Speech therapy not really working?
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Anonymous
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DS will be 5 in November, and started speech therapy late this Spring because he can't say G or K sounds. (Think "ake" instead of "cake.") He's been receiving 2x weekly sessions and the therapist seems very frustrated that he can't contract his tongue properly to make the sound. She has had me chase down a million possible underlying causes at considerable time and expense -- for example, we have an ENT appointment today because she thinks his tonsils might be too big, which the ped actually laughed at but gave me the referral anyway -- but none of them have yielded any cause.
She now wants to cut down the sessions to once a week. I feel like she has just given up, as he hasn't made much progress thus far, but I also have no idea what to expect from speech therapy as my older one never needed it. Am I expecting too much too soon? New therapist? Any guidance appreciated! |
Anonymous
| 5 months of twice a week speech therapy for G and K sounds with no progress? Yes I’d switch to a different therapist ASAP. |
Anonymous
| Time for a change |
Anonymous
| Definitely switch. The K sound doesn't even involve tongue contraction... |
Anonymous
| Speech therapy is a long process. This kind of thing will not happen in under a year. Ease up on your expectations. What was the reason the SLP wants to cut back? Also you should post this in the special needs forum. |
Anonymous
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This is what my SLP friend (a really wonderful one) said.
"Here is what I will say. There are two possibilities. One, severe phonological disorder, which is common. Two, apraxia of speech, which is rare and treated entirely differently. Most likely the issue is #1, but if she finds a clinician with expertise in the rare disorder, they’ll be able to treat either. Not necessarily the other way around. Look for someone with specialization in Childhood Apraxia of Speech who uses either DTTC or REST. But I did NOT diagnose that or even think it’s the most likely explanation. Just that someone with that training will know what they are treating" |
Anonymous
This is good advice. I had two kids. DS with CAS and one with phonological disorder. The one diagnosed with CAS made good progress over years of intensive speech. DS with phonological disorder was eventually stuck and couldn’t get the r sound. After struggling to find a good SLP for him since he was older, the SLP who specialized in CAS agreed to work with him. She made quick progress. |
Anonymous
| OP, change. What we found is many SLP's like working with kids 2-4 but then are not very good with older kids. Few are good with older school aged kids. We changed a few times to find a good fit. If he's not making progress, she should be increasing not decreasing the appointments. That makes no sense. For some kids, it takes a long time to make progress and sometimes all of the sudden it just clicks. But, this sounds like a bad SLP or bad fit for your child. Sending you to an ENT for that is bizarre. He should have a hearing test but its not tonsils. |
Anonymous
| Speech therapy can be a very long process. DS had to attend twice. Once when he was 3.5 (private - 1 time weekly) for about a year and then at 6 (in school- varying from 2 times weekly and down to once every 2 weeks) for about 3 years. Op, are you following up at home? When DS started speech therapy, we were normally assigned things to work on at home. |
Anonymous
Your child probably wasn't that impacted if they only did it once a week at 3.5 OP child has far more concerns than yours. Its usually a few times a week with expressive/receptive issues. It sounds like a bad therapist. |