Speech Therapy
Come early spring, we’ll have been home with TwinkleToes for three years. We started speech therapy as soon as we could, and she had less than a year of “free” speech therapy through the early intervention program. She has not qualified for speech therapy through the school system, mainly because the school system has no money. They don’t say much officially, but unofficially they tell me that her speech will not hinder her getting an education, so she doesn’t get services. Her standardized test scores are going to be the same whether she gets speech help or not, so she doesn’t get help. I guess I understand that they need to spend their limited funds in a way that will show up as better test scores, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
So, we’ve been paying for it out of pocket. And it’s really expensive, but I don’t see that we have a choice. TwinkleToes has multiple issues around speech, which are probably a result of multiple things: 1) being fed from a bottle with the end of the nipple cut off so she never had to suck and those muscles were never developed, 2) not being talked to as most babies and toddlers are, so the communication areas of her brain just never wired themselves in for communication, and 3) being so severely malnourished for the first two years of her life that her brain simply didn’t have the energy or the nutrients in which to grow in a healthy manner. There also appears to be an issue with being able to control her oral muscles. She still gets choked more often that she should, and she just can’t always get her tongue and cheeks and lips to do the things she wants them to do. Dance has actually helped a little with that, I guess learning to coordinate hands and feet helps with coordinating tongue and lips.
Most kids just pick up speech patterns naturally, but TwinkleToes does not. She has to be taught the speech patterns that most kids just get. She’ll be five soon, and she talks worse than GG did at two and a half. I know this because I happened on a video of GlitterGirl the other day, with her explaining some really complicated things, with big words, and perfect pronunciation, perfect sentence structure, correct pronouns, and mostly correct verb tenses. It made my heart hurt for TT just that much more. I know, I’m not supposed to compare them, and GG was really far ahead of herself (still is, for that matter), and every kid is different. But it still makes my heart hurt.
Twinkletoes has terrible pronunciation, non-existent sentence structure, and she can’t get the right pronouns or the right verb tenses or… it’s really disconcerting. I mean, she’s in the beginning stages of being able to read, she’s doing math way ahead of where she should be, and she can put puzzles together that even her big sister gets frustrated over. I’ve talked before about her artistic ability, that’s where she really shines. She’s a very bright little girl. But people react to her based on the way she talks. I’ve had people get upset with me for treating her at her age level. She wears 2T clothes (though finally, a few 3T’s are starting to fit) and talks like a two year old, so I’m seen as being cruel when I treat her like a four and a half year old. But she needs to be treated like a four and a half year old. That’s what she is.
Last night RK and I were watching some old episodes of The Big Bang Theory and there are a couple of episodes with this brilliant scientist who pronounces his words like a three year old. I had visions of TwinkleToes as a 30 something year old with a PhD and talking like a three year old.
Our speech therapist is having us kind of compartmentalize how we correct TT’s speech. Her pre-k teacher at school is supposed to correct sentence structure, pronouns, etc, but is supposed to leave pronunciation alone as much as possible. That is because we can’t expect to be able keep the teacher up to date on what TT is supposed to be pronouncing right and what she hasn’t worked on yet. At home, TT doesn’t know it but she has periods of time that we only discuss speech if we can’t understand her (which happens quite a bit), and we let everything else go. And then she has periods of time that we point out how she is saying something and then have her go back over that sentence until she is saying it with the correct words, in the correct order, and with the best pronunciation she is capable of. But, if we did that all of the time then we’re told she’d just stop talking, so we only do that at certain times.
We are lucky that we ended up with such a fantastic speech therapist. TT loves to go see her, and I love watching them through the window. And the speech therapist says that TT is her bright spot in the day, that TT works so hard, follows directions so well, and tries so much… she wishes she got that level of work out of all of her kids. And that’s the thing, TT wants to be understood, and she really does try hard. Well, when she’s not frustrated, she tries hard. And the speech therapist is great at not letting TT get to that level of frustration. I’ve learned a lot from the speech therapist about how to change gears enough to keep TT from getting frustrated without just dropping the subject entirely. Now, if I could just teach that to RK.
