Anyone else think that speech therapy is a sham?
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Anonymous
| My twins have been in Early Intervention (Fairfax) since they were born. They were preemies and also growth restricted. They did PT for a few months for some slight motor delays and caught up nicely. Then they transferred into speech therapy. We do not supplement with private speech. It has been a year. Each session, and they have 4 total a month, gets billed for $150/each. DH and I do not have to pay anything for the services, so the county pays for it all. That's approx. $7200/year spent on speech services. Twin A barely graduated out of speech this month, and Twin B is still delayed enough to qualify. I feel like it is an incredible waste of time and money. It was, however useful in the beginnings weeks because our SLP taught ME how to interact and teach them. How to elicit words and phrases, etc, etc. But, after a few months at the very most, I feel like it does absolutely nothing now. DH thinks it's a sham. I'm afraid to stop services because I feel like we need to do everything we can for our kids to help them and don't want to look back and think that I could have done more. Is this just me? My twins don't have any diagnosed special need other than being speech delayed. Ped and SLP think that they are catching up and just take longer to do things than their peers. I feel like if the county just gave us the same amount of money that they use on paying a speech therapist, I could spend it on other activities that would be more beneficial. For example, we payed for Gymboree for them and they learned way more from that class then from their speech sessions. Anyone else have this experience? Or do we just have a bad SLP? Oh, my kids are 2.25. Started speech at 16 months. |
Anonymous
| No, I don't think it is a scam. My child has a severe speech disorder. We get Early Intervention and also pay for private speech. I think you sound like an idiot and your husband is cheap. |
Anonymous
|
I don't know about your specific therapist but it is short sighted to call speech a rip off. Progress in speech takes time. How do you know the progress you see at Gymboree isn't an effect of what they learn at speech?
Also, there is a lot of training involved to become a Speech Language Pathologist. They have to dissect cadavers to learn all of the anatomy involved in speech and swallowing, etc. |
Anonymous
| No, it has been our lifesaver. Your twins are very young so to me, I can see your feelings. We did speech at 2 1/2. It was a waste of time. Stopped for six months and then did intensive. At almost 4, we still have a big delay but I see that it absolutely helped once my child decided to start talking. It really depends on the delay. |
Anonymous
Why do I sound like an idiot? And why is my husband cheap? We paid for private speech for our older child because he had some articulation issues. We saw real progress and thought it was great. But, he was 5, not 2. I feel like the speech services for my one and then 2 year olds is an absolute waste of time. I feel like any progress that they have made was simply made because of time, not from getting speech services. |
Anonymous
I am 41 years old with a severe to profound hearing loss. I spend many, many recesses in speech therapy growing up. I have near-perfect speech now. No, it's not a sham. I am a very successful executive. I owe much of that to the therapists who helped me when I was little. |
Anonymous
| OP here - for those of you who had a child in speech at age 1 or 2, what was it like? I'm wondering if we just don't have a good SLP. My twins "like" her now, but they are bored most of the session and don't do most of the "play." They run away from her and avoid having to do most things. I find most of the games and play very boring as well. |
Anonymous
| Sounds like you need a new SLP. |
Anonymous
| What if you break them up during their sessions? |
Anonymous
|
My preemie son had "free" early intervention speech therapy from 14 months to 3 years old, when he was declared "not delayed enough" to be eligible. While I loved our occupational therapist, who worked on sensory integration in his mouth, among other things, I did not like the speech therapist, not because she was not knowledgeable, but because she could not relate to my son and as a result, never elicited any meaningful response.
I also went to free Hanen groups (It Takes Two to Talk) during that time and that was helpful since it coached parents how to effectively communicate with their children. Then we paid for private speech therapy and were again disappointed by the lack of visible results. Finally, after entering public elementary school, my son was determined eligible for an IEP for speech. His speech therapist at school is WONDERFUL. She gets him. My son doesn't like her lessons, since they hit his weak points every time, but he has made progress! Speech therapy for younger children is very, very challenging, and as a result most of the time does not yield immediate and visible results. It is so difficult to make a connection to each patient. But who can dare say that the positive results seen years afterward were not elicited during those first years? Perhaps future speech therapists only built on that base. Keep at it, and keep implementing the strategies you learned. |
Anonymous
|
OP,
It's not a sham. It takes time. Early intervention is key. If I were you, I would seriously consider supplementing with private speech or think about speech camp. Daily sessions over the summer could really do great things. Speech Camp really helped my kid with apraxia. Yes, it's expensive. Also, speech issues can be much, much more than just articulation. Kids with speech delays are also more at risk for language based learning disabilities. You need to learn more: http://www.ldonline.org/article/6336/ http://www.ldonline.org/indepth/speech |
Anonymous
| I had a severe speech disability. Tons of therapy. Now I'm a big time talker and nobody would ever know. |
Anonymous
22:02 again. I agree that you have to stay informed on symptoms of other disorders, and stay vigilant as your children develop - I know it sounds completely paranoid, sorry! Hopefully all will be well. My son, however was diagnosed with ADHD at 5 and might be diagnosed with HFA/Asperger's in the near future (he's 8 now). The speech thing was just the tip of the iceberg for him. |
Anonymous
| Think of it as building a good foundation, laying groundwork for speech to emerge. Every experience is building neural connections. The difficult thing is they are young so difficult to measure but you never know how much worse off theyd be if they never had the service. If you pull them out you never know the benefits they could have had. Maybe a new SLP maybe add private? |
Anonymous
| My DS was essentially nonverbal when we started SLT and made huge strides because of the therapy. I don't know where we would be without it. |