Help me with this therapy workaround

[Anonymous]

My child was receiving speech through public school services. They discontinued her earlier this year saying they "had no more goals" despite the fact she still has a tongue thrust, replaced F with P and can't make the V sound (comes out B). I declined to terminate and we have been in reevaluations and I am starting to think at our final eligibility meeting she will be found eligible to still receive services this fall in K.

However, to not lose progress, I wanted to get her enrolled in private speech throughout the summer. I called a local therapy place and they said I will need to give them a copy of her IEP with stated goals. The problem is, I don't have that, because the school tried to terminate her IEP and it is only open right now while we are in the reevaluation process with the goal of "maintaining progress." Since I am fairly sure the SLP who did her reevaluation will find that she meets the 25% minimum deficit to receive services, I am hopeful she will get to keep her IEP and receive services in the fall. But I don't know that I will have a completed IEP with defined goals in place before then since it's so close to the end of the school year. If all I have is the IEP placeholder that says "maintaining progress" is her goal but I need her to get the speech over the summer, how do I work that? Any ideas or experiences or workarounds you xs share? I'm already irate at the schools for acting like she has zero speech issues and trying to dismiss her and now that very dismissal is making it difficult for me to even get private therapy!

[Anonymous]

You can ask the private therapist to do a full evaluation, which you will have to pay for. Then you will know for sure if your kid needs to continue and you can use that report as ammo if they try to release you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can ask the private therapist to do a full evaluation, which you will have to pay for. Then you will know for sure if your kid needs to continue and you can use that report as ammo if they try to release you.

+1

Can't you also use the previous IEP and the initial evaluation done by the school to get the IEP. Given age of your child it can't be that old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can ask the private therapist to do a full evaluation, which you will have to pay for. Then you will know for sure if your kid needs to continue and you can use that report as ammo if they try to release you.

+1

Can't you also use the previous IEP and the initial evaluation done by the school to get the IEP. Given age of your child it can't be that old.

Well, the girl on the phone said it had to be done within the last year. I do have her IEP from 2014-2015 with specific speech goals, but at her renewal meeting in January that was when they declared she "had no more goals" and wanted to terminate services and IEP. I disagreed and declined so we entered the (still ongoing) reevaluation process but as of right now her IEP is only held open with the goal of "maintaining progress." Until I have our final eligibility meeting (at which I hope she will be found eligible and receive a new IEP with new goals) that's all I've got that's current. I don't know if the one from last school year that expired in January will be acceptable. I may have to do the private evaluation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can ask the private therapist to do a full evaluation, which you will have to pay for. Then you will know for sure if your kid needs to continue and you can use that report as ammo if they try to release you.

+1

Can't you also use the previous IEP and the initial evaluation done by the school to get the IEP. Given age of your child it can't be that old.

Well, the girl on the phone said it had to be done within the last year. I do have her IEP from 2014-2015 with specific speech goals, but at her renewal meeting in January that was when they declared she "had no more goals" and wanted to terminate services and IEP. I disagreed and declined so we entered the (still ongoing) reevaluation process but as of right now her IEP is only held open with the goal of "maintaining progress." Until I have our final eligibility meeting (at which I hope she will be found eligible and receive a new IEP with new goals) that's all I've got that's current. I don't know if the one from last school year that expired in January will be acceptable. I may have to do the private evaluation.

If you think the goals on the 2014-15 IEP still represent what your child should be working on in speech therapy that should be enough for the private therapist to get going (for the moment disregard what the school is saying about those goals being achieved). If you think she has issues that aren't captured in that IEP, that is a different issue.

Different question - what kind kind of speech/langauge evaluation did the school district do before beginning therapy? Assuming one was done, you (and the rest of the school team) should have received a written report that summarized the results. Or did they go straight to writing IEP goals based on you or a classroom teaching telling them she had delays?

IMO from what you've described there's enough confusion and disagreement to warrant a private evaluation.

[Anonymous]

I doubt there is any "confusion" - they just want to cut their costs by decreasing this child's speech therapy. Speech therapy for these things can have a 100% (or 99.9%) fix so that they no longer say the B sound for V. So until that's fixed, she should be going to speech therapy! Not true for all speech therapy needs, but for sounds? Yes, she can be taught and corrected so that she gets rid of it. Nobody needs to sound like Barbara Walters.

I'd schedule a visit with a speech therapist and bring the 2014 IEP and see what s/he says. The perosn who answered the phone is just that, the receptionist, who has been taught to tell you to bring certian things. She may not have a deeper understanding of all the paperwork options, but the SLP will.

