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EI through school system experience?

MrsVictoriaBMrsVictoriaB
in Special Needs

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure if I have posted here before but I have lurked on and off. It's nice to have a place like this because when I post in other places my DS is always the farthest behind and it makes me sad.

A bit of background, my son who will be 3 at the end of next month, does not talk and only knows a couple of signs. Our county kept denying him speech therapy through the state (our insurance denied him coverage and we couldn't afford it out of pocket) until 4ish months ago. He's been doing great in speech therapy so far but still only knows a handful of words and only really uses them in his speech therapy sessions.

Anyways, now that he is turning 3, they are going to transition him into the public school system. From what I was told, he will be going to a local elementary school M-F for 2 hours every day with other special needs children. Beyond that I have no idea how it works or anything, but our big informative transition meeting is at the end of this month,

I'm just looking for any stories of experience or advice. I don't know anyone else whos LO is this age and still doesn't talk so I feel very alone most of the time

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Re: EI through school system experience?

  • victoria1977victoria1977

    You don't "know" me, but I remember you from the old 12-24 month board. I too lurk here because my 1st is speech delayed. I know what it is like to feel all alone and like your child is the most far behind. It is a sad and scary place to be. My son will be transitioning into the school system in October. Since the age of 20 months he has recieved services through EI and we are lucky that our experiece has been wonderful. I am very anxious and hopeful that once he starts school he will blossom even more. If you ever want to talk, I can PM you my email address.

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  • MrsVictoriaBMrsVictoriaB
    imagevictoria1977:

    You don't "know" me, but I remember you from the old 12-24 month board. I too lurk here because my 1st is speech delayed. I know what it is like to feel all alone and like your child is the most far behind. It is a sad and scary place to be. My son will be transitioning into the school system in October. Since the age of 20 months he has recieved services through EI and we are lucky that our experiece has been wonderful. I am very anxious and hopeful that once he starts school he will blossom even more. If you ever want to talk, I can PM you my email address.

    Hi! I'm sorry you are dealing with this too but I'm glad to know I'm not alone. I'd love to email with you, sounds like are DS's are going through the exact same thing at the exact same time!

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  • virginiamorsevirginiamorse

    My DS was non-verbal until age 3, he is Autistic and has Apraxia of Speech.

    Do you have a diagnosis?  I would recommend getting a private speech evaluation done asap.  If you can come to the table at the IEP with a dx you'll have a better chance of getting him appropriate services.

    Fyi, at age 3 it is no longer called EI.  You'll be doing an IEP for him, not the IFSP.

    Push for as much speech time as you can.  Having a dx would be very helpful.  My DS is Apraxic, it's common knowledge that group or push in(to the classroom) therapy is not appropriate for treating Apraxia.  He needs one on one, pull out therapy.  Knowing his dx I was able to be a better advocate for his needs.  Also depending on the dx your insurance may cover private therapy too.  Which, honestly imo, if he's 3 and non verbal he needs private too, whatever they give him at the school wouldn't be enough.

    Just to give you an example.  At age 3 my DS was getting 90 minutes a week of pull out one on one speech at preschool.  And 2-3 hours of private speech a week.  He has made tremendous progress, everyone that knows him now always forgets that he was non verbal until his 3rd b-day.

    GL!

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  • clp1027clp1027
    DS has an IEP and started with the public school system last February. He has speech 2x a week and OT 1x a week, both for 30 minutes each. I really feel like we've made a lot more progress with him at the school than we ever did with EI at home. I think the fact that he's around other children all day is practically therapy in itself. The class he's in is 50% models and I think this really helps so much! Good luck to you and your little one!
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  • JenGKJenGK
    My son has been in public special ed preschool since he was 2.5.  He is in a self-contained class with kids with a variety of disabilities, and received 1.5 hours/3 sessions of speech and 1 hour/2 session of OT each week.  These sessions are mainly group session, though he does get speech on an individual basis for .5 hour a week.  He takes the bus there and back every day (and loves it).  He has dyspraxia of speech, as well as SPD and gross motor dyspraxia, so we also supplement with private therapy each week.  I wasn't a big fan of the EI services we received -- and the school has been much better.  That said, he needs more than the school gives him, particularly on the speech front, so that is why we pay for private as well.
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  • victoria1977victoria1977
    imageMrsVictoriaB:
    imagevictoria1977:

    You don't "know" me, but I remember you from the old 12-24 month board. I too lurk here because my 1st is speech delayed. I know what it is like to feel all alone and like your child is the most far behind. It is a sad and scary place to be. My son will be transitioning into the school system in October. Since the age of 20 months he has recieved services through EI and we are lucky that our experiece has been wonderful. I am very anxious and hopeful that once he starts school he will blossom even more. If you ever want to talk, I can PM you my email address.

    Hi! I'm sorry you are dealing with this too but I'm glad to know I'm not alone. I'd love to email with you, sounds like are DS's are going through the exact same thing at the exact same time!

     

    You have a PM. :)

     

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  • elleLelleL
    I lurk on the board all the time as well :)  I have a DS that will be 3 in Oct. as well.  He has been in EI speech since around 2 years... with not much progress as of late.  At first, it was great, but now I think he's too comfortable being at home and with his SLP.  He has Apraxia and struggles for every word that he says, which isn't very many yet.  I'm looking forward to starting special needs preschool when he's 3.  We haven't had an IEP meeting yet, so not sure how much speech, etc. he'll be getting.  We are starting private speech therapy next week at our local university.  That may be something to look into if you have a college/university with a speech/language pathology dept. - my DS will be working with MS students and supervised by a Phd.  Our insurance doesn't cover private speech therapy so we thought we'd give this a try before we spend the big $$$.
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