Early Intervention for Children with Developmental Issues

From the KU Med Center:

A pediatrics clinic at Fort Leavenworth is providing early intervention for children with developmental issues

November 28, 2012

By Cori Ast

The Carlton family, clockwise from left: Ilyra, 10; Lt. Col. Charlie Carlton; Natalia, 13; Josephine, 12; Sawyer, 6; Mary; Charlie, 8

This was news that couldn't wait.

Mary Carlton had just taken her 3-year-old son, Sawyer, to the Fort Leavenworth pediatrics diagnostic clinic operated by the University of Kansas Medical Center. She needed to share Sawyer's diagnosis with her husband, Lt. Col. Charlie Carlton, but he was more than 6,500 miles away, on a tour of duty in Iraq.

"I had to tell him on Skype that his son had autism," Mary said.

The diagnostic clinic at Fort Leavenworth began in 2009 to address a problem very unique to military families like the Carltons. Most families at Fort Leavenworth are on post to attend the Army Command and General Staff College, which only lasts 11 months. For a family with a child who needs evaluated, "that's a very short time," says Jennifer Burford, MS, the exceptional family member program (EFMP) manager at Fort Leavenworth.

When Charles was deployed in 2009, Mary was left to marshal their troop of five children at their Fort Leavenworth home. But 3-year-old Sawyer wasn't the child Mary was most worried about.

Josephine, the couple's second oldest, took Charles' deployment pretty hard.

"Josie had a really tough time when Charlie deployed," Mary says of their then 9-year-old daughter. "She completely fell apart and I was really struggling to help her."

Burford suggested Mary bring both kids to the pediatrics diagnostic clinic, which visits the post several times a year to provide diagnoses and treatment plans for military children.

"Josie was my big fire at the time. Sawyer was my little fire, but he was contained," Mary said.

Early intervention is important for treating children with developmental challenges, particularly children with autism, explains KU Medical Center pediatrician Chet Johnson, M.D.  "Especially in the first five years of life, there's tremendous changes going on in the brain and you can influence that development based on the experiences a child is provided. If you can offer the right kind of intervention early, you can help children better reach their potential."

But without a timely appointment, there is no early intervention.

"At the time the Carltons participated in the outreach clinic, the wait to get a consultation at KU Medical Center or Children's Mercy Hospital was six to nine months. That was way too long-by the time our families got in, it would be time for them to leave," explained Burford. "Then they would have to reinvent the wheel at their next installation and the one after that."

"I felt relief"

At the same time Mary was struggling with Josie, she was worried(read more...)