Question about speech therapy

[Guest guest]

Read your state law regarding the EI program and look for language that

requires services provided be based on empirical research or evidence based

practice.

Ask the EI people to provide you with research based support for their

therapy recommendations. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

collects

data to study this among other things (National Outcomes Mearsurement System or

NOMs). Clinical judgment is not research based support (you want evidence

based practice).

Also review any test results you were given and research the tests to

determine what they mean.

A speech clinical professor told me that I wasn't supposed to be my child's

primary speech teacher at a young age. That said, it is not unreasonable to

practice speech with your child following the directions of the child's

therapist if your child is responsive. One of the benefits of having your child

practice in front of a trained SLP is that she can fine tune and help the child

make improvements.

The SLPs we dealt with have been mostly nice; however, their lack of

resources is not your child's problem. A lack of resources is not an acceptable

reason for not providing services. Even without a diagnosis of apraxia, your

child

may still require additional treatment units per week. Good luck.

[Guest guest]

The best thing to do is to get a Developmental Pediatrician to diagnose.

Your pediatrician could probably even refer you. Getting a diagnosis,

in my opinion, is all important to getting the level of service that you

need. Of course, family follow-up is crucial, but once a week is not

even close to enough. has been getting 120 minutes per week of

apeech therapy for 14 months now. We just transitioned to school

district services and her services have pretty much stayed the same.

Our EI program paid for a neurodevelopmental evaluation for , but

if yours won't, then I suggest pursuing it on your own. This will give

you the ammunition that you need to get what you need for Ellie. Your

insurance will probably at least partially pay. Ours has been paying

for 's subsequent visits.

My 2 cents. I hope that helps!

Warm regards,

******************

(Rochester, NY)

Mom to , 3.4 years, Verbal Apraxia

& , 1.2 years (and babbling away!)

________________________________

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of kingdogforlife

Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 1:01 PM

Subject: [ ] Question about speech therapy

We finally got enrolled in our county Birth to Three program. The

social worker that I saw assured me that despite what I've read,

speech therapy more than once a week is unnceccessary. She is 20

months old with only 2 words (one of which she just aquired after

starting EFA's. More about that in another post)They are sending

somebody to my house once a week to do Ellies therapy, and to teach me

how to do it so that I can continue it throughout the week. Is this

reasonable, or should I be pushing for more than one visit a week? My

insurance won't cover more than 2 visits a month because she doesn't

have an official diagnosis as being apraxic- the trouble is that

nobody will refer me to somebody willing to diagnos it. They all say

she's " most likely apraxic " or " it's the only thing that fit's " , but

won't go further than " global delay " or " developmentally delayed " .

Looking foreward to your input and/or suggestions as to how to get

more out of the program. Thanks!

[Guest guest]

Honestly, I'm not sure what to think about the once a week versus more

so I'll give you my thoughts for both sides and our experience. Take

from it what you will.

My daughter finally got in with a great SLP in January 2006 at age 2.5

years. She has lots of training and experience with apraxia and lots

of understanding of SID and autism behavioral issues as well. I think

she really takes into account how to best overall treat any individual

child.

For most of this year we have only been to see her once a week for 60

minutes. I asked her about going more times per week and she said her

experience had been that kids this young got burnt-out on speech

therapy if they went several times a week. She recommended therapy

once per week and then us working with her at home. She said she

wanted us to have at least a couple of targeted language times at home

each week. We did see some real progress in this format. Charlotte

was largely non-verbal and really started vocalizing a lot more. This

summer (mid-July) she started a language explosion. We had started 1

Pro-EFA per day about a month before that so I'm sure that played a

role in the explosion. Truth be told driving distance and cost also

played a role in the decision to have only one time per week, but had

our therapist recommended more we would have done that without a thought.

This last month we have started going 2 times per week, but one of

those times is 30 minutes of therapy in the swimming pool (which

Charlotte really responds to).

Really my bigger concern than only getting therapy one time per week

is if the therapist knows how to work with kids with apraxia. They

need different therapy and can really languish in more traditional

speech therapy. Our therapist through early intervention, while a

nice, good traditional therapist had no idea how to work with

Charlotte's apraxia.

>

> We finally got enrolled in our county Birth to Three program. The

> social worker that I saw assured me that despite what I've read,

> speech therapy more than once a week is unnceccessary. She is 20

> months old with only 2 words (one of which she just aquired after

> starting EFA's. More about that in another post)They are sending

> somebody to my house once a week to do Ellies therapy, and to teach me

> how to do it so that I can continue it throughout the week. Is this

> reasonable, or should I be pushing for more than one visit a week? My

> insurance won't cover more than 2 visits a month because she doesn't

> have an official diagnosis as being apraxic- the trouble is that

> nobody will refer me to somebody willing to diagnos it. They all say

> she's " most likely apraxic " or " it's the only thing that fit's " , but

> won't go further than " global delay " or " developmentally delayed " .

