2 out of 7

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Language is where it all started.

When BW turned 2, he only said a few words.  We put him in private speech therapy at age 2 1/2, and when he turned 3, he started receiving services through the school district.  We still continued private therapy until almost kindergarten.  We figured – the more intervention – the better.  But it was not without sacrifice.  When BW was 2 1/2, we two 1-year-olds.  Do you know how much work it is to take 3 kids under 3 to a therapy appointment? In the cold snowy icy winter? Twice a week? And do you know how much it costs to have a child in private therapy?  Let’s just say we hit our deductible every year.

So, we relied solely on the school’s therapy for a few years.  In 3rd grade, when we requested a new school evaluation, his speech therapist called me one day to say she’d like to add some articulation testing to his evaluation because she noticed he wasn’t saying his /r/ sound correctly.

I literally could not believe what I had just heard!  The trained professional that had been working with him all year (it was April) had not noticed he couldn’t say his /r/ sound correctly until that day!  I immediately got him in private therapy again, and we will continue for however long it takes.

Here are some more reasons why (most of this I was complete unaware of until I really started being pushy  asking questions):

1.  The school’s therapist hardly ever works with just one student at a time.  This is great for kids with social skills goals, which generally fall into the speech therapist’s lap, but not great for kids who are working on articulation.  Sometimes my kid is working with as many as three other students who likely have different goals.
2. Getting the children from class, settled, and returning them to class are all part of the precious “direct service minutes” that us parents fight for.
3. Let’s just say there is a high correlation between kids who both need speech services and have emotional/behavioral needs.  When therapy happens in groups, this can affect the productivity of the group.
4. I have lost count of how many different therapists my son has worked with in the same school.  Some of these changes are unavoidable; some are avoidable.  In private therapy, BW has had three therapists in five combined years and one of those changes was initiated by me.  Every change slows progress.
5. Zero accountability.  Private therapists have to keep data-driven records and quarterly reports to justified continued services to insurance companies.  School therapist’s records, from my personal experience, are far less data driven.  Private therapists give me a brief oral summary at the end of every session.  With school-based therapy, I get very limited communication.  On more than one occasion, BW’s therapist even changed and I was not made aware of the change until the next IEP meeting.
6. 2 out of 7.  As in, my child actually received only 2 out of 7 of his last sessions of school-based therapy.  That’s 28%.  That’s an F.  This is not because I didn’t make sure he was there.  I made sure he was there for every appointment that wasn’t cancelled- by the therapist- ahead of time.  This does not even take into account that we had days off from school (for winter break).  And the really sad thing is that I probably would have no clue that these sessions were not happening if I was not specifically asking each time if it happened.  I mean, really, how many parents specifically ask their kid each day, “Did you meet with your speech therapist for 30 minutes today, as stated in your IEP?”  For years, I didn’t.  But now that I do, what kind of responses do I get from the therapist when I fire off a strongly-worded email?  “Oh, sorry, I’ve had an unusual number of meetings interfere with his sessions this month.” One day last week I took BW to school specifically for his speech appointment and he came home and told me he “hung out” in the resource room and played computer because the therapist “wasn’t there”.  It turns out the therapist was there, she just “must have missed him when she was returning another student to class.” What?  And you didn’t go look for him? 

This is my kid.  This is your tax dollars.  This is not good enough.