If your DC had a speech eval...

kel716

DS's 2nd year well visit was the other day (finally).  I knew the speech evaluation referral was coming (we're still under 10 words), and I have to call Monday to set up the appointment.  Can you fill me in on what to expect?

How long is the appointment?  How flexible is the scheduling?  Are some times better than others?  What's involved with it?  Anything else I should know?

Other than not really talking, he's doing quite well!  He's 36.5" tall, 30 lbs, 5 ozs, and has a 20.5" round head.  He did not like being at the doctor's office this time around, but he was quite friendly on our way out the door. 

JenRose05

Its going to basically be an hour of observed playtime (if you are going with CCHMC) and note taking. It doesnt really matter what time your appointment is because they are SUPER punctual with the timing.Our appointments were always at 12:30 and there wasnt a time where we had to wait past 12:31

hav2run

I have no experience, but just wanted to wish you luck.  I know the speech thing has been a source of stress for you for some time.  I hope you get some answers and they can help with getting him on track with it.  Keep us posted on how things go.

There is a state funded program (name escapes me right now) that does evaluations and has treatment programs for lots of the developmental milestones at no cost.  I know someone here was getting an eval through them recently, so maybe they can chime in.  The pedi gave me the info when Brenna had the walking delay.  She walked the week before I had planned to call them.  I am drawing a blank on the name...darn it.

KristenBtobe

Help Me Grow

JenRose05

It was Ben Its called Help me grow and is completely funded by Ohio... Id highly recommend looking in to them and putting in a referral

hav2run

Yes!  Thanks.  That is the one.

cat81305

Look into Help Me Grow.  Also, DOUBLE and TRIPLE check with your insurance company to find out if they will cover the evaluation b/c they are expensive if not and most companies do not cover it!  Let me know if you have any questions.  I don't provide private services in ohio but am willing to give you some suggestions or help you through the process if you need (since I am a speech therapist, hehe).  Good luck and like Jen said, it is basically watching them play and taking notes for the evaluation.  

kel716

Thanks for the info, and I'll definitely check my ins certificate before I call. 

Is Help Me Grow for anyone?  Or are there income restrictions?  Is that the program that does in home evals? 

JenRose05

there are no income restrictions at all. They also work with your school district when it comes to preschool tme so thats a HUGE plus. I would try them first before going private. They do come to your house and evaluate ALL areas of development, Ben didnt qualify for speech but he has a cognitive delay so we are going to recieve services for that. Our insurance led us to believe that ST was covered...it wasnt until AFTER we did all of the sessions that we learned we had to meet our insanely high deductible before they covered it, therefore they only gave us a measly 12.00 discount on each session (which were 200.00 an hour)

Denise2005

evan was immediately enrolled into help me grow because of his low birth rate and status.  we received monthly visits from speech, physical, occupational, and developmental therapist.  for us the speech and occupational weren't too much help but i think E was a little young to get much out of speech.  it is a wonderful program and like jen said will work with the school and even go to your pre-school for speech if they qualify at turn of 3. 

we went through childrens for the eval and was a huge mess!  they ended up referring us to the feeding team and after a 5 month wait they laughed that we were there and couldn't believe the rude report from the speech eval and refered us back to speech.  we finally gave up on childrens and went with Cincinnati Speech and had AMAZING results.  Evan was probably about 2.5 years and was talking in complete sentences sometimes up to 10 words.  This was a long way from the baby babble he was doing at his 2nd bday, I don't even think he was saying 'mama' or 'dada' yet.  He understood everything just couldn't express it. 

I am thinking you live on the 'west side' even if not they are definitely worth checking into.  They are on Crookshank Rd next to Greaters behind Western Bowl.

kabel

Denise and I are pretty sure we had the same speech evaluator at CCHMC and she is pretty worthless IMO.  DH and I both went and she asked us to tell her what words she could say instead of interacting with DD at all.  In fact, the only time she really interacted with her was to tell her rather harshly that she could not get any more toys out of her cabinet.  Her room was filled with non-kid friendly items and the few toys she had were in a cabinet.  DD wanted in the cabinet to play and the evaluator told her that she had a doll out and that was all she needed.  I was not happy with her at all.  She told us that DD would most certainly qualify for speech therapy (based on what we told her, not what she observed) because she should have 200 words and be putting 2-3 words together in sentences.  At the time, DD had maybe 30 words and I left sobbing.  She told DD as we left to "have a nice life."  WTF?  When the report came back, it made it sound like DD barely qualified for services, but that they were recommended.  We have been seeing a speech therapist at the Eastgate location for 9 weeks now.

JenRose05

Kabel- what an AWFUL experience! We saw a lady named Becky and she was fantastic... i wouldve def gone to someone higher up and complained!

kel716

Kabel- do you know the name of the person who did the eval at CCHMC? I'm going to start with help me grow, but our referral is thru them and it sounds that woman should be avoided. You can send me a msg thru FB if you'd rather not post it publicly. She sounds horrid, and I really don't want to know her comment about ds considering we're still under 10 words

JenRose05

BTW Our speech therapist filled out this SUPER long form while she played with Ben (I cant remember what it was called) but it was divided up by age groups. Thats how she determined he needed therapy. I am appalled that this other ST didnt even interact with your LO. Also when we saw cincy childrens Ben was almost 2, she said he should be speaking 50 words and 2 word sentences....what that person told you is outrageous. 

kabel

I will look for her paperwork today and find out the name for you.  I'll FB it to you.  I was shocked that she didn't interact with her more, but honestly, I didn't know what to expect, so I didn't know if it was normal or not.  Same with her therapy... having never been through anything like this before, I didn't know what to expect.  To me, the therapist doesn't do anything that my DH and I don't already do at home.  However, since she is with someone else and in a different environment, DD will usually sit and play for longer stretches of time than she does at home.  I get frustrated though because one week her therapist is talking about cutting back on the number of times we see her per month (once a week right now) and the next week, she will tell me that she "definitely has some concerns."  But to be fair, DD will have one week where she does really well and the next, she will refuse to use any words.  It been very frustrating, but also worth it to hear her use the few new words she has.