Speech evaluation / therapy

Anyone take their child in for a speech evaluation without waiting for the school to suggest it? Megan's occupational therapist has mentioned for well over a year now that Megan needs a speech eval. It was probably more like 2 years ago, but we thought she was just 3, that she'd get better with her speech. Well lately Ryan and I have been noticing some serious speech issues with pronunciations of certain words. It's like all of a sudden we hear/notice it 24/7. I talked with her OT again today and she insisted we have a speech eval done. Her teachers have never said a thing about this and I know it's not even treated through school until at least 1st grade. SO when we go to her regular doc here in a few weeks for her 5 year check-up I hope to get a referral from him. It's weird we've never needed a referral for anything except pedi gastro doc and for some reason the speech therapists in town won't take you unless you have a referral.

What grade is she in now?

Karen, I work in the school in NYS and I know states are different, but here a parent referral through the public school can get you started in a preschool referral, even if the child does not attend the school yet. The person to ask is the secretary in the special ed department at the public school you pay taxes to. Then go from there.

It is amazing to me how many of us parents (me included) are ill informed at what services are available to our children just for the asking. I have learned alot by working in the school for a few short years.

Feel free to bounce ideas off me. I would be happy to help. And Mary Beth's referral to speech therapy began with a day care provider confirming my suspicions about her needs. Then I spoke with the ped and we did a hearing tests with specialists, then went from there.

Noah had significant speech issues when he was younger. When he was a toddler, everyone had a difficult time understanding what he was saying, so I requested a speech eval through NY's Head Start program--which handles all developmental delay evals until the kids are of school age, when the home school districts take over. It was great--they came right to the house, and did a full battery of tests, even though our only concern was speech. They assured us he would grow out of it--his thoughts were just ahead of his ability to articulate them at that point. We did not qualify for services b/c his delay wasn't significant enough. In pre-K, his teacher suggested we enroll him in private speech therapy, which we did. It helped somewhat, but did not completely eradicate the problem (he couldn't articulate L's and R's, and overall, his speech sounded a little slurred). When he entered public school, no one mentioned it again until 3rd grade, when his teacher said she couldn't understand him. At that point, we were given discretionary speech services, which again, were only marginally effective. That's the standard in NY state--kids only qualify for services if their delays are directly impacting their ability to learn. Everyone acknowledged that his speech was imperfect, but b/c Noah has always been a successful student, the school could legitimately claim that his speech wasn't getting in his way.
Eventually, somehow, at some point without anyone really noticing, he did grow out of it. Today, as a 14 yo, you'd never know there was ever an issue.
I think speech therapy is helpful for certain specific issues. The problem with Noah was that he was able to correctly articulate his speech in isolated situations like speech therapy; it was the transference of those skills to his casual, everyday speech that therapy was unable to ameliorate. I think that's a pretty common problem for speech delays. There are things you can do on your own. Pm me if you want to talk about it further. Good luck, hon.

I mentioned it to the Pre-K screening team a couple of years ago. They pulled me aside and let me speak to a speech therapist who was on the team and she said she was fine then. That was at age 3. I told the lady her OT recommended it. The Speech therapist said they usually don't get concerned or do anything until at least kindergarten, and usually not until 1st grade. I'm not sure why. Our school is a great school. I guess they just don't get as concerned about it.

I'm sure I can get her regular doc to give a referral. He stop questioning my thinking way back when we had it out several times about Megan's food allergy symptoms and I went above his head then.

I know this is terrible to say and nothing against my school or any other, but I prefer to do these types of things on my own first anyways. I did the same thing with occupational therapy. Or at least I am until my health insurance doesn't cover it anymore. I don't like to give the school control on these things because then I feel like I don't have any control over it, kwim? So if I can get her a speech eval and if she needs help I can get started now and hopefully have her settled in by Kindy in the fall.

