School speech-language specialist?

[Guest guest]

Does anyone know what the qualifications are for a school " speech-language

specialist " ? Is this title the same as a " speech-language pathologist " or

" speech language therapist? " My son has been working with a speech-language

specialist for this entire school year and I believe the year has been a

total waste of time. I am just wondering if she is even qualified to be

working with him since his speech and language issues are quite involved and

testing has indicated that he needs intervention in the areas of language

processing, listening comprehension (being able to hear a direction and

follow through with appropriate actions), expressive oral language, verbal

short-term memory, pragmatics (social, gestural and non-verbal forms of

communication), and complex problem solving as well as reading comprehension

(being able to process and recall what he is reading, particularly with

fiction) and articulation. Much of his learning disability seems to be

language based.

I believe that the school speech specialist has not addressed any of these

issues. I'm not sure what my son does in speech other than practice the

sound " S " which he did all of last year, with no obvious improvement. In

fact, my private speech therapist told me last year that he can't make the

sound " s " correctly and if he is practicing it, he is practicing it all

wrong. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints, we have been forced to

curtail my son's private speech therapy and have had to rely on our school

district. I'm sure many of you have had to make this concession since

speech therapists are all out of network and they want their money up front.

My husband is an artist with his own business and, we pay $1016 a month in

insurance premiums. We simply do not have the cash flow for both. We would

never catch up.

We have an IEP meeting scheduled for May 10th and I will naturally be

bringing all of this up. Can we demand that a more qualified individual be

assigned to work with my son?

Thanks in advance for your help and input.

Judi Fiedel

[Guest guest]

Hi Judy

You're not in Pennsylvania by any chance? My GUESS is that a specialist is not

a pathologist....does she sign her name with MA/SLP after it? if not, I'd

question that pronto....

~k

[ ] School speech-language specialist?

Does anyone know what the qualifications are for a school " speech-language

specialist " ? Is this title the same as a " speech-language pathologist " or

" speech language therapist? " My son has been working with a speech-language

specialist for this entire school year and I believe the year has been a

total waste of time. I am just wondering if she is even qualified to be

working with him since his speech and language issues are quite involved and

testing has indicated that he needs intervention in the areas of language

processing, listening comprehension (being able to hear a direction and

follow through with appropriate actions), expressive oral language, verbal

short-term memory, pragmatics (social, gestural and non-verbal forms of

communication), and complex problem solving as well as reading comprehension

(being able to process and recall what he is reading, particularly with

fiction) and articulation. Much of his learning disability seems to be

language based.

I believe that the school speech specialist has not addressed any of these

issues. I'm not sure what my son does in speech other than practice the

sound " S " which he did all of last year, with no obvious improvement. In

fact, my private speech therapist told me last year that he can't make the

sound " s " correctly and if he is practicing it, he is practicing it all

wrong. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints, we have been forced to

curtail my son's private speech therapy and have had to rely on our school

district. I'm sure many of you have had to make this concession since

speech therapists are all out of network and they want their money up front.

My husband is an artist with his own business and, we pay $1016 a month in

insurance premiums. We simply do not have the cash flow for both. We would

never catch up.

We have an IEP meeting scheduled for May 10th and I will naturally be

bringing all of this up. Can we demand that a more qualified individual be

assigned to work with my son?

Thanks in advance for your help and input.

Judi Fiedel

[Guest guest]

Judi,

I believe it is in your sons " rights " to have a therapist that is more

appropiate for his speech needs to work with him.

We just had our daughters IEP meeting this past week and our SLP from the

school wrote in her IEP for Madison to be getting visit from an SLP that is

a specialist in the field of apraxia. Our neurologist gave me the name and

number of one in our area and I have been trying to reach her. From my

understanding the school is going to need to provide this service for

Madison since it is written on her IEP.

Don't know if this helps but I am pretty sure if you can prove this Speech

" specialist " is not the right " fit " for your son and his progress you can

get what he needs. Of course in most cases it comes with a fight for it.

You also have the right to see this therapist qualifications.

