This is OP. Thank you all for sharing your responses. I have really enjoyed reading them. I'm not sure yet as to what we are going to do next, but I do appreciate all of your input.

OP, I could have written your post about 7 1/2 years ago. My twin boys (born 32 weeks) 30 days in NICU. Were both speech delayed according to my one son's Occupational Therapist. Both were evaluated and qualified for speech therapy. At the time I was speaking to my boys in my native language and my DH in English, the boys were saying about 10-15 words each at 16 months. We had to pay out of pocket $25 a kid or something because back then they did it according to your HHI. My boys were in speech for about 1 year, like you I didn't think they got much out of it. While they were progressing, I thought it was just with time and the interactions they were getting through playgroups and activities. I didn't like the therapist as she scolded me every time she came saying "if only you would speak one language to the boys it would make my job so much easier." The boys started pre-K at 2 1/2 I spoke to their teachers and both teachers said they were fine and that I could stop ST, best news I'd heard, so I did. They are now both doing extremely well in school and advanced.

Good luck to you and maybe you can take a couple of weeks off and see how it goes.

My DC did speech therapy for about a year and it was a lifesaver. We paid out of pocket and it was about 150/session.
The therapist helped with articulation but also diagnosed some nasal issues that our pediatrician had missed.
On the other hand, my DS has a classmate who is a rising 5th grader with such a strong lisp that hasn't been treated with speech therapy. B/c her parents didn't believe in the value of ST, she is now heading into the pre-teen years sounding childish and kind of silly. Other kids are starting to tease her and it is a real shame. A few months of ST at the right time would have cleared it up, now it would be much harder. Shortsighted.

Anonymous wrote:OP -- I don't think people should be calling you an idiot. I have a significantly speech impaired child who has been in ST for years. There was a period where ST helped tremendously. But my child has other things going on and for the past year, I have often felt our speech sessions are a waste of time, and wondered what they are actually doing, and why I'm spending the money on it.

+1 ditto here

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.

Anonymous wrote:SLT for young kids is often centered on training the muscles of the mouth. For those of you who believe it is useless for young kids because you didn't see results until 3 years old have you thought about what your child's speech would be if he/she didn't receive any intervention prior to that age? the work that seemed useless to you was actually training those muscles to work properly and then the progress could be made once the cognitive abilities started to kick in. If you were starting SLT at the age of 3 the therapist would have to re-train your child's mouth muscles. Also, for those who insist that blowing bubbles is useless try blowing bubbles for a long time and see how much of your mouth muscles are used - that is what will help your child in the long run. Muscle memory is hard to change and adapt once a child is older. A good therapist will have a varying degree of activities that the child should use in order to keep them engaged. I agree that if it is only blowing bubbles then it will get boring - they should be blowing whistles and other age-appropriate activities.

It depends on the child. It was useless for us. We can do bubble blowing without paying $120 an hour. Parents can easily do basic engagement. I want to pay for the specialized help and parent training to work at home. Now, at 3, it is worth it to have the help and support. Before then, it was good to get them used to the setting and working, but not for actual speech (and we love our therapist).

PP, thank you for posting. My DC also has MERLD, pretty severe. We have had periods of great progress in speech therapy, but we have also hit a wall and have felt like the sessions are a sham -- and i agree thats not the right word, but i understand what the OP is getting at. Speech therapists are everywhere and so many people are significantly helped by ST, so its frustrating to have a speech disorder that is such a tough nut to crack...

I have a severely speech delayed child with MERLD, and in my long experience (child is now 11), speech therapy can be a waste of time IF the therapist isn't doing a child-led therapy and focusing on your child's individual needs. Too often they are doing a one-size fits all therapy, and not really looking at a child's underlying issues, hence the lack of progress. Is your child's issues truly motor based, or something else, like receptive language? That makes a difference.

We were in Florida when my son was 2, and his therapy, paid for by the state, was twice a week in a therapist's private office. It was great, as he went from a handful of words to almost 100 in a year. He easily picked up nouns. Then we moved, and he started getting therapy through the school system, and we found very, very little progress there. It WAS a waste of time and a "sham" if you will. Unfortunately, it seems like many school based programs and EI are this way indeed.

So we went private, my son was (wrongly) was diagnosed with apraxia, and the (very nice) therapist started these sessions where she basically chased my child around and tried to get him to do what she wanted. She was not very successful. This went on for a year, before we decided to make the trip to Nashville and see Dr. Stephen Camarata. And boy was that eye-opening! And absolutely life-changing.

Dr. Camarata immediately told us our child's receptive language was so low, he had no idea what we were saying. We were way overtalking him. (The right utterance level is one word plus their current level of speech. If they are saying car, you say "Red car?") His wife Mary sent us home with a detailed plan of how to increase our child's language (we also got a normalization rate, which seems about right on target).


AND they watched a tape of our current speech therapy sessions, and told us it was a total waste of time. Mary Camarata also told us how to fix it. Luckily for us, the therapist listened to her advice, and the therapy sessions changed overnight. It was amazing to me that she had a masters and yet was still not trained in child-led speech therapy. Even the therapist was surprised at the change and the level of work she was able to get out of him when she met him as his level. We did continue a few years more, but stopped when my son hit about 2nd grade. He was exhausted after school and wasn't progressing with her anymore. We now focus on academics instead of speech, because his speech is coming in naturally.

OP, take a look at Dr. James McDonald Communicating Partners website and Hanen's "It Takes to to Talk." The truth is , parents are often the child's best therapists. You spend the most time with them!

I suppose if you don't think it's worth doing you should stop. It was a lifesaver for us. My son was a completely different kid after he learned how to communicate. We also learned he had medical issues (hearing problems) which we corrected. He has finally been discharged after two years and I thought it was totally worth it....can't imagine what our lives would be like had we not done it.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you need a new SLP.

Agree. Our private slp has done more for our kid than any other therapy provider. Now, OT...that's another story.

SLT for young kids is often centered on training the muscles of the mouth. For those of you who believe it is useless for young kids because you didn't see results until 3 years old have you thought about what your child's speech would be if he/she didn't receive any intervention prior to that age? the work that seemed useless to you was actually training those muscles to work properly and then the progress could be made once the cognitive abilities started to kick in. If you were starting SLT at the age of 3 the therapist would have to re-train your child's mouth muscles. Also, for those who insist that blowing bubbles is useless try blowing bubbles for a long time and see how much of your mouth muscles are used - that is what will help your child in the long run. Muscle memory is hard to change and adapt once a child is older. A good therapist will have a varying degree of activities that the child should use in order to keep them engaged. I agree that if it is only blowing bubbles then it will get boring - they should be blowing whistles and other age-appropriate activities.

I think that maybe your SLP or type of speech isn't a good fit, possibly?

Like a PP mentioned above, Hanen could be a great addition/supplement to your family's therapy plan? It really jump started my son's ability to communicate. It also helped me to enjoy parenting a lot more and have more fun playing with him and worrying less about words (those came later and keep coming!)

Good luck!

OP,

I would start socking away money now for neuropsych evaluations for your kids down the road (age 6 or older). If your oldest has articulation issues and your twins have speech delays, there's a chance that they all might have language-based learning issues.

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.

I don't think so ... both my kids had it and it helped tremendously. One kid had a disfluency (stutter) and the other some articulation issues.