Minneapolis Interagency Early Intervention Llewellyn Allman Denison and Early Intervention

Llewellyn Allman Denison and Early Intervention

By Kristen Denison

Our son, Llewellyn (“Wells”) Allman Denison, was born on April Fools Day, 2006, at 29 weeks and six days. Today, he is 17 months old, corrected age 15 months, tall, happy, and starting to walk. He has received Minneapolis Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) early intervention services since shortly after he came home. We credit this program with keeping him on track developmentally and us emotionally during this past year.

His birth came after a scary week of intermittent bleeding, contractions, and bed rest. Although born early, he was healthy. He just needed to grow and learn how to eat. He spent six weeks in the hospital, which seemed long at the time. Still, discharge day did come, when he was gestationally 36 weeks old. We went through a thorough departure procedure covering nutrition, car safety, and medical device monitoring, since he came home with a temporary heart monitor for preemie apnea. But one issue was absent from this session: development. What were we supposed to do to help him develop? What was a preemie supposed to be like? We were not given any information about what to look for in the coming days, weeks, and months.

This omission seemed strange, and made us feel a little anxious. We happened to be familiar with ECSE and early intervention, so we knew to ask about it. The social worker seemed reluctant to discuss it because she didn’t think Wells would qualify, but we requested the information anyway. We felt he should at least be evaluated. We wanted to make sure that we didn’t miss anything.

We were lucky. The state of Minnesota had just changed early intervention regulations to include preemies like Wells, whose only issue at such a young age seemed to be his early birth. Preemies, no matter how healthy, start out behind their chronological peers and stay there for a while. You cannot ask a baby who is only supposed to be one month old to act like a three month old. Dealing with that gap is hard on parents, who can be very confused about what to expect from their “three” month old. And when babies are late doing things even for their gestational age, the stress and anxiety can become more intense.

The folks at ECSE helped us manage those concerns. They knew how to evaluate Wells, what to expect from him for his age, and taught us what to expect. When he was late learning how to roll, they gave us ideas about how to encourage him. Just a few days later he was rolling up a storm. His delayed crawling was addressed with the routine visit from his occupational therapist, who was able to point out gently that I needed to let him do more of the work. Within a week, Wells was enthusiastically crawling.

The anxieties and issues do not go away in the first year. Recently, Wells qualified as a 12 month old for a particular ECFE class, but we had to drop out after 2 sessions. It was clear to me that the class was too advanced for him; the difference in ages between him and the other kids meant that he could not participate in the class as it was intended. If I had not been receiving services from ECSE, I might have been consumed with anxiety and concern for my child being so “behind” the others, even at 12 months. But I had the comfort of soliciting advice from ECSE staff, and the strength of drawing on my own experiences to make the decision.

There is no substitute for being able to work with someone who specifically knows your child and his unique situation. It’s a hard, tough time coming home with a preemie. Sometimes I’m reminded simply when I see other babies. Or just being asked the question, “How old is Wells?” Those stresses don’t go away, but early interventon has helped us manage them and educated us. I cannot imagine going through the past year without early intervention.