>

> Looking foreward to your input and/or suggestions as to how to get

> more out of the program. Thanks!

>

[Guest guest]

I thought I'd add one more thing to this thread. My son's SLP

recently got PROMPT training and she said they told her that it was

not necessary to provide more than one therapy session per week. I

don't know if they meant no more than one PROMPT session or no more

than one type of ANY speech therapy though. Anyone else hear this?

> >

> > We finally got enrolled in our county Birth to Three program.

The

> > social worker that I saw assured me that despite what I've read,

> > speech therapy more than once a week is unnceccessary. She is 20

> > months old with only 2 words (one of which she just aquired

after

> > starting EFA's. More about that in another post)They are sending

> > somebody to my house once a week to do Ellies therapy, and to

teach me

> > how to do it so that I can continue it throughout the week. Is

this

> > reasonable, or should I be pushing for more than one visit a

week? My

> > insurance won't cover more than 2 visits a month because she

doesn't

> > have an official diagnosis as being apraxic- the trouble is that

> > nobody will refer me to somebody willing to diagnos it. They all

say

> > she's " most likely apraxic " or " it's the only thing that fit's " ,

but

> > won't go further than " global delay " or " developmentally

delayed " .

> >

> > Looking foreward to your input and/or suggestions as to how

to get

> > more out of the program. Thanks!

> >

>

[Guest guest]

I thought I'd add one more thing to this thread. My son's SLP

recently got PROMPT training and she said they told her that it was

not necessary to provide more than one therapy session per week. I

don't know if they meant no more than one PROMPT session or no more

than one type of ANY speech therapy though. Anyone else hear this?

My son sees a PROMPT trained SLP. She has told me this too.

I am currently trying to get the school district to provide additional therapy

for my son. Starting this year, though they are providing 3 days a week, but

only 20 minutes. All individual. His special ed teacher is also a speech

therapist too which I think is going to help.

However, during the summer I had one day of Speech by a PROMPT trained

specialist and I swear it has made such a difference. My son is going to be 7

in a few weeks and I worry so much about his speech. He has other medical

issues as well. But I am worried for his self esteem. Especially when I see

the look on his face when people don't understand him, like family and kids....

I am told the school district would probably not provide any more then 4 days of

speech, but my PROMPT speech therapist was saying if you can get just one day of

good PROMPT it would make a huge difference and also make sure the school is

using the best techiques for him....

The district is paying for an independent evaluation, so we will see the

outcome. My son has many behavioral problems at school and he scored below 1%

on articulation, so we were trying to tell the school that some of the behavior

maybe from the fact that he is not being understoond... Of course, they

disagreed. Oh they all understand him, When his own mother has trouble

sometimes. So now they will pay for an independent evaluation.

Sorry I am not sure why I am rabbling especially when I don't post here much.

Thanks for taking the time to read this though...

NJ

mom to

epilepsy

keto diet

apraxic

[Guest guest]

Hi-

My son is 7 and has been responded to the Prompt method. It is multi-modal

and i think that helps the boys. I haven't heard the 1x a week- ask to see the

study...Sounds like a bit of lazy hog wash..... My son was also at that level of

artic- so - i think he needs it and bring it on.... (non-medical mom

perspective), got 2x a week with prompt.

In terms of his self esteem try to find something outside of school that he

likes- a hobby, naybe? And the one on one play dates after school really cement

the friendships and will give your son a sense of belonging. Sports teams are

great also to create that sense of belonging, if it's a good fit for your

family.

You probably already know all this stuff- apraxia is a devil of a diagnosis,

but we can only keep tackling the problem one day at a time. I'm sure you are

doing great- take a warm bath and get an extra hug. SOunds like you need one.

Cheers

Liz

WILLIAM TRAPP <trapptrio@...> wrote:

I thought I'd add one more thing to this thread. My son's SLP

recently got PROMPT training and she said they told her that it was

not necessary to provide more than one therapy session per week. I

don't know if they meant no more than one PROMPT session or no more

than one type of ANY speech therapy though. Anyone else hear this?

My son sees a PROMPT trained SLP. She has told me this too.

I am currently trying to get the school district to provide additional therapy

for my son. Starting this year, though they are providing 3 days a week, but

only 20 minutes. All individual. His special ed teacher is also a speech

therapist too which I think is going to help.

However, during the summer I had one day of Speech by a PROMPT trained

specialist and I swear it has made such a difference. My son is going to be 7 in

a few weeks and I worry so much about his speech. He has other medical issues as

well. But I am worried for his self esteem. Especially when I see the look on

his face when people don't understand him, like family and kids....

