unhappy with how early intervention is going--advice on how to handle

[Anonymous]

I second that request. My experiences with MoCo echo what previous posters have said. At the beginning it was all very confusing getting set up and it took a while to work out a schedule. I've figured out that my PT who is relatively new to the county is great. DS is making progress fairly rapidly. The SPIN teacher however is not great and is all about the paperwork completion. My DS is 22 months and we were told that SPIN replaces actual language therapy because children that young don't get therapy solely devoted to language. There is a bit of language work in the SPIN sessions but not much. This thread is making me think I should also go private. I searched the forum and found a few recommendations. Any fresh ones?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to hijack the thread, but I'd love recommendations for private speech therapists in Montgomery County. My daughter is 23 months and we're early in the EI process in Montgomery county and suspect we'll need private services too. Thanks!

There is a company in Rockville called Early Intervention Associates (they are private). We took our DD there for physical therapy but they have a full range of theraputic services. I really liked the facility a lot. Very warm and caring therapists.

[Anonymous]

If you are not happy ask for a new therapist!! Your child needs to come first and not the feelings of the therapist. The poster who said the therapist was asking them to do things not done in the session. You are right! The therapist needs to model what she wants you to do. If it's not the right thing for your child she should adjust it. I would speak up!!!

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, OP here again. This is such an amazing forum, I'm so grateful for all the advice and for hearing about your experiences. It does sound like we should look into private speech therapy, so we'll do that. I think we'll give our educator one more try this week and if it's still not feeling all that great we'll request someone different.

One thing that's interesting to me is it sounds like many of you, despite your dissatisfaction with EI, have continued with those services while supplementing them with private therapy. I know one pp said she does that in case she has to miss a private therapy appointment (which makes sense) but are there any other reasons to stay in the EI system? If the help feels so paltry compared to private, why continue with it?

I know that some EI services and providers are excellent--not at all trying to say they're not--but just wondering for those who have been disappointed, why you're sticking with it instead of just doing private.

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

My husband would not agree with me because he thought we should just do private but we stayed because it's a free service. I told him that private gets $$ even with insurance so why not use what we can and try to get the best out of it. Saying all this I was not shy. I spoke up when I did not like something (calling the directors) and asking for change in my child's program. It made a difference. See if you can work it out. Ask for another provider if you are not happy. If you like speech and not spin then ask for just the speech and say you would rather hold off on the spin for now. Good luck

[Anonymous]

I'm a PP who does both private and EI. In our case, we're in Ffx so our services are not completely free. But we only pay $25/visit because Fairfax is in negotiations with our insurance company to become an in-network provider (not sure that will ever happen) and in the meantime, Fairfax is only charging what the copay would be and eating the rest. For $25/visit, I think it's worth it. We figure the more the better. We get more out of private but at this age, it's so important to do as much as possible. Unless a therapist was doing harm, if you can get cheap or free county services plus private, why not.

[Anonymous]

wow you have to pay for it? does your county transition to school based services? at what age? do you pay for that as well? What if you could not pay the 25? Is it on a sliding scale? I am just surprised a public service cost money.

[Anonymous]

I'm in Fairfax County as well.

Once your child transitions to fcps (the Sept. after they turn 2), then services become free.

If you don't have insurance, the Infant and Toddler services are on a sliding scale. You can also appeal the sliding scale based upon your household income and expenses.

[Anonymous]

Many states actually have yearly family contributions for EI services or copays per visit. Just like everything else that is being cut, I'm sure copays will continue to increase and states/ counties that do not have them in place yet, will get them. There are ways around the copays though, specifically if your child is eligible for Medicaid waiver services. But getting back to original post, we were in EI from birth and went through 1 educator before we got the best educator (who was an SLPA) imaginable. I think both EI and private have their merits. We have seen so many SLPs over the years and I have found that the (2) SLPAs who implement the therapy to be much more successful in getting progress from my son. But they also did "skill and drill" versus more play based speech therapy and now I only look for therapists who do skill and drill. Just my perspective....


We also did tons of private in conjunction. It is definitely a matter of fit with therapist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a PP who does both private and EI. In our case, we're in Ffx so our services are not completely free. But we only pay $25/visit because Fairfax is in negotiations with our insurance company to become an in-network provider (not sure that will ever happen) and in the meantime, Fairfax is only charging what the copay would be and eating the rest. For $25/visit, I think it's worth it. We figure the more the better. We get more out of private but at this age, it's so important to do as much as possible. Unless a therapist was doing harm, if you can get cheap or free county services plus private, why not.

