Trying to help a friend!

by emily carroll
(boothbay harbor, Maine)

I have a friend with a 4.5 year old that i think has spd, i started doing research in order to find her some help for his behavioral issues, he tried to go to preschool and spent every day at the principals office for things like licking other children, not being able to sit still for even a second, and being disruptive all the time.




Now it has been a whole other year and he is supposed to try to start kindergarten next year- he is not ready and my question is, how do children get tested for this?

We live in a very rural area in Maine and there are not support systems for issues like this in the small island school that he is attempting to start at- I am just another mom with no skills or training in this area, but this child fills all of the criteria listed here for his age group- i want to give her some hopeful information instead of just saying "i think your child has this disorder"

It is a sensitive subject to bring this up, and i was wondering what advice you all would have to help me help her?



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May 31, 2017
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by: Anonymous

Hi- I also live in Maine and understand what you mean as far as the lack of services in rural areas. There are a couple of areas to start to look at for testing.

First of all I am wondering if CDS (child development services) has been involved at all with this child and his family? They provide early intervention services for children under the IDEA state wide.

Another option would be to wait until Kindergarten and request the testing at that time to be done by the school.

A third option would be through the pediatrician's office. This was what I did when I realized that my daughter wasn't "going through a phase." The parent can request a referral for an evaluation. The Edmund Ervin Center in Waterville does very thorough developmental evaluations.

There is also really good resource for parents called the Maine Parent Federation. They may also be able to provide some support and guidance as far as any other directions to go in to get him the support he needs. They have a parent navigator program to help parents figure out all the different systems that may be able to help.

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