I am told the school district would probably not provide any more then 4 days of

speech, but my PROMPT speech therapist was saying if you can get just one day of

good PROMPT it would make a huge difference and also make sure the school is

using the best techiques for him....

The district is paying for an independent evaluation, so we will see the

outcome. My son has many behavioral problems at school and he scored below 1% on

articulation, so we were trying to tell the school that some of the behavior

maybe from the fact that he is not being understoond... Of course, they

disagreed. Oh they all understand him, When his own mother has trouble

sometimes. So now they will pay for an independent evaluation.

Sorry I am not sure why I am rabbling especially when I don't post here much.

Thanks for taking the time to read this though...

NJ

mom to

epilepsy

keto diet

apraxic

[Guest guest]

It would be nice if you could get one day of PROMPT and then the

other three days of " traditional " ST. Pay attention to the PROMPT

therapist too, because you can pick up some of the cues and

reinforce them with your child. My son even prompts himself

sometimes when he's working through a tough sound.

>

>

> I thought I'd add one more thing to this thread. My son's SLP

> recently got PROMPT training and she said they told her that it

was

> not necessary to provide more than one therapy session per week. I

> don't know if they meant no more than one PROMPT session or no

more

> than one type of ANY speech therapy though. Anyone else hear this?

>

>

> My son sees a PROMPT trained SLP. She has told me this too.

>

> I am currently trying to get the school district to provide

additional therapy for my son. Starting this year, though they are

providing 3 days a week, but only 20 minutes. All individual. His

special ed teacher is also a speech therapist too which I think is

going to help.

>

> However, during the summer I had one day of Speech by a PROMPT

trained specialist and I swear it has made such a difference. My

son is going to be 7 in a few weeks and I worry so much about his

speech. He has other medical issues as well. But I am worried for

his self esteem. Especially when I see the look on his face when

people don't understand him, like family and kids....

>

> I am told the school district would probably not provide any more

then 4 days of speech, but my PROMPT speech therapist was saying if

you can get just one day of good PROMPT it would make a huge

difference and also make sure the school is using the best techiques

for him....

>

> The district is paying for an independent evaluation, so we will

see the outcome. My son has many behavioral problems at school and

he scored below 1% on articulation, so we were trying to tell the

school that some of the behavior maybe from the fact that he is not

being understoond... Of course, they disagreed. Oh they all

understand him, When his own mother has trouble sometimes. So now

they will pay for an independent evaluation.

>

> Sorry I am not sure why I am rabbling especially when I don't post

here much. Thanks for taking the time to read this though...

>

>

> NJ

> mom to

> epilepsy

> keto diet

> apraxic

>

>

[Guest guest]

" I haven't heard the 1x a week- ask to see the

study...Sounds like a bit of lazy hog wash "

Maybe, but then this came from the PROMPT people who I assume make

more money with increased therapy visits. I'd be more suspicious if

this came from EI or public schools.

>

> I thought I'd add one more thing to this thread. My son's SLP

> recently got PROMPT training and she said they told her that it

was

> not necessary to provide more than one therapy session per week. I

> don't know if they meant no more than one PROMPT session or no

more

> than one type of ANY speech therapy though. Anyone else hear this?

>

> My son sees a PROMPT trained SLP. She has told me this too.

>

> I am currently trying to get the school district to provide

additional therapy for my son. Starting this year, though they are

providing 3 days a week, but only 20 minutes. All individual. His

special ed teacher is also a speech therapist too which I think is

going to help.

>

> However, during the summer I had one day of Speech by a PROMPT

trained specialist and I swear it has made such a difference. My son

is going to be 7 in a few weeks and I worry so much about his

speech. He has other medical issues as well. But I am worried for

his self esteem. Especially when I see the look on his face when

people don't understand him, like family and kids....

>

> I am told the school district would probably not provide any more

then 4 days of speech, but my PROMPT speech therapist was saying if

you can get just one day of good PROMPT it would make a huge

difference and also make sure the school is using the best techiques

for him....

>

> The district is paying for an independent evaluation, so we will

see the outcome. My son has many behavioral problems at school and

he scored below 1% on articulation, so we were trying to tell the

school that some of the behavior maybe from the fact that he is not

being understoond... Of course, they disagreed. Oh they all

understand him, When his own mother has trouble sometimes. So now

they will pay for an independent evaluation.

>

> Sorry I am not sure why I am rabbling especially when I don't post

here much. Thanks for taking the time to read this though...

>

>

> NJ

> mom to

> epilepsy

> keto diet

> apraxic

>

>