Let's talk about - Speech Therapy...Next steps

Speech therapy. It is a hot topic among today's parents, with both schools and pediatricians highlighting the need for early intervention of anything that interferes with a child's ability to learn and communicate.

In our last post, we discussed how you might discover whether you should be concerned about your child's speaking ability, as well as some stories from local parents who have addressed those concerns. In this post, we take on the next steps...how to get a proper diagnosis and what speech therapy will look like.

Ashley Miller, an Edmond mom and nationally certified speech-language pathologist who works with children in our area, emphasized, "Early intervention is the absolute key!" She said if you have any concerns about how your child is functioning in four areas - articulation, expressive and/or receptive language, fluency, or voice (see previous post for descriptions) - there are free resources to address concerns.

"For children ages 0-3, SoonerStart evaluations are available free of charge through state and federal funding. SoonerStart evaluations include assessment across all areas of functioning. For children ages 3-21, your local school district is responsible for assisting families with concerns." Miller recommends that you contact your local school building or district’s ChildFind office to talk to someone about screenings and/or evaluations. She also says discussing these concerns with your pediatrician is important. She encouraged those looking for more information regarding typical development and identification of communication disorders to visit identifythesigns.org.

For Edmond mom Julie Butler, the process was pretty straightforward. "Our pediatrician recommended the place where we are. I called them and set up an evaluation. It lasted an hour and the therapist spoke with me afterwards about the findings and her recommendations." At that point, the Butlers and the therapist set goals that are reviewed every 6 months and adjusted accordingly.

For Jessica Toman, a mom of two young children who take speech therapy at Can Do Kids in Edmond, the process was a little more complicated. "For my daughter we learned that the school system would test her, but not until she was 3. Three was the magic age where we could get a hearing test at the doctor also." She mentioned that some libraries set up testing dates during the summer, but they were out of town at the time. Toman did have her daughter tested that fall at the 3-year mark, and the doctor referred them to Can Do Kids. "We have had a wonderful experience there...my daughter and son were given an hour-long test to determine their needs, and next a request was made to the insurance company to say speech would benefit my child." A plan was set up and Toman's daughter went a year for two weekly appointments, which has since dropped down to once a week.

For both mothers, speech therapy has been an interesting experience, one that has challenged their expectations of the process. According to Butler--

"Since my daughter's issues were not as much speech related as language related, I wasn't sure what good 'speech' would do her. But I have very been surprised at what they cover and work on. She is given gym time to help her socialization skills and they incorporate technology and play to help her achieve her set goals. The therapist always visits with me after a session to tell me what they worked on and how my daughter did. I ask questions on how we can work on things at home and tell her what issues we are seeing that we would like addressed."

Toman has also been pleasantly surprised. "I went to speech a couple years during grade school.  It was a little different than my experience. They [the kids] are younger and don’t just go over flash cards. They utilize a small gym, play games, use the iPad, and other activities to involve the kids in communication and pronunciation."

Stay tuned next week as we discuss speech therapy expectations and outcomes!