Re: How do you know if an SLP is not a good fit?

September 8, 2007

hi, my son was 2 1/2 when he started e.i. we were approved for

1x/week for 1 hour. when i met the therapist, she told me that she

was familiar with and had worked with several children with verval

apraxia before. i was happy & she was terrific! anyway...i felt my

son needed more sessions, so i called his coordinator. he was

approved 1 more hour/week..the only problem was that his present

therapist did not have any more hours available, so i had to have the

coordinator find him another one. when the therapist came to the

house, i asked him if he was familiar/worked with children with

verbal apraxia, and he said no. he asked me how the other therapist

works with my son & when i told him what she does (which was alot of

oral motor exercises & kaufman method), he said he's never used those

before! huh!! so,i sat in on the therapy session & after the first

one i called the coordinator & told her the situation. this new

therapist was sitting with my son showing him pictures a cat & he

would say, " eddie, say cat " & of course he couldnot say it. it

obviously was not working! luckily, his present therapist was getting

some open time slots & fit him in. now, he's sees an outside

therapist 2x/week plus preschool 1 on 1 2x/week & 1 day group therapy

1x/week (which i doubt will be beneficial to him...bring up at iep

meeting!)

i would make sure the slp has oral motor experience & has had

experience with apraia. if not, call the e.i. coordinator & demand

another slp! i would not wait and see. also, after a few sessions,

if you feel that he would benefit from more sessions, do the same for

that too! e.i. is usually pretty stingy with giving more sessions, at

least in my case & quit a few people i know.

i received a package from e.i. with a letter before my child started

his sessions. that letter was from his coordinator. did you get

something similiar? check it out & give them a call if needed!

i hope everything goes well for you & your child!

marianne

>

> Hello Everyone,

>

> I am new, but have been reading the board since the word 'apraxia'

> entered my reality on August 9th.

>

> My 21 month old son has suspected apraxia, and we are scheduled to

> begin speech therapy next week. We have only been approved for 1

hour

> per week, which is disappointing, but what is most unsettling to me

is

> that the SLP said that it doesn't matter, because he is so young

there

> is not much she can do besides encouraging him to communicate. She

was

> really vague when I asked her what her plan for his therapy would

be.

>

> Everything I have read about apraxia tells me that this is the

wrong

> approach. Is it? I also feel that he communicates quite well,

actually;

> he's simply unintelligible to anyone other than me and (to a lesser

> extent)my husband.

>

> I just don't get the feeling that this SLP is in his corner, as it

> were, but we haven't even had one session yet, so am I

overreacting?

> How much of a chance do I give her before I stamp my feet and

demand a

> different one?

>

> Oh, and exactly HOW do you go about stamping your feet and

demanding a

> different one?

>

> Anyone want to talk me down off the ledge?

>

> Kate

>

September 8, 2007

I got our SLP changed with EI because she wasn't working out. All I

needed to do was call my coordinator and let her know that I wanted

someone else. In our state EI is very family oriented and thus, the

parents have a lot of input. I always interview the therapists before

they even come out. I'm so suprised that more people don't do this.

Also, I was able to up our therapy at one point to 4 times a week.

All I did was gather a bunch of research on apraxia that indicated

how important it is to have frequent therapy. It really was just a

bunch of quotes from books and the internet. I read every quote to my

coordinator stressing 'frequent therapy'. My coordinator then

presented it to her team and they increased his sessions. Although,

she did indicate that she had to fight for it.

Another tip (at least where I'm at) is I was able to get education

services for my child. Basically, someone comes out for 1 hour a week

and works on the goals that we have set for . This is

completely free and available to all children in EI where I live. I

kind of stumbled on it.

It is so important to get an SLP experienced with apraxic children. I

was so amazed the first time I saw one of my son's speech therapists

get him to make the 'h' sound. He tried a couple of times (without

success) and then she cued him by making the sound on her hand. After

the cue he correctly made the sound. It was amazing.

My son started getting therapy at 18 months and is now about 30

months old. He has speech anywhere from 2 to 4 times a week and I

always work with him throughout the day. He has made so much progress

due to the therapies. You are lucky that you have discovered this at

21 months of age. This is exactly the age you want to give him

frequent amounts of the right therapy. The fact that your SLP thinks

1 hour a week is fine would be a big red flag for me.

>

> Hello Everyone,

>

> I am new, but have been reading the board since the word 'apraxia'

> entered my reality on August 9th.

>

> My 21 month old son has suspected apraxia, and we are scheduled to

> begin speech therapy next week. We have only been approved for 1

hour

> per week, which is disappointing, but what is most unsettling to me

is

> that the SLP said that it doesn't matter, because he is so young

there

> is not much she can do besides encouraging him to communicate. She

was

> really vague when I asked her what her plan for his therapy would

be.

>

> Everything I have read about apraxia tells me that this is the

wrong

> approach. Is it? I also feel that he communicates quite well,

actually;

> he's simply unintelligible to anyone other than me and (to a lesser

> extent)my husband.

