Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there now a pediatric SLP at Walter Reed?

MCPS speech therapy is a joke and waste of time. If you get approved, Tricare will pay for multiple visits a week and you have a minor co-pay depending on your status. Don't waste your time with the public services when you have tricare.

Yes her name was Covington. I really liked her.

Thanks, good to know. She must be newer as we had to go to Ft. Belvior years ago and were always told no SLP's for kids on base. Does she do therapy or just evaluations?

Don't worry about the hearing evaluation. The good docs always require a hearing test with a speech evaluation there. He'll do it - it may take a few visits, but it will get done. My kid was like yours and eventually we got it done and did them yearly/no issue for a few years. The staff is very patient and understanding.

She only does evaluations. So, his PCM(primary care manager) referred him to Walter Reed for an evaluation with the SLP. THe SLP made a report, and based on that report, the PCM today referred my son for private speech. I hope TRICARE will approve the referral.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd just start having your child wear headphones 30 seconds a day and then growing to longer when he is watching the ipad if you allow ipad use. Otherwise, you can put headphones attached to a boom box and he can listen to music that way

. He'l get used to it - I wouldn't start with candy, incentives, etc just get them, show them, put them on, let him take them off, put them on, let them be a toy for 2 days, then show him he can hear music or ipad with them. And when he takes them off, take away ipad or music so he learns the only way he gets music/ipad is that way, he'll be fine!

Many kids can't accurately do hearing tests with headphones because of motor coordination issues--because a child needs to physically indicate when they hear a sound. A booth is more accurate.

Walter Reed has several booths and uses the head phones. If a child hasn't used headphones before, it can be scary. At two, they have the child on the parent's lap. They have one audiologist in the booth and one outside doing the testing. They have all kinds of cool things to engage the kids in the booth but some kids are scare of it and it takes a few visits. There is no charge for the visit and the staff don't mind if you come back a few times.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there now a pediatric SLP at Walter Reed?

MCPS speech therapy is a joke and waste of time. If you get approved, Tricare will pay for multiple visits a week and you have a minor co-pay depending on your status. Don't waste your time with the public services when you have tricare.

Yes her name was Covington. I really liked her.

Thanks, good to know. She must be newer as we had to go to Ft. Belvior years ago and were always told no SLP's for kids on base. Does she do therapy or just evaluations?

Don't worry about the hearing evaluation. The good docs always require a hearing test with a speech evaluation there. He'll do it - it may take a few visits, but it will get done. My kid was like yours and eventually we got it done and did them yearly/no issue for a few years. The staff is very patient and understanding.

Anonymous wrote:I'd just start having your child wear headphones 30 seconds a day and then growing to longer when he is watching the ipad if you allow ipad use. Otherwise, you can put headphones attached to a boom box and he can listen to music that way

. He'l get used to it - I wouldn't start with candy, incentives, etc just get them, show them, put them on, let him take them off, put them on, let them be a toy for 2 days, then show him he can hear music or ipad with them. And when he takes them off, take away ipad or music so he learns the only way he gets music/ipad is that way, he'll be fine!

Many kids can't accurately do hearing tests with headphones because of motor coordination issues--because a child needs to physically indicate when they hear a sound. A booth is more accurate.

Anonymous wrote:Is there now a pediatric SLP at Walter Reed?

MCPS speech therapy is a joke and waste of time. If you get approved, Tricare will pay for multiple visits a week and you have a minor co-pay depending on your status. Don't waste your time with the public services when you have tricare.

Yes her name was Covington. I really liked her.

Is there now a pediatric SLP at Walter Reed?

MCPS speech therapy is a joke and waste of time. If you get approved, Tricare will pay for multiple visits a week and you have a minor co-pay depending on your status. Don't waste your time with the public services when you have tricare.

I'd just start having your child wear headphones 30 seconds a day and then growing to longer when he is watching the ipad if you allow ipad use. Otherwise, you can put headphones attached to a boom box and he can listen to music that way

. He'l get used to it - I wouldn't start with candy, incentives, etc just get them, show them, put them on, let him take them off, put them on, let them be a toy for 2 days, then show him he can hear music or ipad with them. And when he takes them off, take away ipad or music so he learns the only way he gets music/ipad is that way, he'll be fine!

You can do the booth testing "in a soundfield" which means that they don't use ear plugs or headphones, and just play the sounds in the room and see which way the child looks. It will tell you if your child has hearing loss overall, but won't reliably detect situations where children have loss in just one year. However, it will give you enough information to know whether he can hear all the speech sounds right now.