Thanks. See this is my fear, letting the school decide when and if she needs help. We've always had a hard time understanding her, then all of a sudden she became more clear and we could understand THEN all of a sudden she's talking like a hick or something. Pardon me if I offend anyone with that comment. Not my intention. It's words with "or" in it. So instead of saying "door", she says "dur". There are other issues, things she can't pronounce correctly even if we get her to say it slowly. But I swear, Ryan and I are noticing it so much all of sudden it's like "HUH"? It's very strange.

We've had a lot of sensory issues with her lately, especially since she turned 5. She's seriously reverted back to a lot of old ways that are not good ones and the OT wants her seen at least every 2 weeks now instead of 1x a month. She said speech could be because of that as well, but she's not entirely sure until she has her speech eval. Megan's just having a hard time transitioning to the thought of being 5, getting ready for kindy in the fall, and that her gymnastic coach said she's going to move to the BIG GIRL room here soon. She freaked out on that one big time to the point of throwing up.

Karen, the "r" sound is one of the very last to develop, and I suspect that is why the schools are reluctant to even evaluate until a certain age. Google it--I'm sure you can find out for yourself at what age certain letters develop. Noah sounded like Elmer Fudd for a LONG time.
Even if you do eventually qualify for services, always remember that the school or county is only required to provide services to meet a MINIMUM standard, which is often far below what we want for our kids. As I said before, the benchmark is usually that the delay is interfering with educational success. The fact that Noah sounded like Elmer Fudd was disturbing to us, maybe caused some social stigma for him (though truth be told, I don't think it really was an issue for him), but it didn't impact his learning in any way, so the school was not responsible for remediating it. Only when the teacher stepped in and said she couldn't understand him did they act.
You might want to take her for just a few sessions with a private speech therapist. Here, it was $40/hr, and that was a few years ago. She could give you some exercises to do on your own with Megan, an hour a day, couple times a week, whatever works. The one thing you should NOT do is constantly correct her speech. What they suggested is to designate a certain finite period of time, say for the length of one short car ride, where she has to focus on that one sound, and really try her hardest to get it out right. Only at that time can you correct her or point it out. This way, she won't get frustrated, or develop a self-consciousness about it, etc. You're such a responsive, proactive mom, Karen, I'm sure you'll find a way to handle it beautifully.

What i did with jenna is got a referral from her ped. She was 3 and still no one could understand her but me. The ped referred her and then thats how the ball got rolling. She is in grade 1 and the school now referred her again and the speech therapist evaluated her to find she is where she should.. she has a couple sounds she misses but she feels if we work with her she will turn that around.

Ashley's preschool had a hearing and speech therapist from Children's Medical come in and evaluate all of the kids. Ashley had some problems with the letter "L" and "TH" but those are common issues that kids outgrow.... which she did by kindergarten when she was evaluated by the same group from Children's Medical again in her kindergarten class. When they sent home the permission slip for the evaluations of all the kids, they stressed the importance of catching things early, so I think you are doing the right thing by gettig the consultation with a licensed speech therapist. A trained professional will know the difference between things that are age-appropriate and an issue that needs early intervention.

What state are you in? We live in PA and they have what is called an "intermediate unit" which is funded by federal, state, or district. Since they are part of the public education system, it is free. DS has been taking speech classes since he was three and it has really helped.

Edit: They will be the ones who would evaluate her and determine what she needs, and since this is part of the school system a referral is not needed.

This post has been edited by Celestrina on Apr 5 2010, 12:25 PM

Brooke was evaluated after a referral from her doctor at age 3 1/2 or so. She had severe pronunciation issues - she was in the bottom 1% of kids her age as far as correct pronunciation. She received speech therapy services through our local early intervention office until she started K, now she gets therapy at school for a total of two hours/week. Our school district IMO has great therapy services and I can see a vast improvement in her abilities since the beginning of the year.

Thanks everyone for your advice and what you've been through. Megan has her yearly appointment next week and I will ask her doc for a referral then. Ryan and I feel more comfortable going through the hospital for a speech consult than we do the school. We want to remain in control of the situation and that would not be the case if we let the school do it.

Certain institutions doesn't really give importance to the child's needs unless the child is already manifesting the problem. You are the mother and if you feel that you need to take action then do it but always make sure that you are guided properly.