You v. CDS?

[AnalogWife]

Yesterday DS, 2.75, had a speech evaluation from a place that CDS paid for but it is apparently a private audiology/slp business. I don't know if this is normal, or because we've been on the CDS waiting list for speech therapy.

Yesterday's SLP seemed rather disturbed that DS was on a waiting list for speech therapy (he gets EI visits weekly, has been slow but good for his overall communication development.) She said that she knew for certain that there were CDS-accessible SLPs available, that they wouldn't go to the home, but that I could bring him to their practice. I explained that he had one session with the CDS SLP but that the SLP left CDS to go work directly with the school system. Yesterday's SLP felt this was a great disservice to DS and said that he basically has a window of time for ST before things get more and more difficult for him. She said that the window would probably end around this coming August.

She won't be at the transition-to-3 meeting, she gave me the advice to be DS's advocate. That I should push for SLT, and for preschool before he's 3, that he needs it now. I've heard similar comments from his EI instructor and I too wish I could get him into two 3-hour preschool sessions per week.

Has anyone done this? Be an advocate for their child in the face of "procedures"? I'm ready to do it, obviously, but just checking on success stories or experience, etc. I'm pretty green still about the system. If it means anything, the SLT rated DS's expressive and receptive language at 12 to 18 months.

[HarperRose]

I found that just stating, "This is what other medical professional [names & position helps] have recommended. I think that's just what he needs. What do we need to do to implement that?" is a HUGE help. Suddenly doors open. You know?

[kme]

Yes, push, push, push for what your son needs!! My son "tested out" of special ed at age 4.5 and we were not able to retain his IEP based on his testing. This was good news and bad news. I knew he still needed services despite what the testing showed. Last year I was in the school every time he was eligible for a child study meeting pushing for futher testing and offering up testing done privately to back me up.

Finally, they agreed he did need special ed support and he began this year with an IEP. They never would have given it to him if I hadn't been in there every chance I got. Let me be clear, I was not demanding services that he wasn't eligible for and they didn't give him services to shut me up. He truly does need support, but tends to do well on strictly educational testing, even speech/language which was originally his area of greatest weakness. He needs help in areas they didn't look closely at like sensory processing and socialization. It helped to have his teacher agreeing with me too.

P.S. My son started ECSE at age 2.5 and made the greatest progress in the first year. He made tons of progess overall (as evidenced by his initially testing out at age 4.5). Early intervention is very important!!

[AnalogWife]

Thank you. I talked to his EI instructor today and she said that another evaluator also believed that speech therapy is what he primarily needs. She gave me a copy of her weekly writeup and it said that I was looking for ST/Preschool before he's 3...she seemed pretty supportive and optimistic, and said that she would bring it to the case manager before our Transition meeting in Feb. I feel very encouraged, and hopeful.

[AnalogWife]

Originally Posted by kme

P.S. My son started ECSE at age 2.5 and made the greatest progress in the first year. He made tons of progess overall (as evidenced by his initially testing out at age 4.5). Early intervention is very important!!

That's , good to hear it.