Can an Autistic student be legaly denied Speech Therapy?

[Guest guest]

Because he is none-verbal? I had an IEP for Mickie today and asked for

more speech and was denied and the 10 minutes a week he had since

December were taken off too. The speech therapist had been replaced

over the holidays.

I was told by the speech therapist that since he is ten the window of

opportunity was permanently closed and speech was pointless and that

she was going to implement a pecs program for him instead.

She repeated that the window was closed several time until I had to

finally tell her to stop and not say another word, because I don't

tolerate that kind of negative talk about Mickie. I wanted to jump

across the table and strangle her, but instead tears ran down my face.

She put the teacher and me down several times. What an arrogant bi.....

The county principal suggested that a communication device be ordered

for Mickie so that he can push on the icon of the activity he wants

and a recorded voice will say what it is, giving him an opportunity to

hear spoken language along with the pecs and the speech therapist,

said no to that too and proceeded to spew her negative crap and that's

when I told her to stop. The principal said she would provide Mickie's

teacher with the device anyway.

Can they do this? Being none verbal and none interested or short

attention span grounds for denial of speech?

I posted to other support groups and everyone seems to agree that they

can't.

Zurama