Do I dare say no to ST because we can't afford it?

[Anonymous]

Expressive language delays are not something to be dicked around with. Kids with language delays have a better outcome than kids with an ASD, but the research shows that they continue to struggle well into adulthood. You need to intervene early and as much as you can.

If you can't afford additional speech therapy, you need to do as much speech activity as you can at home. Linguilist sells materials that you can use at home. In the UK, many gets get 15 minutes a day of ST exercises from a speech therapist assistant at preschool. You can do that much at home.

[Anonymous]

You will be fine, your child will be fine. You need to watch and learn from the speech therapist that comes to your house from early intervention. Then you do those things at home. You are with your child, so you can spend 15 minutes a day doing some of the same things that the ST does. You can also ask the county ST what she suggests you do. You can also take the Hanan Course (if your county offers it). Or buy the book and follow the directions.

It Takes Two to Talk This is the book they used in the Hanan course we took. You can buy it off of Amazon.
http://www.hanen.org/Programs/For-Parents/It-Takes-Two-to-Talk.aspx

My child had lots of issues, he was in PT, OT, SP, and in the end SPed. You cannot do everything the experts suggests. You can do what you can do. Do not compromise your future financial security, when you can find work-arounds.

That being said RSI in Silver Spring, takes insurance and they have 1/2 hour sessions so the sessions also cost 1/2 of 135. My child is in OT, but 1/2 hours session is $65.

That may be too far from your home. Ask for the Hanan Course to help your child. The Hanan Program, teaches you to teach your child to communicate. My child has speech delays and he also has some hearing loss. He did not talk until age 3. He started speech therapy at age 2 and we (parents) started the Hanan Course thru the county when my child was about 22 months.

He is 6, he is fine. He is still in speech therapy, but that may be mostly because of hearing.

The only time we had private speech therapy is the summer he turned 3 and we were not offered ESY (we should have asked, but we didn't). He had just started talking and we wanted to continue the progress. So he took 8 weeks of ST for the summer and then he got ST in public preschool for kids with SN.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Expressive language delays are not something to be dicked around with. Kids with language delays have a better outcome than kids with an ASD, but the research shows that they continue to struggle well into adulthood. You need to intervene early and as much as you can.

If you can't afford additional speech therapy, you need to do as much speech activity as you can at home. Linguilist sells materials that you can use at home. In the UK, many gets get 15 minutes a day of ST exercises from a speech therapist assistant at preschool. You can do that much at home.

I need to add: use Linguilist materials to supplement the speech therapy that you CAN afford. Not alone. You need some guidance on what to focus on.