can we talk speech therapy?

[hilwithonelary]

DS (2 yrs 8 months) just finished up his second week of speech therapy (going twice a week). Currently, he has about 40 words and no 2 word phrases. I was wondering if anyone could share their experiences.

Did you sit in at first? How long before your DC would go in by his/herself? DS's therapist said that usually she has the parent sit in for a couple weeks, but then she likes to get the parent out of the room if possible. I'm fine with this, but today's performance indicated DS is not nearly ready for that yet.

How long before you noticed some improvement? I know this isn't going to be an quick fix, but I'm hopeful we'll make some progress within a couple months.

Did you incorporate signs as well as speech? Did your DC tend to pick up the signs before being able to say the words?

Anything else you'd like to share?

ETA: She said that she tends to get more out of the sessions when the parents aren't there. She said that children seem to rely on their parents to communicate for them, but when the parents are absent, the child has to communicate for himself. This made sense to me, so I didn't know this might be abnormal. There are 3 SLPs at the center we're going to, and so far I've noticed that all the other children go back by themselves.

[Deleted]

No parents in the room? That seems strange to me, although DD is younger - and started at 15 mos. Speech therapy has really = training for us because it's all about repetition. Also, I don't have any experience with private speech therapy since DD qualified for IE and IE requires that it be in home (which I love!).

As for experience - it's been fabulous. It's basically just playtime for DD. She loves it. And it's given us a lot of tools. Our focus was different because we were starting from a different place at a much younger age. I can't say how long it will take - every kid is different - but DD has continued to progress. She close to age level in a lot of things now, although her ability to pronounce a lot of sounds is still behind age.

[dcrunnergirl]

We started speech at 18m for both DD and DS. DH or I participate in every session. Our county emphasizes that the services are for the child but more importantly, they are for the parent to learn the exercises and activities that can encourage speech. They also go to daycare if you want so your DCP can learn the activities (but we haven't done that). After every session, our SLP gives us "homework" to work on between appts.

I'll just tell you our experience with DS b/c honestly I don't think DD really needed speech, and she's currently exceeding her age and really doesn't need speech anymore.

When DS started at 18m, he had zero words and had the receptive language of a less than 10-month old. He simply didn't understand/pay attention to anything we said. We had his hearing tested, and he failed the first time but passed with flying colors the second time. They think the first time was a fluke b/c he was so tired after waiting 90 minutes in a tiny waiting room and missing his nap while DD was tested.

With their delays, the country approved him and DD for speech every other week (so each kid gets 2 sessions/month). Within the first two appointments, we saw huge improvements. Around 20m, DS had a language explosion, some of which might have happened naturally, but I also contribute to therapy. By 2 years old, he had/has hundreds of words and his receptive language is probably now only slightly behind. He's starting lots of two word phrases based on the activities in speech, and is doing great. Overall, it's been such a wonderful experience. We love our SLP. I can't even say her name b/c the kids get so upset that she can't over RIGHT AWAY the second I mention her. And, I love that I have someone to bounce my concerns and questions off of.

We didn't incorporate signs at home beyond 1-2 activities that our SLP gave us. We tried the Baby Signing Time DVDs a few times, but honestly, DH and I just never got around to doing the signs with the kids, so we gave up.

If you have anymore questions, I'm happy to answer.

[af1212]

My daughter doesn't receive SLT, but my best friend's little boy does. He started when he was a bit older than two, and the therapist came to the house to work with him there. When he turned three, they started bringing him to the therapist instead, and that's when he would go back by himself and she would wait for him outside.

We all noticed improvement pretty quickly, but I can't remember exactly how long. He started with therapy for language and articulation.

He is now almost 7, and still receives services for articulation only. His errors are pretty significant. He also qualified for summer school with the speech therapist the year before he started Kindergarten, and an extended school day after he was in Kindergarten (it was half day, and he stayed for an extra 45 minutes twice a week).