We’ve been warned that TwinkleToes will need speech therapy at least through elementary school, and possibly continuing into middle school. It looks like our ongoing budget is going to have to figure in that cost. The kindergarten teacher she will have is going to try to help me get services next year (TT will have GG’s old teacher, and when TT is at school with me and we see the teacher she always comes to say hello to TT and engages her in conversation), but the teacher tells me it’s a pretty slim chance that she’ll be able to convince them. She has to convince them that speech therapy will make a difference in TT’s state testing scores that start several years later, and I guess that’s a hard thing to convince. Still, she is going to try, so there is hope.
I’ll love my little TwinkleToes no matter how she talks. But she’s going to be a very small person. And to be an adult small person who talks like a baby… that’s just not what I want for her. So we’ll do whatever we can to help her talk the best that she is going to be able to talk.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Lack of money is not an adequate excuse for not providing services. The school districts will always claim that a student does not have “educational need”, but a speech disability like you are describing *will* impact her education. If she is having trouble forming sentences correctly, she will have trouble with reading, and down the line, writing. You need to work harder on your district. Are you familiar with the Wrightslaw books? A very good one for your situation is “From Emotions to Adovcacy”, which walks you through the process of proving educational need.
Take a look at http://www.wrightslaw.com
where you can find lots of helpful material.
My son has a severe hearing loss, and speech delays. As needy as he was, we still heard the same arguments. I made sure I got the right evaluations, and brought lots of educational material to the eligibility meetings. We were able to prevail, and now he has a teacher of the deaf, speech services, and an in-class FM system. It has really helped.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:09 am
I am so glad you wrote about this issue. When I adopted my dd she was 2 and had a repaired CL/CP. Her palate was repaired at 13 months, which is a good scenario for these kids, but her hearing was impacted by fluid until ear tubes were put in after she got to the US. She is now 3.5 and her speech is around the 2-2.5 range. She does get speech through the school district, but frankly, I have not been all that happy with it. Am needing to budget to add it privately in the near future. I see her wanting to communicate, but is clearly self conscious about the fact that she isn’t easily understood.
My dd’s vocabulary has picked up at an amazing rate over the past 6 months, but as RQ writes about, it is SO hard to understand her. I see her learn so quickly through observation. But, when it comes to verbal / listening, she is so much slower (and even tunes out, I believe). Even though her receptive language is a hear ahead of her expressive, she already shows difficulties picking up things this way. A few weeks ago when I picked dd up at daycare a little boy approached me to tell me that he and his mommy were talking about my dd the other day. When I asked what they were saying, he said that my dd doesn’t talk very well. It totally broke my heart for her. Additionally, I find myself feeling sad about the lack of conversation we seem to have at this age. I see other 3.5 year olds chatting away and asking questions about every little thing. For us this area is so limited and it makes me hurt a bit for both of us. I try hard not to compare with other kids her age, but just to where she was a few months ago. When I can do this, I feel better.
One thing I want to add is that dd’s daycare offers a phonics program. She has been doing it for a few months now and LOVES it. I have seen her confidence level increase so much. She gets pulled out of her class with one other kid and feels very special and gets lots of reinforcement. This has made a difference and well worth the money.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:37 am
ratgirl – part of the problem is that she is reading at almost a first grade level, even though she is only in pre-k, so it’s kind of hard to say it will affect her reading. If her other tests showed issues, then we’d be able to use that argument… but they don’t.
All of her other tests put her way ahead of where she is supposed to be in reading, math, art, motor skills, etc. The argument that her speech will affect other things doesn’t hold up well when you look at her test results. The truth is that she does so well in those other things because she’s been worked with a great deal, I structured our play in such a way that we got her caught up in everything else. What they don’t get is the fact that even after being worked with a great deal, her speech is still so bad… that makes it even more of a problem. But that’s not the way it’s seen.
