2. However, my son who is 5 y/o now and typically developing, did not have a vocab of 50 words by then... kids develop at different paces.

Is your daughter babbling and experimenting with different speech sounds? If she doesn't use sounds at all or very little, that may be cause for concern. As you mentioned, her hearing should definitely be screened (starting at Pediatrician's office especially if they have an Otoacoustic Emmission device to test with).

Below is a helpful link from our national accreditating organization... detailing age-related speech/language milestones and also some easy/helpful tips to use during your daily interactions with her. Make sure to click on the infant-1 year stage also, to see if that sounds more like her developmental level.

I do agree with the other person who said to talk your concerns over with your pediatrician and see if a referral to an SLP is needed.

How Does Your Child Hear and Talk?

Regards,
Brenda