Best of luck

Liz in NH

[ ] School speech-language specialist?

> Does anyone know what the qualifications are for a school " speech-language

> specialist " ? Is this title the same as a " speech-language pathologist " or

> " speech language therapist? " My son has been working with a

speech-language

> specialist for this entire school year and I believe the year has been a

> total waste of time. I am just wondering if she is even qualified to be

> working with him since his speech and language issues are quite involved

and

> testing has indicated that he needs intervention in the areas of language

> processing, listening comprehension (being able to hear a direction and

> follow through with appropriate actions), expressive oral language, verbal

> short-term memory, pragmatics (social, gestural and non-verbal forms of

> communication), and complex problem solving as well as reading

comprehension

> (being able to process and recall what he is reading, particularly with

> fiction) and articulation. Much of his learning disability seems to be

> language based.

>

> I believe that the school speech specialist has not addressed any of these

> issues. I'm not sure what my son does in speech other than practice the

> sound " S " which he did all of last year, with no obvious improvement. In

> fact, my private speech therapist told me last year that he can't make the

> sound " s " correctly and if he is practicing it, he is practicing it all

> wrong. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints, we have been forced

to

> curtail my son's private speech therapy and have had to rely on our school

> district. I'm sure many of you have had to make this concession since

> speech therapists are all out of network and they want their money up

front.

> My husband is an artist with his own business and, we pay $1016 a month

in

> insurance premiums. We simply do not have the cash flow for both. We

would

> never catch up.

>

> We have an IEP meeting scheduled for May 10th and I will naturally be

> bringing all of this up. Can we demand that a more qualified individual

be

> assigned to work with my son?

>

> Thanks in advance for your help and input.

>

> Judi Fiedel

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

hi judith,

I just spoke to my aunt who is speech language pathologist and said

specialist/therapist/teachers are usually non graduate school graduates. She

said that your suppose to call yourself a pathologist when you have an graduate

degree with ccc " s. Meaning they did all that was required by speech language

ass. They also get a license number. so ask your " specialist " for her

qualifications. Questions to ask does she have her graduate degree and

ccc " s-that's how they get their license number.

I think yu have every right to ask for a better qualified speech language

pathologist. Just make sure you have good examples of how he was not helped.

Hopefully they can find a better qualified speech path. since it is in the

school hopefully they can change speech paths for you.

Some speech paths get really burnt in school systems because they get sooo many

kids. the school district, in my eyes are too cheap to hire more speech paths.

hope this helped

chris

" Judith M. Fiedel " <judifc@...> wrote:

Does anyone know what the qualifications are for a school " speech-language

specialist " ? Is this title the same as a " speech-language pathologist " or

" speech language therapist? " My son has been working with a speech-language

specialist for this entire school year and I believe the year has been a

total waste of time. I am just wondering if she is even qualified to be

working with him since his speech and language issues are quite involved and

testing has indicated that he needs intervention in the areas of language

processing, listening comprehension (being able to hear a direction and

follow through with appropriate actions), expressive oral language, verbal

short-term memory, pragmatics (social, gestural and non-verbal forms of

communication), and complex problem solving as well as reading comprehension

(being able to process and recall what he is reading, particularly with

fiction) and articulation. Much of his learning disability seems to be

language based.

I believe that the school speech specialist has not addressed any of these

issues. I'm not sure what my son does in speech other than practice the

sound " S " which he did all of last year, with no obvious improvement. In

fact, my private speech therapist told me last year that he can't make the

sound " s " correctly and if he is practicing it, he is practicing it all

wrong. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints, we have been forced to

curtail my son's private speech therapy and have had to rely on our school

district. I'm sure many of you have had to make this concession since

speech therapists are all out of network and they want their money up front.

My husband is an artist with his own business and, we pay $1016 a month in

insurance premiums. We simply do not have the cash flow for both. We would

never catch up.

We have an IEP meeting scheduled for May 10th and I will naturally be

bringing all of this up. Can we demand that a more qualified individual be

assigned to work with my son?

Thanks in advance for your help and input.

Judi Fiedel