I spoke with a number of people when I was deciding how much to fight the decision that she would not get services. The general consensus (even from a friend of the family who happens to be on the school board) was that no matter how high I took my fight, she wasn’t going to get services. Her other scores are so high, it’s just not going to happen. The legal people have written things in such a way that if the numbers (test scores) don’t say you get services, then you don’t get services, and they aren’t deviating from that. So, I’m paying for speech therapy, and next year I’ll try it again, with her kindergarten teacher’s help. I haven’t totally given up on it, I’m just holding off until I’ve got someone else in my corner to help. When we start the process again I’ll have tests and letters from her speech therapist, and a lot of documentation from her kindergarten teacher, and we’ll see where that gets us.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Hello. I have never commented here but your story hits home for me. I work for the 2nd largest school district in the country. Every school district has been plagued with budget cuts so that should never be an excuse. When dealing with the school district, “the squeaky wheel gets the oil.” Hire an advocate or an attorney to sit in and start making demands and the large school bureaucracy usually folds. I have seen this happen time and time again and parents get the craziest services for their kids. Unfortunately you have to play hard ball all the time to get you want from the school district. I have a special needs child and she gets 9 hours of free services a week, PT(I even got them to pay for Hippo(horse)therapy), OT, Speech and CDS. Every person able to make decisions about what kind of services my daughter gets knows my name. I’m sure I’m redflagged somewhere in the computer but I’ll do whatever it takes to advocate for my daughter. Her therapists and I work together to pressure the system.
On a different note, I pay for extra services for my daughter so I know they can be really expensive. Our “free” services therapists were able to recommend some students who were in the process of getting their certificates/licensing. They work for A LOT less and are extremely competent as well.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:45 am
My son was adopted at 2 with CL/CP, partially repaired. We did early intervention and now get some speech services through the school district. When I was concerned about his progress, I called my pediatrician and got a referral for private speech therapy. With her statement that it was neccessary due to his special needs, we pay very little for excellent care. If they can document muscle tone issues, try to push it through your insurer. We also pulled him out of the actual Pre-K program and only send him for services twice a week. They were having funding issues, we did not like the teacher option, and we all ended up happier.
I know what you mean–we don’t want every conversation to be about pronounciation. So we “do words” while waiting in restaurants, driving, anytime he would be otherwise bored. And when he is tired, we back off. But we keep a list of “new words” and if one of us hears him say a difficult word, then it is discussed over dinner and he gets lots of praise from both of us. It is a work in progress, but so rewarding when he can communicate his needs and get them met.
November 8th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Just a thought about speech production…
My dd8 developed a lisp at age 4. Perfectly fine speech production before that.
Fast forward a few years, and the ortho specialist said she developed an underbite and it was uffecting her speech production. She’s going to wear a palate expander and night face mask for a couple of years to fix that. (and hopefully avoid the surgery in her teen years). Things have already started to improve. :)
Just a heads up to look for an underbite. Perhaps this is a compounding issue.
Also, have you had a private speech assessment/evaluation from a qualified SLP (speech language pathologist)? You might also want to get a psycho-educational assessment too. With these in hand, your school can’t refuse her services, even if she scores above grade level. My dd does too (light years), but her speech needs work.
Good luck. It can be a battle. I paid a ton for private speech while waiting for speech help through the school and it was worth it because I started to see improvements almost immediately.
Best,
Snick :)
November 8th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
This is probably obvious, but I have to ask. Have you tried your insurance? Ours says they will pay, but we have to file, as the private therapy center does not.
Just through the assessment I saw things the therapist did the SoonerStart or school system therapists were not, so going private is not a bad thing. I’m excited about it. I do love the people in our school system, though, as well. He’s getting both.
Also, the therapist can override TT’s test results and determine she needs the therapy. Our ladies said there are ways around the assessment numbers.