I'm this PP. DS is 2 and still under EI. We had the choice at 2 to move to Child Find through Fairfax County schools and those services would be free. However, the service providers are educators but are not specifically speech therapists, occupational therapists, etc. I don't know about the quality but I was concerned enough about losing the chance to work with a speech language expert that we're staying in the EI system (well, called Infant and Toddlers) until DS ages out at 3. At age 3, they're no longer under IE and must move to the school system for services.

As for the $25, I am just lucky that my insurance company is in negotiations with Fairfax County. If not, we'd be on the hook for much for than $25. They bill $150/hour for ST and I think OT. We are also doing OT a few times/month. There are various kinds of caps on what you have to pay out of pocket based on income and expenses, but it can get pretty high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I second that request. My experiences with MoCo echo what previous posters have said. At the beginning it was all very confusing getting set up and it took a while to work out a schedule. I've figured out that my PT who is relatively new to the county is great. DS is making progress fairly rapidly. The SPIN teacher however is not great and is all about the paperwork completion. My DS is 22 months and we were told that SPIN replaces actual language therapy because children that young don't get therapy solely devoted to language. There is a bit of language work in the SPIN sessions but not much. This thread is making me think I should also go private. I searched the forum and found a few recommendations. Any fresh ones?

This is patently WRONG! Did you know that when you have problems w/ MoCo EI, you can call the MD State Dept of Ed to ask if this is how 'its supposed to be done". I've done this several times and you would be surprised at what MoCo tries get away with NOT doing and what they try to do that they should not. You can also learn how to file a complaint. I highly encourage people to do this. I think the State office needs to hear from parents about what the county is saying and doing. Even if you have decided to go private b/c you feel the services were not being provided appropriately, you should call them and tell them "for the record". They need to know this stuff. MoCo certainly isn't going to report itself and the State has limited resources to micromanage EI, as you can imagine.

Maryland State Department of Education
Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services
200 West Baltimore Street, 9th Floor
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone:

1-410-767-0261 or 1-800-535-0182

[Anonymous]

I also recommend going to private providers even for a short time to give you frame of reference of what is possible and what other points of view about your child are. MoCo therapists pretty much either drink the kool aid or go private very quickly. I waited WAAY too long to get a private consult when my gut was telling me that our services were not very good. Turns out, they were less than 'not good' they were awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, OP here again. This is such an amazing forum, I'm so grateful for all the advice and for hearing about your experiences. It does sound like we should look into private speech therapy, so we'll do that. I think we'll give our educator one more try this week and if it's still not feeling all that great we'll request someone different.

One thing that's interesting to me is it sounds like many of you, despite your dissatisfaction with EI, have continued with those services while supplementing them with private therapy. I know one pp said she does that in case she has to miss a private therapy appointment (which makes sense) but are there any other reasons to stay in the EI system? If the help feels so paltry compared to private, why continue with it?

I know that some EI services and providers are excellent--not at all trying to say they're not--but just wondering for those who have been disappointed, why you're sticking with it instead of just doing private.

Thanks again!

We did private PT with DD from 3 months to 13 months for Torticollis and it was sooooo expensive. Due to the economy and my underemployment we have stayed with EI through the county. Comes down to money for us unfortunately. We used Early Intervention Associates in Rockville for private therapy and they were great!

[Anonymous]

If your child eventually needs an IEP it's so much easier to get one if he/she is already in the system. If we hadn't been in EI, I don't know that my DD would have gotten any services or am IEP...it's so much harder to access services if you apply to Child Find after your child turns three (or at least that's how it was 1.5 years ago).

[Anonymous]

I can't address EI questions, but 10 years in, I can say:

1. You are your child's best advocate. Sometimes you'll need to fight (nicely at first, if you can). Don't let anyone kick your kid out of therapy when they reach "good enough" - good enough for what? There are always more goals.

2. We tried everything, it seems, and although DD has improved tremendously, we only wish we'd done more, earlier. Swimming/water therapy, therapeutic horseback riding, sign language lessons, music, typing lessons, standard PT and OT (in a hospital PT dept - paid by health insurance as "habilitative" services, not "rehabilitative," after a fight), dance classes, soccer, and more.