>

> I just don't get the feeling that this SLP is in his corner, as it

> were, but we haven't even had one session yet, so am I

overreacting?

> How much of a chance do I give her before I stamp my feet and

demand a

> different one?

>

> Oh, and exactly HOW do you go about stamping your feet and

demanding a

> different one?

>

> Anyone want to talk me down off the ledge?

>

> Kate

>

September 8, 2007

Kate,

My 24 month old has just moved to two days a week. Insisted on this, period.

You are going to have to do the same. They may not do anything until 24

months, but after that, I would push them very hard to do so. This just fits

my personality very well, so I never thought twice.

You need to read the book, The late talker. Make sure your SLP understands

Apraxia and see if your son has oral/verbal apraxia. I believe you can do

this by checking out if he moves his tounge around. I believe my SLP did

this with a sucker.

Check your insurance, Check your local government program. Unfortunately,

you are going to have to remain the strong advocate for your son if he does

have apraxia. Lots of times, they can not diagnose this until after 2 years

of age.

Colleen

[ ] How do you know if an SLP is not a good fit?

Hello Everyone,

I am new, but have been reading the board since the word 'apraxia'

entered my reality on August 9th.

My 21 month old son has suspected apraxia, and we are scheduled to

begin speech therapy next week. We have only been approved for 1 hour

per week, which is disappointing, but what is most unsettling to me is

that the SLP said that it doesn't matter, because he is so young there

is not much she can do besides encouraging him to communicate. She was

really vague when I asked her what her plan for his therapy would be.

Everything I have read about apraxia tells me that this is the wrong

approach. Is it? I also feel that he communicates quite well, actually;

he's simply unintelligible to anyone other than me and (to a lesser

extent)my husband.

I just don't get the feeling that this SLP is in his corner, as it

were, but we haven't even had one session yet, so am I overreacting?

How much of a chance do I give her before I stamp my feet and demand a

different one?

Oh, and exactly HOW do you go about stamping your feet and demanding a

different one?

Anyone want to talk me down off the ledge?

Kate

September 10, 2007

Kate - take me with you....our SLT at school was pretty much writing

back to us that our son was making nice progress but when we did the

evaluation at St. 's and had our son at Kean Child Study Institute

it suggested a completely different outlook. We hired a private SLT as

our insurance will only cover restorative speech. So she also felt

had Apraxia and long story short we are taking the school

district to court (due process) over speech therapy and having our son

tested at Princeton Speech next week specifically for Apraxia. So you

may need to have some private testing done (this will run us $1300 that

our insurance will not pay for) but the questions are very imporant for

the types of therapy a child receives. The Casana DVD I have on

Apraxia teaches parents how to work with kids at home and perhaps if

you get stuck with a therapist you need to get a second opinion and

learn to do many things at home. Buy some home therapy kits and

basically become the apraxia expert. It's changed my whole outlook on

life and I am thinking of heading back to school for either OT or SLT.

There is so much work to be done, it takes a special needs Mom to know

the needs of a special needs kid.

April

September 10, 2007

April,

I applaud any special needs parent who goes back to school to become a

therapist. I know lots of special needs Moms who are giving up their

present careers and going back to school to become OT's, Speech

therapists, and ABA providers. I really think from my own experience

that many of the therapists who are not special needs parents just

don't get it and they probably never will!

I'm personally hoping to eventually get into nutrition or natural

medicine.

Vicki

The Casana DVD I have on

> Apraxia teaches parents how to work with kids at home and perhaps if

> you get stuck with a therapist you need to get a second opinion and

> learn to do many things at home. Buy some home therapy kits and

> basically become the apraxia expert. It's changed my whole outlook

on

> life and I am thinking of heading back to school for either OT or

SLT.

> There is so much work to be done, it takes a special needs Mom to

know

> the needs of a special needs kid.

>

> April

>

September 10, 2007

I walked out on our first private speech therapist for my son after 3

sessions. He was about 20-22 months old. It just wasn't a good fit and she

was fresh out of college. Didn't have a clue. Anyway then we ended up in

the EI program with the school dist and that therapist was over worked and

when I asked about SI or apraxia. she said she couldn't diagnose and that

private intervention wasn't the way to go. all she would say was that he had

and oral motor planning problem.. essentialy she defined apraxia without

saying apraxia!!! We stayed exclusive with EI for about a year then I was

very frustrated as I had an almost 3 yr old that wasn't talking and

routinely choking at dinner. I don't think we realized how our diet had

changed until I had to detail it out for the next private eval done when my

son was 2 yrs 11 mo. Since then I have double up on therapy and done lots

of research and come up with my own theories on how to help - some work -

some don't ah well.

Anyway, he has made HUGE gains and I believe it is all due to private

therapy. I stopped fighting the school system and just supplement what I

want on the outside.

_____

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of werkkate

Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 1:08 AM

Subject: [ ] How do you know if an SLP is not a good fit?