I guess if they are not willing to work, though, it doesn’t do any good to point that out to them. Just wanted you to know what our school system said.
Violet
November 8th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
My daughter, too, was born with a CL/CP, and she qualifies for therapy through the school district, which in the past she did receive, but it was exceptionally poor. However, I don’t think school is necessarily the arena to get this kind of help. Speech problems, no matter how or why they originate, are health concerns. I appreciate that school districts have tried to pick up the slack so that children get the care they need, and I also appreciate that speech, as well as other needs, our integral to our lives, but when one entity begins trying to do all things, it does none of them well.
Education is already a mess. Ask me. I’ve taught secondary education for 25 years. Let’s allow school districts to worry about education and hope that they can start doing a better job at what should be their main focus. Don’t think education has problems? Look at the statistics for any large urban area. Here in Chicago, year after year, in the wealthier areas students achieve and excel past standards. In the poorer areas, students drop out. I know that we could pinpoint a variety of reasons why that is happening that would all be valid but so is the fact that education is a mess.
Insurers should be obligated to cover therapies. Speech problems are medical whether they are neurological, behavioral, or physiological. They are medical. They require medical help and therefore, insurance should cover them.
We unfortunately have an insurance cap. We also have the absolute greatest speech therapist in the world, bar none, and her hard work has made my daughter intelligible to us although she is still testing as profoundly unintelligible by the docs. Nevertheless, we’ve hit our cap and so we’re paying the tab. And what is the cost — $404 an hour, which we are fortunate enough to receive a 20% discount for if we pay immediately BUT which the insurance company enjoys a 50% discount for. That’s right, the insurer, pays a total of 40% of the cost…50% discount plus we are always required to pay 10%, and they cap the services. Want to place blame? I don’t think we really need to look far.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Hi RQ
Probably already have these tricks up your sleeve…but thought I’d share just in case. Our girl did ST thru EI and that really seemed to do the trick for the most part. She still has issues with some of her pronounciation. She has lots of trouble blowing bubbles (which is not an issue but it shows where her physical weakness in her mouth lies) We have a neat whistle item given that does not have a shrill sound–more like a whizz. It looks like lips and can work when the child blows out or sucks in…it helps her to form the correct mouth shape. When she gets stronger we can have her try to blow bubbles thru it too. We were also told to try and have her drink milk through a twizzler stick–it makes her suck extra hard.
Good luck…I know you will do what you need to do for your sweetie.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
This may be a good place to ask this question. We are LID 4/4/06. Since we’ve had so much time to read and research adoption issues, I have been looking into brain development programs for our baby (when we get her). I have even spoken to an MD that is an adoption specialist and she had never heard of any brain development program used for adopted children. I have not been able to find anything specifically recommended for adoption, but Glenn Domain has a brain development program including many books for brain injured children. This program can be used on well children too. Have you heard of anyone using a brain development program with their adopted child? If so which one and how did it go?
There are neurodevelopmental consultants that are really good a pin pointing what the specific areas of the brain that need to be developed to help children overcome their specific issues. Have you looked into having her evaluated? The brain is amazing and can be trained to overcome many of the issues you are talking about. I definitely believe there is hope for TT. What a great mom and advocate you are for your daughter. I commend you for taking charge of her future and not waiting for the school system.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
My son reads two grade levels above his current level, but he still gets services. Interestingly, here in NY, it seems to be easier to get classified based on speech than almost anything else. We had problems because I wanted a classification based on hearing impairment, but the district didn’t believe that hearing impairment affected educational goals. We had to get an evaluation done at a school for the deaf (needed an SLP who was knowledgable about hearing loss). We also had a full neuropsychological evaluation done at NYU.
