0:01

Welcome to the Neurodivergent Family Unfiltered. As mentioned on earlier episodes, I'll be exploring different perspectives and gaining more information and insight from the professionals that we have come across on our neurodivergent journey. On today's episode, I'll be interviewing one of the first professionals that acquainted our family to our new life with autism. This is Monica Cornish. She is an educator for Snohomish School District. How long have you been working with kids with autism and other developmental disabilities? I graduated in 1983 with a special education background from PLU, and went on to start my teaching career Snohomish School District in 1984. We were introduced to you when my son was about two years old through a program here in Washington that is called the Birth to Three Year program for kids that aren't quite developing according to the normal timelines. Is this program still offered to kids, and is it solely in Snohomish, or do they have programs like this throughout other areas of Washington? So when you and I first met, funding was a little different than it is now. So at that time, the school districts were providing services to families and students in the Birth to Three program- Through either flow through money to agencies in the county that were providing the services, or they were providing services themselves. So at that time, the Snohomish School District was providing the services, and I was a family resource coordinator and a birth to three educator, and then we contracted with, agencies in our county for the speech and the motor part of it. It has now changed, and that money is now no longer coming to the school districts. It's now being funneled directly into the programs in the county through the Snohomish County Early Intervention program, and then they filter it out to the agencies in the county. And all counties are gonna be a little different. And so Washington State has an early support of infants and toddlers, and you would be able to look that up online and then see what each county might have. And then beyond that, if you're outside of the state of Washington, there's a federal program called the Zero to Three program, and you can probably go onto their website and look up and see what each state might offer. And if people were to look up the Zero to Three program online, is that spelled out numerically or is it spelled out alphabetically? No, it i- no, excuse me, it is spelled out. Z-E-R-O T-O T-H-R-E-E. Okay. And that you said might give you insight on what other states might offer? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. But as far as our Washington State, you would go on their website called Washington State Early Support of Infants and Toddler, or ESIT is this acronym. What are the services that this program offers? With the Birth to Three program- it, offer services to families in a parent coaching manner of kids who have a delay in one of the five developmental areas, and they have to show a 25% delay or a minus 1.5 standard deviation, from the norm on the bell curve, like I said, in one of the five areas. And can you tell me about the five areas that you're focused on? it's cognition, speech, motor, which would be fine and gross motor, daily self-help, and then social/emotional. How do families get on service with the Birth to 3 Year program? I would say families typically reach out, and they connect with one of the agencies, or they might have a referral, that's given to them from their doctor just reach out, and you, um, might say, "Hey, I would like more information. Like maybe my son or daughter is not talking or they're not walking yet, or, um, something just doesn't feel right." might have you fill out something online. And then usually someone will come out they'll capture a lot of information, Um, and then they will have you do a screening, and from there, depending on how the son or daughter turns out on the screening, they might delve deeper into an evaluation that might really show more or less of a delay and then that would qualify you for services for that particular student. After you've had the evaluation, if it shows a delay, then you would create what's called an Individualized Family Service Plan, and then you would have goals and outcomes created with the families on what they want to be working on, what's important to them. And then the therapist or whoever's coming into the home or program is helping that family navigate strategies to gain those skills. After three, what happens to these kids in your experience? Around two and a half years of age, the program is supposed to reach out to school districts to say, "Hey, by the way, we've got a student who's gonna be turning three in six months they may or may not qualify for services," "Can we have a conversation or can we start a plan to see, are they gonna need more services or are they gonna be able to exit out at that time?" So there's a transition plan. This might be a difficult question to answer, but given your Years of experience with the variety of conditions that you've encountered With the kids that you've helped and the layers of panic and worry you've experienced with family members in the Birth to 3 program, what insights and advice do you have that may be helpful for families that are currently in this phase of life? Well, I think first of all, families know their, their son or daughter best. And I, I always have found that they need to have confidence in what they know. Just trust your gut. Sometimes I think when families get an identification of autism, it's like they get stuck. There's a lot of learning that goes on for a long time for some of these kiddos, and some of them are just a little late bloomers. And they just need a little more encouraged a little bit longer. Yeah. And some need it longer than that. I wouldn't wanna put limits on someone everybody is gonna be different. Some kids when they leave Birth to Three will no longer need any more services. Mm-hmm. Some when they leave Birth to Three services, they might still need a few more services in their preschool programs and then no longer need services when they move on to kindergarten or first grade or whatever. Then there's some that might need it a little bit longer, and it might look like getting services in, like, a resource room or they might need more services, like in a life skills classroom. But we don't know for some we do, but not everybody. Mm-hmm. And so just keeping that open mind is important And lastly, give yourself grace while you're on this journey. Thank you, Monica, for taking time out of your busy schedule to walk us through navigating the first steps towards getting help upon receiving the diagnosis. And, we hope that you make another appearance in our upcoming episode of Special Education in the Public School System.