My 6 1/2 yr old daughter has some hesitancy in her speech. It's not a stutter, but there is definitely something going on. When she has a long speech to give it get's painful trying to listen to her try to spit it out. I've signed her up for a speech evaluation in January. Has anyone gone through speech therapy? Just curious about the experience, the cost, etc. We have insurance, but in January it will just go towards the deductible. Sigh! I'd love to hear about any one elses experience!
My son is on a waiting list for speech therapy right now, so no advice as far as experience goes. As far as cost, he will be receiving his speech therapy for free through the Scottish Rite Masons. You might see if they have a clinic in your area. The waiting list is quite long here-we had him evaluated at the beginning of the summer and he is just now up to #3 on the list. Our experience so far for the evaluation and his hearing screening has been great. Here's the site for RiteCare
Looking at the site, it talks about Nebraska. Not sure where you are, but I'm in OK and we have one, so maybe there will be one near you too. Hope that helps.
Well, my 1st grader has been in speech for more than 2 years and I myself am a speech-language pathologist, go figure! Not sure about cost since when I worked for a paycheck I did not handle the financial end of things; our insurance currently covers the entire cost. If you have a Scottish Rite center, they are wonderful resources! Also, if you have a university speech and hearing center at a local college or university, the cost is usually pretty reasonable. You will have graduate-level students working directly with your kiddo, all the while being supervised by a professional SLP who has proper credentials and who serves as a mentor and guide. You are also eligible for services through the public school system. When I worked in the schools, parents whose children were not enrolled in the public school would simply drive them to me at school to see. What is likely to happen the evaluation day is the SLP will chat with your daughter and build some rapport. With her being a bit older, she may go back alone, though I have never known any SLP who did not welcome the parents joining them for this initial session, especially if the child would feel more comfortable. If you do go back into the room with them, just be sure to be quiet as a mouse (i.e., no audible and visible signs of trying to help your DD - it is hard not to sometimes ). Your daughter will look at plenty of pictures to name them, be asked many questions...you will give some background information as well as medical and developmental history. If the results of the evaluation indicate that your daughter meets the requirements for therapy, you will be notified, then you will be able to schedule your therapy (though many places have quite the shortage of SLPs, so waiting lists are common both in private practice as well as in the schools). One word about the schools - the delay/disorder must have a negative educational impact on the student, and sometimes the cut-off scores are tougher to make for a child whose issue is not blatant, if that makes sense. This is in my experience of working in 2 states and working in various school districts. HTH a little - I hope you find a great SLP!
Hi in Canada it's covered up until five by the local health unit and then if they are in school it can be made part of the school routine. That being said I had my son in at 2.5-5 he wasn't speaking clearly to anyone at all. Although I understood most of his words. He tended to start the word then trail off the last few syllables. It made the world of difference. I loved the therapist she was a lovely woman who really cared about the kids she helped and made it a lot of fun so he wasn't feeling like there was something wrong with him. I wish you luck.
Check with the school. The laws are different state to state, but in some places, the school is required to give certain services, speech being one, to homeschooled children. I don't know what it is where you live. I know it is NOT permitted where I live, but I have friends who do get it free through the district where they live. Anyway, it doesn't hurt to ask!
My son didn't even attempt to talk till he was three. Then what came out sounded Chinese. We got him in speech through the local school district that same year and for two more years after. It simply took a lot of concentrated practice, now he talks just fine. However, his reading is low, and he just has a hard time with language in general. I suspect it's all related. Anyway, I looked into getting him reading help through the same district and was told they don't need to offer "auxilary services" like speech and reading to homeschoolers. State law. Funny thing, he was homeschooled while he was getting speech therapy. He snuck in before school age and just stayed in the system. Now he can't get back in.
Schools are required by federal law to provide therapy services - speech, occupational, and physical - to all children; however, some districts manage to get around it by saying they'll only offer it if the disability is of a certain severity or by finding some other loophole. Most schools will offer speech therapies, but some will offer only the testing. Personally, we do speech therapy through private services instead. I feel like my daughter gets individualized attention that way, and, hopefully, that will mean we'll expedite this whole process.
My daughter has some speech issues. I have been using http://superstarspeech.com/ their s,& z book. It has worked pretty well. I am not sure about the other things they offer, or if they have anything to help your child in particular. The funny thing about this is that it made me realize that I didn't say my /s/ properly so that it makes it hard for me to teach my daughter. My husband has to help her with the speech stuff.
My 5yr old goes to speech therapy at our county public school and it's free. Last year, she went one day per week for 45 min and this year she goes 2x per week, 20 min each. It's free and the staff/teachers are great! One of her weekly sessions is with other kindergarteners and she really enjoys being with the other kids. Before we knew about doing it through the school, we had her evaluated and it was $100 for the evaluation and was going to be $100 per 1hr session at least once per week. CRAZY!!! Check with the local schools--it is probably all free to you. You do pay taxes after all!
I believe you said she was six. If so, go through your local school and have her tested and get therapy through them. You pay school taxes even though you don't send her for regular school you can schedule a time for her to go in for therapy. As far as speech therapy, my son didn't speak until he was 4 and then he was a painful stutterer. Within six month of therapy and finding the RIGHT person he was cured! We had someone come to the home and that didn't work out for him, I finally switched to someone that I had to bring him to and she had it set up like a mini school and he thrived.