My own feeling is that a speech impairment that simply affects pronunication may not have an effect on a child’s education, but if the problems impact the ability to form sentences at an age appropriate level of complexity, it will impact education because it is going to impact the ability to write well. But I am no expert – I know more about hearing impairment. There, the problem is the constant gaps in vocabulary and concepts because so much material is presented aurally.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I’m a school psychologist and in my state, qualification for speech services is not dependent on any other testing. Kids qualify if they have a significant delay in speech and/or language. Have you looked at the qualification criteria for your state? Is there a parent advocacy organization you could hook up with? I know if my school district, our state parent advocacy organization often helps secure services for kids who have been turned down by their local district.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Wow. I am shocked and appalled at your district. That is totally illegal. You could easily win this fight if you hire a lawyer. Every district has no money by the way. I am an SLP and I qualify students for speech for less than what your daughter is dealing with. You are being railroaded.
The district bases criteria on “test scores”?? Reading skills? What about language arts? Socialization? Communication? The law says that to receive special education services (speech is under that umbrella) there needs to be an “adverse effect” on your daughter’s education. I would say that what you describe here sounds like her speech problem is severe enough to have an effect on her education, communication, and socialization. If she is receiving outside (private) speech therapy, there is obviously something to work on. Granted I most likely would not treat a lisp and “r” in the schools at your daughter’s age, but if there are many and a pattern of speech sound errors she would qualify at my school.
When your school district evaluated your daughter, did you get a copy of the eligibility paperwork (that indicated she wasn’t eligible)? Did you request a copy of the assessment report that the evaluating speech pathologist wrote after she evaluated your daughter? How long ago was that? If it was more than a year ago, go ahead and write a letter to the principal requesting an additional evaluation. They have to answer that letter within 10 days (if I am not mistaken). Send it certified or hand-deliver it.
I wish you the best and I think you should fight it! Feel free to email me with any questions. I do this stuff everyday.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Oh, you guys are all getting me nervous. Our youngest gets weekly speech therapy since coming home at 18 months, because she was severely speech delayed and has microtia/aural atresia on the right side, resulting in a hearing loss. We have an excellent speech therapist through the state (early intervention), and she’s now caught up to being 1 month delayed from age appropriate. But she ages out of the system in a few months, and we’re having our first meeting on Friday with the school district to discuss service options. I would like to continue some form of speech therapy with her, because she does respond well to it, and I think that is a big contributor in how quickly she’s caught up. And I want to make sure she’s on track by the time she hits kindergarten. (Kindergarten here is really tough…homework, the works.) But I’m really doubting that they’ll say that she needs it, based on her abilities.
November 8th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
RQ,
Check with your local university education depts. Here in Tampa there is a research group that runs studies on AI issues. Recently I was made aware of a language study. Since one of the researchers is an AP, they were looking for kids adopted in China.
They also do some kind of evaluation for education readiness. I bet there are other programs like this around the country.
Have you read the material on the Gindiss Center site? There is a lot of stuff on educational issues, speech issues, etc. They will evaluate a child but not until they are 5 or 6. They might be aware of studies going on that might benefit TT and not cost anything.
My daughter has speech issues and is almost 5. We also pay for private sessions. When she was 3 the EI speech person said she would only qualify for services if she had a really bad day. She was testing right on the boderline of qualifying. I decided it was not worth the hassle.
On top of speech we are also paying for OT once a week. So you can imagine how much we are putting out weekly. Our daughter has been home 3 years but we have taken breaks from both therapies to give her and us a break.
November 8th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I feel for you as 2 of my bio children have significant speech disorders. While our insurance pays a bit, the co-pays and cap are ridiculous. We did years of therapy thru the school system, and found it very lacking. Something you mentioned made me wonder though. Have you heard of verbal apraxia? The lack of coordination of the mouth muscles sounds very much like apraxia. Which is what my little ones have…. This link explains it
http://www.apraxia-kids.org/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx?c=chKMI0PIIsE&b=839037&ct=837215
November 8th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Oh and I very much get your frustration. People assume my very bright 9 yr old daughter is not very bright, because of her speech…… and people, not just children can be very cruel :(
November 8th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
After reading your commentary, it hit close to home. My youngest daughter who is now 31 months old is struggling with her speech exactly how you described. I tried to get her enrolled into IE speech therapy when she turned two. With all of the waiting list for speech therapy in NE Ohio, she didn’t start the program until the end of August. I’ve noticed improvement almost immediately from attending the classes. However, my daughter’s speech still is not very clear. She struggles to string words together and to say words with more than two syllables. She really wants to communicate with her family and classmates.
