Need help with speech in school

[Anonymous]

DS has been diagnosed with MERLD and is currently attending county's special ed preschool. While we are seeing a therapist for that, I want to push for more speech services through the county. I spoke with his teacher, he's a totally different child speech-wise while he's in school: doesn't always use sentences, needs a lot of prompting. Yet in therapy, at home, on playdates, with his friends he can do stories and carry on a conversation. How can we all help him? I am at a loss here.

[Anonymous]

MERLD can be very tough in large group situations or places with lots of distractions, e.g., the classroom. One-on-one it's a lot easier and less anxiety for the kid. It's also still early days.

Is he in the PEP program specifically for speech? When I observed, I noticed that they do a lot of prompting with the kids that seemed to be more geared to having repeat back what the teacher just said vs. formulating an independent response.

There is a Yahoo group called Natural Late Talkers dedicated to MERLD. You might be able to find some additional suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Maybe that is not the best program for hom.

[Anonymous]

The county's speech preschool is not part of PEP per se. It's a different set-up and is only for kids who have articulation problems only. To get more hours OP has to get it in an IEP. How many hours do you get now?