[Anonymous]

OP here- she went through the regular Childfind process before beginning speech at school. She was found to have several delays, notably speech and fine motor, and this qualified her for 2 day placement in an ECSE class in addition to her 3 day enrollment at her private preschool she was already in. However, after one year in the program, they dismissed her saying she was "all caught up." I could not get them to agree to let her finish up the school year in the ECSE class because they determined it was no longer her "least restrictive environment." I had in fact told them that from the beginning of the year because this school they placed her in houses very low functioning sped students and she was never as high needs as they were. So compared to those kids, she seemed completely caught up I suppose, and they said she was a "shining star" who didn't need the program anymore. Yet she still has these very obvious speech issues and fine motor issues (still cannot write, has difficulty cutting, fastening buttons, etc- anything that requires tight muscle control).

So, I had no choice in them dismissing her from the preschool class but refused to terminate the IEP knowing she still had issues and delays and was facing the kindergarten transition this fall. I do have her old IEP and would be happy to give that to the speech center but she indicated it had to be current within the last year and that one expired in January. I will see if they can take that one though as it does list she needs work on the very sounds that are still giving her trouble and that I am specifically seeking private therapy to address since for the time being the schools no longer will.

If they will accept that IEP, I will use it; otherwise, I will have to do the private eval. I just don't want to let her go all summer with no speech; she is already backsliding on her F sound. It's like as soon as she was making the trouble sounds properly they declared her all done and wanted her out of the program without giving her the chance to work with ongoing continuous speech therapy that would ingrain those sounds as habit and routine. Now she is back to using P for F, can't make V, lisps because of the tongue thrust, etc. I don't want to leave those issues unaddressed until she (hopefully) gets speech through school in the fall.

[Anonymous]

I think a private speech evaluation makes sense for the summer and possibly for continued private speech during the school year. Once she is in kindergarten, you make likely find from what I read today that her speech therapy will not be one-to-one but in a group which could be any where from two to a few students, and this may not meet her needs. Given that her delays seem mild in comparison to other students, I would keep going with the one-to-one to get her speech skills up to par and be done with it. Working privately you will also have a better handle on what you can do at home to build her skills up. Keep an eye out on the motor skills if fine motor, too, because once in kindergarten things like writing can take a lot of effort if low toned in her hands and frustration with writing could easily set in. If she is bright and will be reading in K as expected now, there is also the expectation of writing about what you read etc. a lot sooner than you think and basic math, too. Just a thought to consider.

[Anonymous]

The problem is sometimes there is a huge gap between what is "delayed" enough for therapy and what the average child can do.
If you look up the expected ages for different consonant sounds, you will probably find that the sounds she is mispronouncing are expected to be mastered at age 5, 6, etc. So they cut the speech therapy once she is caught up on the chart and hope normal development spontaneously occurs or you give up and pay for private ST.

For the fine motor issues, I would see a private OT this summer. Find one who takes your insurance-it is much easier to get coverage for OT then ST. You will be out just your copay.
IME a child has to be very far behind before the school will agree to fine motor OT. They will tell you that scissors and writing are skills acquired in K and 1st grade.

[Anonymous]

Yes we are very concerned about the fine motor stuff. Unfortunately, a child can't have an IEP just for fine motor. The goal is to get her found eligible for services under speech and to include OT for the fine motor stuff under the umbrella of "motor delays." I have told them time and time again the fine motor stuff is problematic and literally until the last month they have told me it's not an issue til kindergarten because writing isn't an "age appropriate goal." Of course now that she's going to K and has been evaluated again by a school psychologist who noted she has very obvious fine motor issues, they are paying attention. We are doing our best to get those issues addressed but the speech is the key because they cannot keep her IEP open just on the fine motor stuff even though IMO it arguably has much more academic impact than the speech.

[Anonymous]

I will check into private OT as well. Good to know it may be easier to get than the speech.

[Anonymous]

You can't rely on speech therapy through the school system this fall to address her speech issues. It will be once a week with a small group of other children, for about 30 minutes. It will be cancelled frequently. If there is a day off that falls on "speech therapy" day, it will not be rescheduled. You have to consider speech through the school system as a nice add-on, and not the main therapy. Unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will check into private OT as well. Good to know it may be easier to get than the speech.

Where do you live and what insurance do you have? Maybe someone can rec some in-network OT places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can't rely on speech therapy through the school system this fall to address her speech issues. It will be once a week with a small group of other children, for about 30 minutes. It will be cancelled frequently. If there is a day off that falls on "speech therapy" day, it will not be rescheduled. You have to consider speech through the school system as a nice add-on, and not the main therapy. Unfortunately.

I know. But this is the setup she was getting and she did make great progress that way. It's just that as soon as she hit a goal they wanted her dismissed rather than continuing to ingrain it til it came naturally and compound the progress. And of course she has experienced backslide even though they assured me, when I argued she would, that she would not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will check into private OT as well. Good to know it may be easier to get than the speech.

Where do you live and what insurance do you have? Maybe someone can rec some in-network OT places.

We are in Loudoun county and have United.