How much improvement should I expect from speech therapy?

[Anonymous]

Son was evaluated September 2016 at speech clinic. We started doing speech 1x per week and have been ever since. I have the initial evaluation and am now comparing it to the updated evaluation they did last week. He is either the same, or actually lower in score on some areas.

Wouldn't you expect to see some decent improvement after 6 months of therapy? Does he need to go more often, or would you assume his therapist isn't very good?

[Anonymous]

Are you getting HW / words to practice at home?

[Anonymous]

No - she gives weekly updates, but does not provide any homework or follow up during the week.

[Anonymous]

How old is your son? What kind of speech/language is being targeted (articulation, expressive, receptive, pragmatic)? 6 months isn't a very long time, but it's a totally reasonable question to ask your speech therapist about expected progress and why you're seeing the results you're seeing.

[Anonymous]

It depends on what the speech issue is. Some issues take a very long time to remediate.

Regardless you should ask the therapist why there has been no improvement in that much time and, if you don't think her explanation makes sense, consider finding a new one.

[Anonymous]

We do speech three times a week and homework. Ask for homework. How old is your child?

[Anonymous]

It depends on the issue. Speech therapy gives them the tools to talk but they will not talk till they are able. You can't force it.

[Anonymous]

He is 6 - they have been working on expressive language. And apparently his receptive is not great. It was not initially tested in the first evaluation because my main concern at the time was expressive. If receptive is bad, I'm assuming that will make anything and everything that much more difficult for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He is 6 - they have been working on expressive language. And apparently his receptive is not great. It was not initially tested in the first evaluation because my main concern at the time was expressive. If receptive is bad, I'm assuming that will make anything and everything that much more difficult for him.

Well, it sounds like you rather set yourself up by not having a full evaluation at the start. Do that first. Ask the ST for homework. Consider doing ST more often. No one knows for certain how long things will take.

[Anonymous]

We were referred to physical therapy. At a regular checkup, we mentioned to our pediatrician that there was no plan and no evaluation. She was shocked and said there should be a goal, a general expectation of progress (though that's difficult to project of course), regular evaluations, and an idea of when the treatment might stop. Seems that a similar plan should be in place for speech therapy. Ask and don't accept "oh, we'll just keep going and see how it goes" for an answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He is 6 - they have been working on expressive language. And apparently his receptive is not great. It was not initially tested in the first evaluation because my main concern at the time was expressive. If receptive is bad, I'm assuming that will make anything and everything that much more difficult for him.

Any speech therapist who just evaluates expressive language without evaluating receptive language for an initial evaluation is incompetent. Knowing a child's receptive language is crucial! There is no excuse considering he was 5 or 6 years old during the initial evaluation. Get another therapist ASAP.

[Anonymous]

For my son with a "mild" mixed delay, both receptive and expressive, we do speech three times a week and homework and he was in PEP. He tested in normal range after a year, but that was from 3-4 when I think a lot of language changes happen anyway. The next big language change is at 8, I believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He is 6 - they have been working on expressive language. And apparently his receptive is not great. It was not initially tested in the first evaluation because my main concern at the time was expressive. If receptive is bad, I'm assuming that will make anything and everything that much more difficult for him.

Any speech therapist who just evaluates expressive language without evaluating receptive language for an initial evaluation is incompetent. Knowing a child's receptive language is crucial! There is no excuse considering he was 5 or 6 years old during the initial evaluation. Get another therapist ASAP.

+1 If you wait till 6 for therapy, its helpful but a bit late in the game. Get a new therapist if they did not do a good assessment. Poor receptive is different than expressive. Some kids have one, some both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He is 6 - they have been working on expressive language. And apparently his receptive is not great. It was not initially tested in the first evaluation because my main concern at the time was expressive. If receptive is bad, I'm assuming that will make anything and everything that much more difficult for him.

Any speech therapist who just evaluates expressive language without evaluating receptive language for an initial evaluation is incompetent. Knowing a child's receptive language is crucial! There is no excuse considering he was 5 or 6 years old during the initial evaluation. Get another therapist ASAP.

+1 If you wait till 6 for therapy, its helpful but a bit late in the game. Get a new therapist if they did not do a good assessment. Poor receptive is different than expressive. Some kids have one, some both.

This doesn't sound like the therapist's fault--it sounds more like mom was being overly directive without a lot knowledge.

[Anonymous]

This is OP. Thanks for the feedback. In addition to speech he gets behavioral and was getting OT, plus does private swim lessons. We can only afford and fit so much into our schedule - that is why it was once a week. Trying to do the best we can.

Sounds like he needs it more than once a week, and a new therapist.