Anyone else think that speech therapy is a sham?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

Thank you for writing this.

Signed,
A mother of a child with severe hearing loss and who is undergoing speech therapy.

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]

We tried ITC for my son when he was a little over a year old. We first had an OT for about six months and she really tried her best to work with him, we worked on feeding issues and getting him to walk. When we had the six month eval I asked for a break because I didn't feel like he was getting much out of it. He just wasn't interested in working with her or doing any of the suggested activities I was supposed to do with him. So we had a month or two break between services. In that time he decided he wanted to walk and one day just started doing it. So I started to feel that maybe ITC wasn't right for him, that he was on his own timeline and therapy wasn't going to speed things up. He did continue with physical and speech therapy for a few more months, it seemed to have limited help. When he turned two I decided to enroll him in Fairfax County's ChildFind program. He grew to really love it, he looked forward to school each day and seeing his teachers and classmates. There's been limited progress with his communication so now we're looking into supplementing privately with speech and OT. Overall I would say ITC wasn't helpful for my son but it might work for others.

[Anonymous]

I think that speech therapy is well worth it. As a person who has a speech impediment, I have seen first hand how helpful speech therapy has been. I have also seen therapists help nonverbal children begin speaking in three word phrases. Might not sound like much, but it is. Now, some children are in therapy for under a year, others go for longer. I went to speech therapy for probably 12 years and I'm starting again tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's a scam at all... Early intervention is like insurance. You don't know if your child will naturally recover, but it's important to give your child the best opportunities possible. There's no magic want. But speech therapy is meant to be family centered and to help parents support their children's speech and language development.

[Anonymous]

Why was a 2+ year old thread revived?

[Anonymous]

Speech therapy has been a WASTE so far for my son's cluttering disorder (a fluency issue/disorder - neurological). It normally runs in families, my grand-dad cluttered very badly, I clutter quite a bit and my son clutters on par with my grand-dad, God rest his soul.

Anyway, my boy is 8 and he's had about 100 sessions - virtually no improvement

[Anonymous]

WE had a horrible time with Fairfax County Infant Toddler and their therapists/educators they gave us. They were waste of time and money. We fought them on billing for a year too. During the time we sought out private therapy and it has been a a godsend. The therapists are wonderful, my DS's speech has improved to where he can speak in full sentences even though he still has a hard time being understood. If you can't do private therapy, then stick with the county because any form of early intervention is better than none at all. Also as your kids get closer to 3, have them evaluated for the County's ChildFind program. My DS is in this now and its thousands of times better than the Infant Toddler services. ChildFind is through the school system and the teachers are wonderful! Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

Yeah, my daughter has profound hearing loss and we cherish her speech therapists. That said, with her diagnosis, it is very relevant and helpful. I think it depends on what the issue is and also WHO you are working with. We never had any success with the county for either kid and when we went fully private it was night and day.

[Anonymous]

No, ST has been worth it. Now I would say Infant Toddler in Fairfax County provided mediocre to meh therapists (ST, OT, ST), but all the ones through Infant Toddler the ST was probably the best (not great though.)

Once we went private we had some good ones and then an amazing one. One of the ones we tried along the way had serious OCD personality tendencies. She would harp on something that the developmental ped thought was well within normal range and she wouldn't let it go. She also warned us about the STs in FCPS because she used to be one. Funny, the ST we have at FCPS is excellent and very collaborative. OCD lady continues to scare the bajeezus out of people. She works at a private school so she will continue to have "clients."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It can be a sham because when my 7 month old was in the hospital we got billed for speech therapy services. Really? A 7 month old? GTFOH. Now I don't trust any of it and I have a bad impression of the usefulness of speech therapists.

Did your 7 month old have an eating or swallowing problem, or was he evaluated for one? Because this likely was done by a SLP.

Or simply a billing error.

No it wasn't a billing error. A therapist did come by. Not there was no eating or swallowing issues. He was in the hospital for an unrelated issue but they saw $$$ and ordered every single service and xray and specialist they could bill insurance for. They are crooks and now I know not to trust them.

Hopefully people don't think that SLPs can order tests/services/x-rays in a hospital setting... If you think this service was ordered and should not have been, the ordering physician is at fault, not the SLP. We get orders from doctors and we have to follow those orders. We do not screen every patient in a hospital and randomly decide to pick up patients because we "see $$$." Do you really think every medical personal that saw your child made that decision on their own at random? The only reason tests are completed and services are rendered is because your childs attending physician ordered them. What someone to blame? Start there before you condemn a service or profession that has largely no say in what you're complaining about.

[Anonymous]

Nope, don't think it's a scam. Not sure why you do .

[Anonymous]

Results are often difficult to see right away, and may take years to be visible, hence the confusion.

I would pick a speech therapist who gets your child and whom your child enjoys.

[Anonymous]

This thread is more than four years old. No need to argue it again.

[Anonymous]

Pediatric SLP here- I would be crushed if one of my clients felt that what I was doing was a sham. I strive to always make sure the patent knows exactly the reasoning behind everything I do, and I make it a priority to involve the parents in setting treatment goals. Early Intervention works, but there is an art to working with infant and toddlers. You get what you pay for - at least in many cases!

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's a sham, but I did feel like therapy for stuttering was not super effective. Partly this is because stuttering is not that common and not the bread and butter of most SLPs (and we had VERY mixed luck on getting SLPs who were good in this area). We did it for years. I am still on the fence as to whether it was that helpful.