[Deleted]

My DD1 was first evaluated at 3yrs old....I did not stay for the testing but waited in the waiting room. She tested within "normal" at the time. Fast forward about 2yrs & her speech was still not very clear. I had her evaluated again & she did now require ST. The testing & therapy was done in the ST office while I waited in the waiting room. It was fine by me, my DD1 is easily distracted & I would not help. After therapy, the ST would go over what they worked on & basically give us homework to do at home. DD1 had ST 2-3 times a week at first, then eventually it went down to 1 time a week until she was caught up. It took roughly 1 yr. My DD1's issue was mainly due to her poor phonetic awareness & inability to clearly say the "l", "r" & some of the S-blend sounds. Her Speech therapist also was the first to alert me to the concern of dyslexia...She reversed sounds in words (poor phonetic awareness) long before she wrote/read enough to do the same (which she did eventually) in them. I am super thankful to the ST--my DD was treated for Dyslexia at K-1st grade (which is super early) & was essentially "cured" (as in caught up & compensating to the point of reading normally) by the end of 1st grade.

[twodogsandababy]

DS's speech therapy was done in a classroom like environment with a small class. He started at about 12 months and we just recently transitioned out. I loved the way that they did it. The class had about 5 kids on average and sometimes kids with out speech delays would join in from another classroom to give the delayed children something to model. The parents stayed in the class and participated in each activity with the kids. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of times both parents would be there if they could. The class was taught by two speech therapist and an OT that worked on movement. They focused the class on music a lot. It worked really well for my son and he learned so much, very quickly. An excellent experience and I can't say enough good things about the teachers, centers, or program!

[dochas]

My son started around 20 months and it took some time to see improvement. He is 26 months now and I am always in the room with him. Maybe it's a different technique because your son is starting a bit older? But part of his improvement comes from me learning the techniques and being there to see exactly how to work with him. The 2 hours he spends with them is multiplied many times by me being able to continue it daily. And tell my husband how we can continue it.

One thing that occurs to me - maybe they just said that in case you are the kind of parent that interferes with the therapy? I never tried to answer for my son or explain things but the therapists have told me that does happen. Maybe they are just trying to set up a way to get you out of the picture in case you prove to be a disruption? NOT saying that you are, but I know they walk into all kinds of situations.

[mollybrown]

That sounds kind of odd to me. My son is almost 4, and only recently have I not stayed for his sessions. That's only because he's starting to fool around, and his SLP finds that in those cases it is sometimes better if there isn't a parent in the room to show off for. My son started speech at 18 months, and it was infinitely helpful for me to be present. Watching the activities his therapists did with him, and being able to hear what they heard (or didn't hear) from him has helped me help him. I almost never talk during the session, unless the therapist asks a question. My son generally ignores me. My son's first SLP was very clear that speech therapy is for the PARENT, so that we could learn how to support his language development in the 167 hours a week that she wasn't present.

Progress was slow for my son, but it turns out he had undiagnosed hearing loss for the first year. Once that problem was resolved, he made tons of progress fairly quickly. He's still behind, and I don't see him being done with speech for a while. We did start with signs, since he had no words. We phased out the signs once he had the ability to communicate basic needs. How fast you see progress will really depend on what his issue is.

For my son's first year year in speech, we had to fight for every word. We'd teach him the sign, reward him for using it, teach him the word, stop responding to the sign and only acknowledge the word, reward him for the word. Rinse and repeat.

I'm sending you a PM.

[Deleted]

DS2 started speech when he was about 16/17 mos. He got his referral at 15 mos.

EI came to our house twice a week for a hour. Our front parlor has glassed doors and that's where they would work. I wasn't in the room.

He's now 6 and still in speech. He gets speech through school and I have no clue how they do it there. He also gets private speech therapy for pragmatics. I take him the the therapists office. THere is a two way window so I can look in, but he can't see me.

DS made wonderful progress. So much that by the time he was 2.5 EI said they had basically done as much as they could do because Articulation isn't covered until 3 when they become the school's issue. At 2.5 we moved him to a SpEd/Inclusion preschool that was awesome so he was still getting speech just not as intensive. When he turned 3 the school district started coming to his montessori school and providing him with speech twice a week for 1 hour.

[birdmom]

Oct 11, 2012 20:22:02 GMT -5 dochas said:

My son started around 20 months and it took some time to see improvement.

DS is 20 months now, and he has maybe 20 words, a few two word phrases, lots of animal sounds and a few signs. I'm concerned that that's not on target. Where was your DS at, word-wise, at 20 months that you started therapy?

[ijack]

we started really young so I was always with DD, but if she was older I know it would have worked best for me to not be with her.