When we did the testing in a soundfield for my son, who was about 11 months, and certainly not following directions, it was straight up conditioning. They'd play a sound from one side of the room, and then immediately after on that side of the room, a stuffed animal would light up and do something funny (e.g. bang a drum, dance and sing). After 2 or 3 tries, he'd hear the noise and look for the funny animal. It was obvious that that was what he was doing. Once he got it, they started turning down the volume of the initial noise, and playing with the pitch, to see what he could hear.

Childfind won’t do the booth testing. Definitely don’t return to them at this point. I found them next to useless and at this age they denied ST for us too. They are the group in charge of allocating services in an iep though. When your child is school aged and needs an iep, if they offer ST, take them. This is completely separate issue from tricame and private services.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, refuse Child Find - they will push you to use them first but if you refuse and say its not 1-1 services and group and you want your child in 1-1 intensive they will do it. But, they are required to push Infant and Toddler and Child Find first but its fine to refuse it.

If a kid is 3.5, they are ineligible for infant & toddlers. If you are offered ST through childfind, op, I would take them regardless of what form they take. It’s about getting a foot in the door.

You are missing the point. OP can just do private speech. If she can get the referral authorized they are very generous and offer several times a week. There is no comparison to private and public services. You don't take which ever, you do both or just trircare. If you tell tricare you will go with child find you will get denied.

If you read the original post it says nothing about childfind or Mcps so you’re “point” is coming from left field. Regardless it’s an odd one. Never said not to do private or even to seek public services. Op, if you ever get offered ST services through the public school, never turn them down. Many people have to fight tooth and nail for them.

Op here. Actually I have a follow question on this exact topic. Was going to start a new thread but may as well ask here. In Jan when my son turned three, I took him to Child Find. They said he was fine. I could take him back there and now that my kid is 3.5 and the issues are pretty obvious (excellent SLP at Walter Reed said plan on entering K with an IEP) he’d probably qualify for county assistance. But obviously I want the private, and we seem well on our way to getting approved for that. I read on this forum once that Tricare wouldn’t pay if you are getting services from Child Find. But my SLP said we could probably “double dip”. I just don’t want to jeopardize us getting the private and not sure it’s worth the risk to go back to Child Find at this critical juncture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, refuse Child Find - they will push you to use them first but if you refuse and say its not 1-1 services and group and you want your child in 1-1 intensive they will do it. But, they are required to push Infant and Toddler and Child Find first but its fine to refuse it.

If a kid is 3.5, they are ineligible for infant & toddlers. If you are offered ST through childfind, op, I would take them regardless of what form they take. It’s about getting a foot in the door.

You are missing the point. OP can just do private speech. If she can get the referral authorized they are very generous and offer several times a week. There is no comparison to private and public services. You don't take which ever, you do both or just trircare. If you tell tricare you will go with child find you will get denied.

If you read the original post it says nothing about childfind or Mcps so you’re “point” is coming from left field. Regardless it’s an odd one. Never said not to do private or even to seek public services. Op, if you ever get offered ST services through the public school, never turn them down. Many people have to fight tooth and nail for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, refuse Child Find - they will push you to use them first but if you refuse and say its not 1-1 services and group and you want your child in 1-1 intensive they will do it. But, they are required to push Infant and Toddler and Child Find first but its fine to refuse it.

If a kid is 3.5, they are ineligible for infant & toddlers. If you are offered ST through childfind, op, I would take them regardless of what form they take. It’s about getting a foot in the door.

You are missing the point. OP can just do private speech. If she can get the referral authorized they are very generous and offer several times a week. There is no comparison to private and public services. You don't take which ever, you do both or just trircare. If you tell tricare you will go with child find you will get denied.

Anonymous wrote:OP, refuse Child Find - they will push you to use them first but if you refuse and say its not 1-1 services and group and you want your child in 1-1 intensive they will do it. But, they are required to push Infant and Toddler and Child Find first but its fine to refuse it.

If a kid is 3.5, they are ineligible for infant & toddlers. If you are offered ST through childfind, op, I would take them regardless of what form they take. It’s about getting a foot in the door.

OP, refuse Child Find - they will push you to use them first but if you refuse and say its not 1-1 services and group and you want your child in 1-1 intensive they will do it. But, they are required to push Infant and Toddler and Child Find first but its fine to refuse it.

Anonymous wrote:Try Feldman ent. They have a booth. It may be covered through your insurance rather than going to a speech therapist, e.g. TLC.

I'm not about how military insurance works, but ours did not pay much of anything for ST. It would have if we had an autism diagnosis but we didn't.

If they have it on base, you have to have a good reason to be referred out to get it approved. Walter Reed has several really nice booths but they are scary for little kids the first time. They will keep working with OP till they are successful. We have done it multiple times there. Staff is good.