Hellobee Boards

We had a very serious case but once per week wasn’t enough for us, we ending up going 4x/week and saw major improvement. 30min each time. Also improvement isn’t linear so it would feel like nothing then all of a sudden click. Appointments were a pain because we didnt go to the public school for pre-K which would have made things much easier so instead we scheduled her speech at the public school on her days off from private daycare and then we saw a private therapist twice weekly on the alternating days after daycare. It was a pain but we wanted her as caught up as possible before kindergarten. Now in kindergarten she gets speech twice per week and we still see our private therapist once per week but have just cut her back to every other week

ETA by serious I mean at a 3yo evaluation she was less then 0.1% and she was rated less then 50% understandable to an unfamiliar listener at 4

My younger daughter qualified for short term speech therapy when she was 3, so it was in the public school. We went weekly for about 3 months, until the end of the school year, and i think she showed a lot of improvement. I had her screened again this year (right before she turned 4) and she didn’t qualify for more services, but she is still slightly delayed. Her delay has always been fairly mild anyway. Right now she has to be really focusing to say most S blends, but it seems like she cannot day SN or SM sounds. I’m thinking if i keep doing the exercises the speech therapist gave me, she’ll keep improving?

I’ve considered going the private route, as I know a few people who have done it and their insurance covers it, but I haven’t bothered. But in your case with work schedules, that could be an option and then they can work around your schedule.

I am following along as my newly 4 yo just started speech last week. He also has been diagnosed with mild conductive hearing loss in both ears and he has another assessment at the pediatric audiologist are the end of March to decide if we need to pursue tubes. He is going to a private clinic 2x/month. I hope that will be sufficient as both my husband and I WOH and have daily inflexible schedules.

@gotkimchi: thank you! I will definitely be pushing for tubes but they needed to make sure the fluid was not transient first. I haven’t gotten the full report with scoring and percentiles, but the SLP said that the air and sound should be propelled forward and he’s letting it escape from the sides. She said it’s a motor pattern that he won’t grow out of. I am in the healthcare field and will definitely advocate for increased services as needed. He is in a private preschool right now and unfortunately there are no therapy services. I really appreciate your thoughts!! I might message you once I get his full report for more insight if you don’t mind!

@gotkimchi: thanks! He had his tongue and lip ties lasered at 15 months. So far no adenoid issues 🤞🤞

@muffinsmuffins: thank you so much for sharing! I am no stranger to advocating for him! I hope that we will be so lucky to have a major improvement after tubes of the fluid is still there in March, which I’m guessing it will be. He has already had the earphone test and passed that, so we know for sure that it is the fluid. It is SO hard to know when to push doctors because you just feel like “THAT mom” and they are supposed to do what’s best for your kid. It’s so infuriating. I went through it when DS was younger and had RSV and no one took it seriously and because of their “wait and see approach”, he then needed breathing treatments with a nebulizer multiple times a day for over a YEAR. 🤬🤯 You sound like an amazing mama. Thanks again for sharing

We just recently started, DS is 19 months we had the referral from the ped and we just had our first session this past Thursday and I feel it’s encouraging... we are currently on 2xs a week until he reaches 3 and we would have to then transition him to another program if he still would need it.

Following. My 20 month old gets speech 2x/wk through early intervention. Our private insurance does not cover speech at all. His receptive language has improved, but the only words he says spontaneously are mama, dada, and ball, although he will mimic/repeat words we say.

We started just after he turned 2 with Early Intervention. It took him a while to warm up, but they did really well working with him and giving us tips on things to do that week to keep it going.

For my son, he was in the bottom percentile when initially tested and he still is 50% understood by a stranger at age 5, but seeing the therapist has helped us diagnose over time. We've been able to see him demonstrate various phonological patterns that weren't obvious in his testing and that we can specifically address. He's been hard to diagnose because he has hard sounds like /ch/ covered, but /s/ is usually omitted.

Now he's going weekly in the afternoon for a half hour session with the speech therapist at the school. DH and I both WOH and she was able to accommodate us after school which helped me fit it in my work schedule. I've readjusted to WFH on his speech therapy days and it still works well. I see the way she works with him by attending the therapy with him and I can use the same cues and games she does throughout the week.

TLDR:
Speech therapy should help you as a parent learn how to coach her at home to get the biggest gains. Don't rely on the speech therapist to make breakthroughs without you consistently reinforcing it at home.

@josina: speech therapy went well for my younger son. We had him tested at 18 months and he got in, his receptive was excellent, but his expressive was way below. We did it up until he was 3... Someone came to our house once a week to work with him, and we also had him do a group once a week with other moms & kids... Our speech therapist that we started with wasn't my favorite, she was an alarmist and we were having him tested for all sorts of other things that she kept saying were red flags, and not developmentally appropriate, but he tested fine. We ended up asking for a different speech therapist who we liked a lot more, and she wasn't constantly worrying us.... I think he was just a bit delayed. By the end of speech he was doing awesome. We also worked with him A LOT in the house on our own to get him talking....

He's 4 now and people can't believe how much he talks non stop, it just took him a while. I think at 18 months he said like 5 words... So I think speech helped, plus the group, plus us working with him, and even his older brother helping to get him to talk instead of him talking FOR him... honestly. I just think some kids need more time to get going...

@josina: that's a great update! My oldest has always refused to repeat words back, especially at that age.