November 8th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
How is her spelling? If she has any correlation between spelling and speech, that could qualify her as well.
November 8th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
RQ,
Gosh do I understand about the speech therapy. How delayed is she? You don’t have to answer — just think it’s important to have that determination. For example, my DS2 is at least 6 months delayed. Can a doctor write it up? I had to have a medical evaluation done and give it to both early intervention and intermediate unit. Now, with DS2, he has obvious cleft issues so he immediately qualifed. However, my girlfriend’s children had severe speech delays that we believe were actually inherited and were all able to get services. Maybe a doctor eval could help. Or to get a speech pathologist at a really good children’s hospital to do it. Around my way, we have a very respected pediatric hospital, and I find that if they say my son needs it, the county shall provide. I never really thought about why, but I am guessing that having that kind of medical documentation is really hard to fight in court if needed.
You may have tried all this, and believe me I know how hard it is. I was just venting today about it! And my son is getting all the services. I am simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of things he’s going to do.
I still find that private speech therapy is better then county. The pediatric hospital recommended in addition to county services and they were right.
Also, have you had your daughter evaluated for any residual or slight clefting. DOes she have an undeveloped palate? Is there something happening there way way back in the mouth? You probably already did, but I have read that some clefts can be very subtle. Just a suggestion.
I am so so so glad you brought this up. It’s good for people to read. I think all the children who are adopted internationally need to be evaluated for services.
Finally, my friend with the kids with speech delays found a local university with a graduate speech department and was able to get speech for her daughter for $50 a session. And her daughter loved her therapist. She was amazing. She did this because the county services were just not enough.
Hann23
November 8th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
If it’s what TwinkleToes really needs then I would push for services thru the district. Almost all districts are in financial trouble, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have to provide the services that are due your child. If your child can not be understood, they are going to have a hard time in school. Not only with the teacher, but with other children as well.
I had to really battle to get Anna the services that she needed, but it was worth it. Did anyone who knew our situation think that the district would support what I was asking for? NO! But due to my hard work and determination she is at a school that basically provides continual speech therapy. (She is deaf and goes to an oral school for deaf and hard of hearing children.)
It is very expensive, but well worth it. Added to the expense of the school is the issue of transportation. Last year I drove Anna the 45 miles each way to school, this year the district is bussing her. Tuition is almost 40,000 per year add the transportation and you are almost doubling the cost. But in a few years the district is going to have a child who can function in a normal classroom with limited assistance. If I had not fought for this program, I think she would have needed an interpertuer for the good part of her schooling. So I like to think that I am saving them the money on the furture interpertuer.
(Sorry for the poor spelling.)
November 8th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
As a Speech & Language Pathologist myself, I have a problem with your school’s rationale. Yes, articulation may/may not affect your child’s ability to access her educational program, but language issues most definitely will. You mention she has “non-existent sentence structure, and she can’t get the right pronouns or the right verb tenses”. I would be very surprised if any child with these language errors would have “standardized test scores … the same whether she gets speech help or not”.
I have 2 words that strike terror in the hearts of all school districts – “Due Process” (google: Due Process IDEA)
November 8th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
All of this reminds me that I used to say that IA would prepare me for the part of motherhood that requires coordinating 50 forms and dealing with bureaucracy. I always said it as a joke, then I discovered the joys of navigating the early childhood programs. They are no match for any parent who did the paperwork for China, and we just need to ask for the rules so we can figure out how to work within them for our children.
November 8th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I understand the frustration.
