Reply to When and how to start speech therapy

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You can ask for an assessment. fyi: TPES won't do anything involving speech therapy in the school unless there's an academic issue involving the speech.[/quote]

OP here, thanks for the info....
academically the teacher says she is doing great and very engaged. This was the first time that I realized it could actually be a problem since she was called on a few times while I was observing.

Should i assume that if the teacher hasn't said anything yet, we should just look to hire someone ourselves?

[/quote]

Document this via an email expressing concern about what you saw to the teacher.  Is she also having trouble being understood by peers?  Previous poster was right -- if speech is interfering with her ability to be properly understood the first time, then it is "adverse impact" on academics even if your child's "grades" aren't being affected.  For example, having to repeat oneself frequently in front of others can affect self-esteem and the willingness to answer questions and participate in discussion, even though those might not affect "grades".

Demonstrating "adverse impact" is one of the prongs of the test to achieve an IEP or to receive services or 504 plan.  (The others are a documented disorder and the need for specialized instruction, but this latter is only for an IEP).

FWIW, our child had a clear speech disorder, diagnosed by an SLP.  We asked MCPS to provide services.  The MCPS SLP refused saying that these speech difficulties are considered a normal part of development until age 7 and therapy would not be provided because our DS' speech could still normalize on its own before age 7.  Even by age 9, MCPS SLP was still insisting it was "normal" development (not professionally accurate), then that even though the lisp persisted no services were required because he could still be understood.  Finally, when we won services, MCPS would only do 1/2 hour 2x a month -- a totally inadequate amount.  In retrospect, I wish I had just ignored the system and taken him in for private speech therapy when he was young.

Now at age 9 we are doing therapy, and he is making good progress, but I wonder if it would have been easier/faster if we had done it at a younger age.  [/quote]

Thanks for all this great info.
The school SP said exactly that - this was normal for her age and that if they teacher had not notified her of an issue then there probably wasn't one.
They said that if she is able to make herself understood by repeating herself then she is doing appropriate things for a child her age.
She also said that if we were concerned to ask the teacher about it at the PT conference.

As you mention, my main concern is the self-esteem thing associated with having to repeat yourself all the time.

Should i take this any further or wait to see if it gets better in a couple of months?

I'm sorry it took so long for MCPS to give your son the help he needed!

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