★★★★★
When I noticed that my two year old was not speaking as clearly as his older brother had at his age, I decided to call for an evaluation by the Early Intervention team in our area. A date was scheduled for the team (a physical therapist, a speech therapist, and a special education teacher) to come out to our house to interact with us. While the physical therapist and speech teacher interacted somewhat with my two-year-old, they soon saw that there were no concerns within those areas of his development. His speech, on the other hand, received the majority of their evaluation. However, after tallying up the composite score on his speech assessment, he technically did not qualify to receive services because his high scores in the areas of “social communication” and “receptive language” skewed the lower score of “speech clarity.” In other words, because he was able to understand what was spoken to him, follow multi-step commands, point to objects, and get his point across, those strengths compensated quite a bit for his lack of clear output. Technically, he did not NEED speech therapy.
At this point, the team seemed to gauge my opinion as a parent. Is his lack of clear speech causing him frustration? Is it causing the family frustration? Is it frustrating to people outside of the home? Would the mother like to have more tools with which to help him develop his speech? After they determined that we would really appreciate the speech therapy for our son and tips and pointers on how to work with him on developing clarity of speech, they put in a call to their supervisor and asked if they could pull out the lower score of “speech clarity” and make an IEP (Individualized Education Program) for our two-year-old’s speech clarity in order to provide services for him. After consent, they wrote up several goals for him to achieve within a quarter of a year. As the quarter nears, his progress on the goals is assessed and new goals are written.
As part of the Early Intervention program, the speech therapist visits the home weekly. After the initial evaluation, we were asked what day of the week and time of the day we prefer. Upon hearing our preference, they lined us up with a speech therapist who had a similar opening in her schedule.
Since Early Intervention in our area transitions to IU13 once a child turns three, they have helped us to transition into IU13 (these Intervention Units differ in name across the state and country) which is designed to give students instruction within our local school system. Again, we had an initial evaluation, asked if we want the services, and set up an instruction time. The main difference in the IU13 program is that I will need to take him to their office (about three minutes from our house). This instruction time slot each week is a half hour and more instruction-focused, less play-focused. As the parent, I can either take the rest of my children along and wait outside the room or leave them with their father and accompany my son into the instruction area.
For us, a typical speech visit is about an hour in length; and it includes chatting with the parent on how the child’s week was, interactive play with the child, and speech instruction. While the speech therapist gives a short section of speech instruction each week, it is really throughout the week that the parent needs to take the time to practice what was learned/ worked on during the time with the speech therapist. This can be typically be completed with a few focused minutes throughout the day and within your normal day-to-day communication with your child.
They wanted a report of a recent wellness visit from my child’s doctor, a copy of his birth certificate, and signed forms. As with any government process, there are a lot of legal forms such as parent consent, authorization to release information, parent’s rights agreement, and permission to evaluate and then re-evaluate. If you live in PA, you can find all the forms (and many that won’t be needed for your specific case) at this website.
I did not find the paperwork or signing up process to be cumbersome. The secretary was most helpful and was not overly concerned that I did not have his birth certificate since it was enroute to the passport office at that time.
Not exactly. While a healthcare provider or other professional can refer a child to Early Intervention, the parent or primary caregiver is the only one who can give consent for evaluation and services.
Yes, according to studies, the brain is the most malleable within the first three years of life. You want to try to catch any type of learning disability or difficulty as young as possible.
However, late is still better than never. If you have concerns about a child’s development, it is never too late to reach out for an evaluation. The public school system is required to give a free evaluation up to 18 years old. While they are not required to provide free services for you if you choose to enroll your child for private education, they are always required to give all students free screenings and evaluations. You can then use that recommendation or evaluation as a starting point with the teachers/tutors in the private school your child is enrolled in or you can hire private services/tutoring at the location of your choice.
If you are a teacher, you know there is a delicate balance between supporting a family without usurping the authority or responsibility of a parent. It is the parent’s main job to care and provide for their children. The teacher is to walk alongside them and assist in the educational role. In a healthy family situation, a parent will know their child better than any teacher will. However, the teacher has a unique perspective as they see many children enter their doors year after year. Because they have seen multiple children from multiple homes in academic situations, a teacher can often spot or sense a disability or lack of development in a certain area before a parent may be aware of it.
As a community of people who are all working together to better equip the next generation for God’s work, we all have a responsibility to speak into those lives. Here are tips for teachers for approaching a parent about concerns you have for their child:
Yes, my two-year old has made significant progress in his speech clarity. Typically, when he has mastered a sound or other clarity concept during focused practice time, it will take about three to four weeks before I hear him use the concept/sound correctly in his own speech while playing or in other casual conversation. For example, he has had trouble saying his brother’s full name “Cameron” and would use the name he has called him since he first began to talk: “Fam.” About two months ago, he started correctly saying “Cameron” when we practiced with him. But it wasn’t until about a month ago that he was trying to get his brother’s attention while his brother was on the back porch by calling him “Fam.” When his brother didn’t respond, I heard him switch and say “Cameron.” His practice had finally transferred into learned behavior. In Early Intervention, you do not typically see immediate progress; but yes, in the long-term, he has made significant progress.
Would have he made this progress without Early Intervention? Possibly. I do not know. We do not have a clone of our son that we could have given one the services of Early Intervention and not the other in order to conduct a true science experiment. But we are grateful for the service, and recommend it to others!
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