How much therepy is enough therepy?

Sophia - posted on 10/04/2012

ben need to go to a daycare for children with special needs... this way at 5 his speech will be better.the only thing is (speech ) try not being able to talk or explain yourself then you would see speech is a big part of life. kids cant enjoy the park or other kids or party or get or keep friends if they cant talk. so dont worry what they say.. do the right thing.

Fern - posted on 08/09/2009

Hi, my name is Fern. I am a 44 year old mom of 4 boys. Two of them were perfectly normal and on the gifted side. The other two have both had apraxia with low oral muscle tone. The first son who had it is now 21 years old and the other is 2, almost 3. Ben, the two year old, is getting therapy through Early Childhood Intervention. This is a federally funded program available in every state. Each state runs the program based on Federal requirements, but are allowed to run it as they see fit. I say that simply because what my state does may be slightly different than yours. Ben barely had 10-20 words last Nov. when I made the referral and they assessed him. His therapist comes every two weeks and teaches me what to do and I work with him every day. I don't sit down except at bedtime and officially do his therapy, I encorporate into everyday activities. That way he gets direction all day long without thinking he is in therapy all the time. This is the best approach from what I have read and know (I am a nurse and have been in the medical field for 25 years), because kids learn best in thier own environment, particularly before age 3. Once kids reach age 3, they are no longer eligible for Early Intervention. Your therapist and/or local program should have made a referral to your local school system. Some schools will automatically enroll them in therapy based on the referral from their current therapist, but many want to do their own eval. My school did their own eval. They broke a lot of rules and I had to make them redo the eligibility meeting (that's a story for another day) to get him approved for their programs. He now has an IEP that will follow him as long as he is eligible for special education services. They usually reevaluate every 3 years. We had two choice for therapy. Either I take him to the school once a week for 30 minutes of one-on-one therapy or he goes once a week for 3 hours in a preschool modeled program with other kids (no more than 5-6 kids) and while they are there, they get 30 minutes of individual therapy with the therapist. I felt the preschool type program would be the best option. I had planned to keep him in Early Intervention until he was 3, but this preschool program starts the week of Sept. 8th. We decided he would adapt easier if he started at the same time as the other kids. He has a couple more sessions with his therapist here at home before Sept. He has increased his vocabulary to close to 50 words and is starting to put 2 and even 3 word sentences together. However, many things are still unclear and all vowels. He understands everything you say and even things you wouldn't expect a child his age to know, so the school assumed at first that his speech wasn't that bad. I had to push them to hear what his speech therapist had to say and had to explain my concerns and what we are seeing at home. Then they finally got that he has a true speech delay and its not a simple developmental delay, its a neurological disorder that obviously runs in our family.



So to answer your question, no I don't think therapy more often will be beneficial as long as you are working with him at home. What other questions do you have? I would be happy to tell you what's worked for us and what my experience has been with this disorder.