How do I respond to this argument by school system?

[Anonymous]

At our last IEP meeting the school system declined our request that they increase my severely speech delayed son from 6 30 minutes sessions a MONTH to 2-3 times a week. They said taking him out of his kindergarten classroom so much would adversely impact his learning. I was caught off guard and didn't know how to respond. How do I respond to this? To me, it's like if he cannot express himself that's a major barrier to learning and his ability to FUNCTION so his sitting in class more doesn't really matter in the totality of circumstances.

Anyone been there done that? Anyone have any ideas??

[Anonymous]

Sorry, that was an increase of direct speech language services with the speech therapist

[Anonymous]

Are they individual sessions or group speech sessions?

[Anonymous]

Use buzz words and phrases like:

* he "cannot access the curriculum" without additional speech therapy.
* he "cannot benefit from his education" without additional speech therapy

Tell them the therapy can take place within the classroom.

Also, have you thought about an augmentative communication setting? My DD is in an augmentative communication classroom for kindergarten and gets speech 5x a week. (This is in MoCo.)

[Anonymous]

10:40: they can be either. Depends on schedule per ST>

11:03: What is an augmentative communication strategy?

[Anonymous]

Def agree with the "access the curriculum" buzz words. Also, can't she do push in? That way he is in the classroom and yet also being directly helped with speech. They can keep the pull out as it is currently and then increase the push in. Also, maybe they can do the pull out during rest time or something?

[Anonymous]

I bet the speech therapist at their school is totally overwhelmed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:40: they can be either. Depends on schedule per ST>

11:03: What is an augmentative communication strategy?

11:03 here. Augmentative communication means using not only speech therapy but special technology for children with severe speech difficulties -- computers and keyboards that generate speech. My daughter uses a Vantage Vanguard. She is in a classroom for half the day where all the children have "talkers" (augmentative communication devices). Lest you believe that this makes her less verbal, the opposite is true -- speech begets speech. The more she uses her "talker," the more she talks as well.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a private evaluation? We got a private evaluation and took that recommendation in to the school. They gave us what our private therapist recommended.

[Anonymous]

I know you said your DS was severely speech delayed but what exactly is the nature of the delay - is it expressive and receptive or only one of them?

The reason I ask is that I've got two kids with speech delays, one with a communication disorder that affects processing speed, work retrieval, working memory, etc. and one that is impacted mostly by working memory (and not nearly as much as his brother). They get about as much ST as your DS gets but because the speech delay impacts their "ability to access the curricula", we have goals that touch upon speech without being pull out services - they are communication goals but are not speech goals. For example, "with no more than 2 verbal/visual prompts per session, Johnny will use Subject-Verb-Object construction using the present progressive -ing and proper pronouns to share information about a recent personal event or a recently read story at least one time per week." Or, "in a variety of settings, and given a who/what/where/when question involving at least 5-7 words, Johnny will answer appropriately, with no more than one verbal/visual prompt at least one tiem per week for three consecutive weeks."

You see where I'm going with this, right? There are a lot of communication and social skills needs that require a lot of speech. I'm not saying your DS shouldn't get additional ST hours but there is a lot that can be done for his communication outside the SLP's office.

BTW - my severely delayed kindergartener (apraxia of speech, general developmental delays, executive functioning deficits, etc.) get 4 hrs/mo of speech pull out services in a group. We supplement with private ST. HTH.

[Anonymous]

I certainly can't judge whether your child need more or less speech therapy, but I did want to say that my kid is in a collaborative pre-K in MCPS and he is taken out of class so much for his therapies that the teacher suggested we needed to cut back on some of them or he was going to miss too much of the curriculum. I had to agree. He was already being taken out of class for PT, OT, speech, adapted PE, and now they were adding a weekly session with the teacher for Deaf and Hard of hearing students. We had agreed for a consult for D/HOH in IEP and we did end up agreeing to 30 minutes a month. I am glad the SN teacher clued me into the fact that he was going to be missing too much of the curriculum. We depend on her to access the whole picture.

[Anonymous]

What county are you in? Completely agree with the rec to use buzz words and the rec to get an outside eval, but find out who your IEP personnel respect. Ask other parents. I've noticed with certain "experts" the IEP team rolls their eyes and say and they don't value that person's judgment and with others it's like the order came from GOD.

I would also start asking around about who the best advocates are in case you need to go that route.

Keep us posted OP! I think many of us will benefit from your experience. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

[Anonymous]

I would respond with a newly called IEP meeting and have a child advocate in attendance fighting for your child's rights. You may only have to do it once to get what you want, but they're banking on the fact that most parents don't FIGHT for it.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they can schedule the ST during "free play" time or circle time?