private therapy versus ChildFind Fairfax County

[Anonymous]

anyone have experience with ChildFind in Fairfax County. Currently, DC is behind in speech and recently started speech therapy in a private preschool environment. We are thinking of augmenting as we think Dc needs more but it is quite expensive. I am just curious how easy Childfind is to work with. Why do they want to do a full developmental evaluation if you have more specific concerns. Do they actually make diagnoses or just suggest areas that need help? And what do they do with your child's records and do they follow them into the school system? I guess I am trying to find out how user friendly ChildFind is and quality of services once approved, ie. will a therapist come to your home? Thanks for any info.

[Anonymous]

My child was delayed in speech and they only evaluated for speech. Actually, you can go to the Ffx Cty Health dept and get a speech eval and they also do speach therapy. I didn't get therapy there bc the office is in Ffx City almost and the times didn't work out for me.

I did get some services through the county - a 45min session each week for a couple of months - they don't have services over the summer - and they were a complete waste of time. All my daughter did was repeat things the therapist said. I still have the materials she used and looking them over now they were way too advanced for my then just turned 3 year old. We sought private therapy and within one session, I saw improvement and continued to see improvement. If your only concern is speech, I would get services through the county bc they are free but also seek private therapy. My insurance did cover a portion of the therapy but if it had not, I would still have paid out of pocket.

[Anonymous]

Our family did not use ChildFind for delayed speech for several reasons. Most important, if your child needs this type of therapy, s/he will need more than the once a week session Childfind offers. Moreover, I have heard that the therapists are really spotty ... some very good and some not so much. Finally, any diagnosis/therapy will be on your child's school record which could affect classroom placement more than you might wish.

[Anonymous]

question for the PP -- what do you mean when you say having something like this on the record could affect classroom placement? I could see why that might be the case if the diagnosis/therapy were for a more complicated problem like suspected autism or for a learning disability, but so many kids need speech therapy....

I ask because my DS (3) has motor delays (his only issue) and we're currently getting private therapy which is fine because we have great insurance, but I was wondering about Child Find as well. In particular, I was wondering if they send therapists into the nursery school your child attends to provide help in the school setting. I suspect not...

DS could use some one-on-one attention to get comfortable on the playground and his nursery school is not able to offer it. It's causing a problem because the motor issues make him very reluctant to navigate playgrounds on his own and so he spends outdoor time standing by the door asking to go inside. DH and I don't know what to do about it.

[Anonymous]

The best piece of advice I got when going thru this with my son 6 years ago is take whatever therapy is recommended by the county and double or triple the amount. Use the county therapy services as extras, not the main source of therapy. We were fortunate enough to be able to afford triple the speech and OT that was recommended. We spent alot of time in the car driving to and from therapy appointments. My son is now 7, in the 1st grade and we were just told yesterday by Arlington Schools that he no longer qualifies for services of any kind thru the county. So, LOTS of early intervention (and $$$) really does seem to work. I kind of look at it as "pay now, or pay later" but again, I am more fortunate than most. Good luck.