While my 3.5 year old doesn’t have any speech issues, she is very tiny for her age and often gets mistaken for a baby. The other day we were at a store and a girl who was younger than her said to her mom loudly, “Awww…look at that baby”, to which Sophie shouted at her, “I’m NOT a baby!”
At 3.5 years old she still wears size 18 month clothes. Kids in her classroom at daycare attempt to pick her up and treat her like a baby. Very frustrating.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
I have never posted on the blog before, but felt that I had to reply to this post. I am an Early Intervention Special Educator and work with children in the birth to 5 population. RQ, what you have talked about is against the law. No one can tell you that because speech won’t effect test scores your child does not qualify. The law states that you only need a 25% delay in speech to qualify for services. I know someone said this, but I would send a letter or hand present a letter to the public school your girls would go to and have them stamp the date on the letter. They have 10 days to set up a meeting to respond to that letter and 30 days to hold an IEP meeting. You can, in the letter, request that you are willing to waive your 10 day notification of the meeting to get a meeting as soon as possible. If the assessments are more then a year old they have to redo the assessments. You as a parent have the right to request those assessments be done and they can not tell you they don’t have to do them. Depending on the results of those assessments (language and articulation) not the educational assessments (they do not count for speech services) those will determine if TT should get services. There are timelines for everything, so don’t let them put anything out to long.
On another note we use our insurance to cover PT and OT for my oldest son. Both of my children have been through Infant and Toddlers, but my oldest has a genetic disorder that has required that he get PT, but he is functionally mobil and doesn’t qualify through the school system. He is also very tiny, at 4 1/2 he doesn’t weigh 30 lbs and he is a good size 3T, but the 2T still fall his bottom. The OT is our choice to deal with sensory issues that have developed due to an anxiety disorder. We did switch insurance so we can bill for out of network service, but that covers the psychologist, OT, PT and other holistic doctors that we have chosen to seek out for him to help.
Hope things work out.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
While my daughter (home 3 years now, adopted at 27 months), doesn’t have speech pronunciation issues, she still struggles with vocabulary and forming sentences when she is frustrated. She was very delayed for about the first 2 years home with non-existent sentence structure and a very limited vocabulary. Sometime in the last 9 months, however, something just clicked with her. Her vocabulary has improved tremendously, and she is only about 6 months behind where she should be. We never did speech therapy with her, but had her evaluated by a pathologist and worked with things at home with her that were suggested to us. When she is stressed, her ability to communicate still goes out the window, but at least those times are far fewer than they used to be. We homeschool, so the school system was never an option for us. However, I think it has helped her speech b/c we can really work intensively on vocabulary and sentence development.
November 9th, 2009 at 5:28 am
It would definitely be worth looking into speech options through the communications dept at any local colleges/universities. Our 3 yr old has a significant articulation delay buts tests ahead in all other areas (including receptive). She is not eligible for services through the school here due to her scores and having only one issue (they will waive scores if there is a second delay). She is not eligible through our insurance since there is no medical cause. She currently gets 2 one hour sessions a week at our local University. One is a small group session with 2 SP students and a faculty member the second is a one on one with 1 student and a faculty member. She loves it, it is working and it’s free. Another great program for kids in this Gray area is the Elks Major Project. We have an sp who comes into our home one day a week for 45 min to work with our daughter as well, also free. Their focus is kids who fall through the cracks after they age out of EI.
