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Special Needs
BlindysWife
member
I just want to give you a world as beautiful as you are to me.
Speech delay advice
BlindysWife
member
I hope this is an appropriate place to ask my questions. I'm hoping someone who has btdt can chime in. I want to know if we're doing enough, doing the right things, etc etc.Background: DS is 21 months. He has no words. Zero. He makes sounds, but nothing that actually means anything. At 19 mo I contacted the early intervention folks (here is is called early access, through the AEA/school district). They did a hearing test, and the results were a-okay. They did a developmental eval, and he scored fine in every area (social, motor skills, etc) except in communication. His delay was enough that he qualified for services, twice a month. They created an ISFP for us.He's had two "sessions" with the lady so far, and maybe my expectations were off, or I didn't understand what the sessions would entail, but she doesn't actually DO anything. Se observes him, asks me questions, plays with him a little. But there is no, like, special speech-encouraging activity. I tried to ask some questions about her role. She is an early childhood specialist. She said something about how their job is from an educational standpoint, to support our family, something like that. She's very kind, I'm not suggesting she's not doing her job properly. I'm just wondering if there is a piece of intervention that we are missing. Should DS be getting some sort of speech therapy or something? We really haven't talked to the pedi about any of this, since it has all happened after his 18 mo appointment. Should I wait until his 2 yr appointment, or go sooner? Are there other resources you can suggest?TIA for any help, ladies!
I just want to give you a world as beautiful as you are to me.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Speech delay advice
I think with just 2 classes in, the specialist is probably just getting to know your DS. When DS (now 4, ASD) had his ISFP he met once a week with a speech therapist, once a week with a early childhood autism therapist, and once a month with a social worker. The social worker sounds like who you are meeting with now. She would play with DS a little, but her role was more just to check in with DH and I and see how we are doing and keep us informed. She would bring sensory toys and activities, but honestly I mostly just remember sitting and chatting with her. At some point, if the specialist you're seeing doesn't start some active speech activities (introducing PECS was the first thing they did with my son at 19 months), then I would inquire if that's coming down the line or what.
I would definitely make an appt with your pedi. At our 18 month appt everything was a-okay, but shortly after it was our daycare provider who suggested DS had some delays that were concerning. Once I got the EI ball rolling I took him to a new pedi (I googled to find one who specialized in delays, although he wasn't a dev. pedi- that came later). The new pedi immediately referred for Speech Therapy. Once we figured out insurance, we got DS rolling with private speech therapy, which was/is a great compliment to his public school therapy.
Our developmental pedi (whom we first saw when DS turned 3- I purposefully waited a bit because I wanted his eval to be more clear) has been really good about managing expectations about what the school district should/could be doing to help DS.
I am going out on a limb here, and guessing from what you wrote that you may be from my state. If you are, I have had tremendous help from Blank Children's hospital and UIHC. If you want more specific details, I would be happy to go further.
Good luck!
Initially any kind of speech therapy isn't going to push the child too much, especially at that young an age. It's about getting to know the child, his likes/dislikes and warming up to the process. Regardless of who was performing the service, that's pretty standard.
While it's great that she's coming out a few times a month to help, that's not nearly enough. Both my kids were ahead of where your child verbally at 21 months (although still delayed) and we have services twice a week--not twice a month. We have two different people involved in our children's life. Our EI service coordinator (like what you seem to be describing) comes over and plays with the kids/answers questions once a week. We have speech therapy sessions separate from that. In our state there is a waiting list to get a speech therapist so it wasn't started after our IFSP--we had to be on a waitlist for about 3-4 months for that.
I would ask her for more information on speech therapy since she is not the person qualified to do it. You may have to get your child's name on a waitlist before it starts. A lot of time through early intervention they have speech groups with small groups of children that might be quicker to get into than private 1 on 1 therapy. The kids get to interact and they practice speech skills--it's really great for the kids and while it's not as beneficial as 1 on 1 therapy, it's a good start. I would inquire about more services they can provide/speech therapy.
GL.
I just want to give you a world as beautiful as you are to me.
There has been no mention of speech therapy or an SLP. That's kind of why I'm confused and wondering if we're missing something. I was under the impression that the eval with our Early Access people, that they would be the ones coordinating any/all therapies that were needed. After his eval, she said he "qualified for services", which was her meeting with us twice a month. That's it. No other services were mentioned.
So I just made an appointment with a pedi for next week and I'm hoping maybe she can point us in the right direction. Maybe I should email the lady that is meeting with is and see if I can pull some more information from her.
I just want to give you a world as beautiful as you are to me.
On my daughter's IFSP, it says "special instruction" with service coordinator once a week but makes no mention of speech therapy. We are still on the waitlist for a therapist. My first course of action would be to specify with your service coordinator whether your child will qualify for speech therapy with an SLP because this may be the case. If you're not happy with their services there are usually other organizations that provide EI services--you're usually not stuck to just one group unless you're in a really rural area. I would try to call around for that.
My pedi wasn't really helpful unfortunately. She recommended me to the children's hospital for speech therapy but there was over a year waitlist for services so that wasn't incredibly helpful. Definitely keep your pedi in the loop, but keep your expectations low.
BFP 12/10/10 - DD1 8/16/11
BFP 10/29/13 - c/p 11/2/13
BFP 11/29/13 - DD2 7/18/14
BFP 3/20/18 - DS1 due 12/2/18