Aiden's going to get speech services!

roses25

I pushed for Aiden to have another headstart screening last week after being treated rudely and told that he just had one in May and he only needs to be screened once a year. I'm so glad I was persistant and ignored the rude lady that told me he didn't need to be screened! Last week's screening led to a referral for special education (a full evaulation) due to his articulation screening. He had his full eval today and he qualifies for speech services due to his articulation! They said he had multiple articulation errors and by 3 they usually don't. He also avoids saying things for them, hesitates, and looks away when doesn't want to say something. He was fine in the cognitive area (way above his age) and I think he was fine in fine motor too. We will have the meeting in September to discuss the results and then he can start to receive services. It may or may not qualify him for head start preschool as they have to take 4 year olds first, but they said next year it probably could help him get into headstart.

Does anyone have any experience with receiving early childhood services or providing them? I imagine they will come to my babysitter's house to provide speech therapy? How often did your child receive services and did they go to the sitter's/daycare? If so how did you stay involved (assuming they came while you were at work? The early childhood services is all new to me, but I'm so glad we are going to get local services and not have to travel 1 hour and 15 minutes to receive services!

Carolyn

old mama

I may be mistaken but I thought Headstart HAS to take the children with diagnosed disablities first...not sure how it works this close to the new year but the least you should expect is that the first opening that comes up HE should be up there on the list...In our state the speech teacher will go where ever you indicate that Aiden will be during daytime hours...the headstart class, babysitter, home ect. I taught special education for 15 yrs. I went all over the place to provide services until they got into a Headstart program or school. Don't be surprised if all he gets in services is once a week for maybe 20 minutes...that's pretty typical...or when he gets into Headstart that the teacher will work with the whole group and focus on getting Aiden to meet the daily goals in a natural setting. Just being focussed on his problem should bring about progress. It is NOT easy getting a child his age to qualify so I am happy for you both.

annerbones

I would check into that again because the Head Start program I taught in had to take special needs kids first - if he is receiving services they should be taking him and providing services at school.

If for some reason they don't take him into HS then the speech specialist should come to the babysitters, the speech person will also be teaching the babysitter how to work with Aidan on meeting his needs.

Good Luck

mel

Before she was 3, the speech therapist and OT went to my child's preschool when I was at work. She was evaluated at almost 3 and no longer qualified for services (it's much tougher to qualify for school district services than Early Intervention) so we stopped. However, in my state if they just qualify for speech, then the school district provides speech services for a half hour or so per week. Transportation is provided by the parent. Preschool is only covered for more serious delays.

Katydid

My son qualified for speech services, but his name didn't get picked in the lottery for the main school site so he ended up in a day care pre-k. They told me that the special needs children at the school had significant delays such as autism. He still qualified for the services, but I had to drive him to our home elementary school twice a week for a 45 minute group session. The teacher would do art projects that incorporated the words and sounds he was working on, and then she would give me "homework" exercises to practice with him using the art. She was fantastic. He also only had articulation issues. He received speech through babies can't wait from 21 months until 3 years, then private speech until 4, and he just graduated from the school speech at age 7 as second grade finished. My younger son's name got picked in the lottery so he attended the public pre-k and received speech for 1/2 of the year. He had picked up his brother's sounds, but they were easily able to correct his problems because he could make all of the correct sounds...he just needed to be shown I guess.

Zen

roses25 wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with receiving early childhood services or providing them? I imagine they will come to my babysitter's house to provide speech therapy?

Shiloh qualified at 15 months and they were supposed to send a physical therapist and speech therapist to her home daycare. But they didn't have any available. We lucked into a spot at a center with after-hours sessions for speech therapy. Shiloh was still wait-listed for physical therapy when she finally started walking on her own at 22 months. I'm not telling you this to scare you. Just to let you know that you may have to continue the fight for Aiden's services!

I'm a big proponent of early intervention. Often kids catch up on their own. But if not, much better to deal with delays at 2-3-4 than have your child struggle when entering school.

ksmommy

Hello, My ds who is 2 1/2 gets speech services through Early Intervention in our area. He was referred by our pediatrician when he was almost 2. He has home visits twice a month with play based speech help. Once he turns three they no longer do home visits (in our area) and he (if he still qualifies for services at his eval in Sept) will be referred to an early threes, language and play rich preschool type situation twice a week. I am not sure that I am ready for him to be in a preschool situation at 2 3/4 but I am keeping an open mind. We may just work with him at home and then see about the preschool next fall when he will be 3 3/4. Best wishes to you and your son with his therapy.

cAtWmN84

liam just qualified for speech and i think it will be for once a week and they will be in my home.he's 19months today.when my foster son(age 2) was in it i took him to his appts.

yfnr

S has received speech therapy since the age of three. He has just been renewed for another year through school. At three it was my responsibility to get him to therapy, unless he was in a daycare, which he wasn't. He also didn't qualify for headstart because his delay wasn't severe enough. He was placed on the waiting list, but a spot never opened up.

M has been receiving speech therapy since he was about 14 months. He will be three soon and I have a feeling he will score too high to continue with therapy. He does not receive any additional services either due to his delay.

I am so glad I was able to get M started so much sooner with therapy. Like I said, I believe he will score to high to continue at three. Three was the age S started and we are still getting therapy. Initially, M's delay was more significant than S's. I fully believe that the earlier intervention is what has helped M so much!

pb

Beckham got speech services through Birth to Three. So he aged out at 3 and did not qualify for any other services and we do not qualify for head start or anything like that. By 3 his speech was on track. A speech pathologist came to our house once a week for one hour. She would also meet us at the park, in our pool, in his nursery school (but he only went there twice a week for 2 1/2 hours so it wasn't worth it). It helped so much and Beckham loved it. His other skills were so far advanced that he did not qualify for anything else.

roses25

Thank you everyone for your responses. We finally had the home visit to evaluate Aiden at home and do parent questions about birth & health history of Aiden after reschduling due to head start having other obligations and even forgetting. I ended up calling this time to make sure they were coming ahead of time! I have an IEP meeting for him in about 3 weeks, and then I'm hopeful for regular speech services.

He has not gotten into headstart preschool services as the kids start next week, butI was told that he may have a good chance at getting in because he's at the top of the list and they will probably have a couple of kids that won't show up. They will know more next week, but he would start after all the other kids if he gets in. I had hope when I heard this from the front office lady, but I got another story from the one doing his IEP. She told me that all the 10% slots are full, and they are waiting to see if they can get more 10% slots. They will know sometime in September. So I'm not sure which person to believe.

Carolyn