We couldn’t pay for 3x a week speech but going that often makes all the difference for our daughter. The $300 an hour we were quoted is being saved for college instead.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
My DD who will turn 6 in January was adopted at 3 yrs 10 months. She was not eligible for EI due to age and the school system said she would be eligible for ESL, but not speech therapy since she has only been in this country less than 2 years. She is also very petite, 29 lbs and size 2T or 3T, but very bright, like TT. We have her in a Montessori school in the pre-primary class (ages 3-5) as a “4 year old” so she can be with the 5 year olds where she is ready and yet still work on skills of the 3 & 4 year olds. She is learning to read and do phonics through school, big sister and mom (who is a reading teacher) which has really helped with beginning, middle and ending sounds. She has no trouble communicating, even when we don’t understand the words…she will draw or show us what she means. We pay for part of her private speech therapy (high deductible and co-pay) but the therapist works with her on grammar, parts of speech and concepts as much as the actual mechanics of speech. The main reason we held her back from kindergarten was speech.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
It’s been a long time since I’ve been here … but this post really speaks to me. My younger daughter is just over 48 months and shares a similar history to yours, RQ. We adopted her at 26 months in Feb 2008. She did not speak any English words –was babbling–until around 38 months (6 months ago, if you don’t want to do the math). She now is a one-word wonder, repeats everything, but her pronunciation still seems pretty bad to me. Does not yet use two words or express herself independently of phrases that she has been “given”. Evaluation by our speech therapist has said that so far development is “normal” but delayed. It confirms (as we suspected) that there are no other recognizable cognitive or physical impediments other than delay.
My biggest “issue” with this issue is finding information on kids like her. In fact, RQ, if it weren’t for your regular postings on Twinkle Toes, I would lack any concrete point of reference. I have looked very hard to find online examples and prognoses for kids with early deprivation issues and there is very very little. Very parents have raised this issue even in the China Adopt Talk forum. Moreover, discussions about early deprivation seem to always be aimed at kids who have been adopted at 4 or older and these also are not relevant for my child. The ages are so different and attachment also plays a role. Very hard to compare my girl with these kids.
The nagging question I have is whether her brain development is forever compromised? I would like to read/hear examples of kids with a similar profile not just neurological studies (not that there are many). Does anybody know of any forums where this is the main discussion point? I so identify with the parents here who have said that they worry that their child will never sound like kids their age. Will they ever? Our therapist says that one of the good signs of her potential is that her development areas are in disharmony. (Motor skills development has caught up quickly and she has grown 2 years physically in 18 months – now the size of a 3 year old.)
But will she ever catch up cognitively? I would love to have some idea of what “catching up” looks like. How long does it take? Is she following a normal trend line or is she definitely lagging?
Its particularly important for me to have some access to information because we are US/UK citizens overseas. However, as I read through these posts, I get the feeling that no one in the States has much better access than we do to information. We have access to therapy over here and State side, but I really seek independent sources of information from experiences of other parents and from published sources. It would help us feel more in control of her treatment plan and eventually her academic life.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Please remember that English is your daughters 2nd language – I don’t know where she was language wise when you adopted her – hopefully at about 50 chinese words & maybe some 2 word Chinese phrases… She’s been home 18 months so one word uttrances & more vocabulary building for the English language would be about right… Once that vocabulary builds – look out! My own daughter (adoptd @ 19 months) has been home for 14 months & is just now starting to use 3 & 4 word phrases… That’s really hard for me to take as I’m an SLP & that would be delayed if English was her only language – I have a few resources I can share with you if you PM me. You’re doing the right thing by getting her evaluated – you’re a good parent to be concerned!
November 9th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
We are currently having our DD re-evaluated to see if she can “qualify” for speech therapy. Her Early Steps “teacher” thinks she may have speech apraxia, which is quite similar to what you described; such as, not having the muscle tone to form her speech pattern correctly. She trys, but the brain just does not fire off correctly. I attribute this to lack of stimulation and orphanage life. Anyway, she had suggested the evaluation be done by a speech pathologist, and therapy at least twice a week if it turn out she has this.
November 10th, 2009 at 12:11 am
Both of my kiddos were in speech therapy. ( my son for preschool only, my dd is in 4th grade and still gets services)
Here are some fun things we tried at home. They are simple enough and I am of the “it can`t hurt” mentality.
drinking thinned pudding through a straw
blowing cotton balls across the table using a straw
and of course simple kid things like blowing bubbles, chewing gum etc.