Speech Therapy? PIP

DrRx · August 2013

We had our 18-month evaluation for Adalyn with her EI and we're being referred to Speech Therapy. She is actually at 8-10 month level as far as language. She is at 17-18 month for gross motor skills and self-help, 14-month for cognitive, and fine motor. The fact that she has no words, doesn't say mama or dada, imitate sounds, etc. She said that she recommends us to get it also privately since they usually can only offer it once a month and she would benefit from it being at least once week, if not twice a week at first.

She gave me 2 recommendations, and 1 is booked for about 4 to 5 months, but the other one we have an appointment with next week. It's going to cost $25 a session, with a max of 50 a year that the insurance will pay for. After that, we will see what it costs and what we're going to do. I am sure that the speech therapy, along with our EI, will be the extra help that she needs that will push her to finally speak! She understands some stuff, and will point like a champ, but she needs to verbalize!

I would love to hear some of you all's experiences with speech therapy. What did they do at the evaluation? What kinds of things do they look at and/or do to help the child talk? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Other than that, we have a very demanding diva on our hands.

Tantrums have fully started, and I can't help but laugh when she throws herself to the ground and does a seated forward fold or just full on laying on the ground. We're doing well with redirecting, but she sure is strong-willed!
Here's a pic of Adalyn from the other day. The look on her face seems to say "You expect me to wear this hat?"

direy25 · August 2013

Obviously no experience here but just wanted to say your daughter's adorable!

MTipler22 · August 2013

My twins just turned 2 this past weekend and were born prematurely at 27 weeks. We are currently doing speech therapy. Both don't speak much... just "mama" "dada" etc. My son has started to take off a bit and I've heard him start to say many more words. I personally do not feel as if speech therapy has helped them THAT much though. I think they just need extra time.... as with everything else so far in their life. Crawling, walking... all that took just a bit more time than the average full-term child. Their speech therapist recommended starting to sign with them about 3 months ago and my DH and I do that with them. I feel like it does help. If we ever have another child, we will definitely begin signing as early as 6 months old. I feel like that has helped my twins the most with their speech building.

thishappyhouse · August 2013

I also have a very stubborn and strong willed child! We had a speech evaluation back in April (so similar adjusted age to what A is now) but they didn't recommend starting ST at the time because she wasn't walking yet. They wanted to focus on getting her gross motor skills up and going and hope that the speech skills followed. Her speech has improved in the past few months and she now has about 15 words that she uses independently and then parrots almost anything else we say. We have another speech evaluation in a few weeks and according to our PT we will likely qualify for weekly ST at that point.

Is there a reason why EI can't give her weekly ST? If the EI eval indicated that she needs weekly services, it should be something that they provide.

Our PT has been working on some ST stuff with us.

We practice alot of carrier words. "ready, set, GO" "one, two, THREE" etc

We also work on alot of animal sounds as they are the easiest to imitate. We hold the animal at our mouth and say "moo" "baa" "neigh" etc and then have her do the same. For her it seems like a silly game.

We do alot of sound mimicking. Again we have to be super silly to keep her engaged. So basic "mamamama" "chichichichi" etc. We do the same types of noises into a cup or something similar to keep her engaged and interested in making silly sounds

she is too cute by the way!!

jbranden12 · August 2013

Such a cutie! I agree with @thishappyhouse that if the eval indicates weekly is necessary, they should provide it. Did you have a general consult with the RN and now speech will come do the eval? Or did you already meet with speech?

DrRx · August 2013

@thishappyhouse I'm in Florida, and evidently what they are doing is trying to get the EI person who comes every week to be a universal caregiver and use the ST on a consulting basis--ie, the ST will come once a month and basically work more with the EI person on what to do during our weekly sessions. She said that it used to be that she would say that Adalyn needed speech and then a ST would come and do it, but that it wasn't that way anymore. At least, this is what they are doing now and for the foreseeable future. That is why she recommended us to get her evaluated by a private ST and see what they say.

Thank you all for your responses! I really hope that this is the extra help that she needs to start verbalizing. I will also try and do some of the things that you all suggested. I really appreciate it!

aquariogirl · August 2013

Our ST gives the same suggestions as thishappyhouse described in her post. However what trigger lo to star saying mama etc was all the chatting in my house the week my mom and sister visited from abroad. I also notice that when I'm on the phone he makes more sounds, it is like he wants to compete. It also helped a lot listening to music. I play Raffi and other children music including some in French and Spanish. And some with animal sounds like old McDonald. Eating solids and drinking from a straw also helped! Good luck!

Irishsapphire · August 2013

Your daughter is a real cutie! Your kid sounds like my kid, especially the diva and tantrums. With my son, I think the tantrums were more because he could not verbalize what he wanted, and it all just came out. I know she is thinking something, but it is like there is this drama there. The funniest thing that she did when she was an infant was that she would suck on her bottle and put the back of her hand to her forehead. It was just her personality, but it was funny when other people saw her do it.

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