Preschool teacher suggested a therapist

amother

Thu, Dec 18 2014, 11:53 am

First of all I dont know why it bothers me but you keep on saying your child needs a therapist.
Your child doesnt need a therapist your child possibly needs therapy.

(sorry had to get that off of my chest.)

Many BRIGHT children are taking OT, Speech, etc. I know someone who was delayed for services for a full year BECAUSE she is so bright. The evaluator said she is too smart to get speech, meanwhile she was 2 and not even saying 3 words.

It doesnt hurt other than "wasting" time if you were to get your child evaluated. "Worst Case Scenario" you wasted an hour or two of your and your child's life. If something is concerning you will be happy to have found out so it can be dealt with early and at very little cost to you.

You can talk to the pediatrician as well how to go about getting evaluated. I do not live in NY but from what I understand the evaluator will come to your house or even do the evaluation in school.

There is NOTHING wrong with being a shy quiet child. No one is suggesting that. When children are little it's hard to differentiate between normal or abnormal shy/quiet. The problem is when it is easy to see the difference at ages 8/9/10 it is "too" late to fix it. At that point your child may have to miss A LOT of school for sessions and they'll be missing important skills being taught during class time. At that age your child may have a harder time finding friends because "groups" have already formed, etc

Scrabble123

Thu, Dec 18 2014, 11:54 am

amother wrote:

Yes, America (NY in particular) tends to be a little trigger-happy with the therapies, but they do a MUCH better job at catching things early which leads to much better outcomes.

I do not know if this is still the case today, but 20 years ago when my mother wanted speech therapy for my brother who had a NY accent, the therapists told her that for his specific needs, waiting until age 5 was not only appropriate, but preferred. They stated that people who wanted to receive free services applied before age 5 which was not always to the benefit of the child. Honestly, I'm pretty ignorant in this area, and I am just repeating what I have heard.. My question is: early intervention is obviously appropriate and more effective was necessary, but do you also feel that sometimes people are trigger happy because they want to not have to pay out of pocket? Or does this question belong to a spinoff?

amother

Thu, Dec 18 2014, 12:04 pm

Scrabble123 wrote:

First of all, I don't know if you can really compare your brother's experience to those of kids who really need speech therapy. Even in NY, where they hand out therapy like candy, they are not going to approve it when the only concern is "talking with a funny accent". We are talking about real issues- in communicating, understanding, interacting with others. Sometimes the issues are mild, or borderline. That is the case with the child of mine that gets services. Mild delays that may very well have resolved given time, though probably significantly more than it took to get him up to speed with therapy. But the evaluators saw enough to warrant therapy. By trigger-happy, I mean everyone- the parents, but also the people who approve the therapy (and believe me, THEY don't want to have to spend more money). I think people do sometimes obsess over nothing, but sometimes it's really hard to tell what's nothing and what's something. It's a judgment call.

GoldFlowers

Thu, Dec 18 2014, 12:08 pm

Scrabble123 wrote:

This is an area where things changed TREMENDOUSLY in 20 years, at least in NY. Even now though, the age that speech will be given is dependent on the issue. A child with physical issues might get speech from birth, a child who doesn't say any words might qualify at 18 months, and a child who talks with a lisp would probably need to wait until 5, cuz before that a lisp is considered normal.

Ruchel

Thu, Dec 18 2014, 12:51 pm

I'm the first to say French pros can be outdated because to quote them "I don't know English" or even "I don't read American studies, it's weird there". I read the English thing when I want infos, not the 10/20 yr old French study LOL

But between NY (not commenting on OOT, I don't read about how they do) and Paris I'll take Paris way. I am scared by all those diagnoses, meds, therapies. Therapy for an accent? Ok, colour me traumatized.

Early is better but not everyone agrees early is BABY. Speech from birth? How is that even possible?

MaBelleVie

Thu, Dec 18 2014, 1:01 pm

Ruchel wrote:

Speech therapists often work on feeding. Many babies are born with various syndromes or other disorders that affect their ability to suck/feed properly. So yeah, you could put in a feeding tube- or you can try intensive therapy to keep the child on an oral diet. Just one example.

amother

Thu, Dec 18 2014, 1:08 pm

Ruchel wrote:

I agree that Americans go overboard sometimes, but the French attitude, especially toward autism, is shameful (Ruchel, I know you're a bit of an iconoclast over there, so I don't mean you ;-) ) Also, speech from birth usually happens for babies who they KNOW will need all the help they can get- Downs Syndrome, micro-preemies etc. My cousin was born at 28 weeks and suffered strokes and seizures the first two weeks of her life. They didn't know if she'd ever walk or talk. She b'h just completed her Masters in special ed and is getting married in a few months. She walks with braces, but that's better than a walker or wheelchair. Having therapy from the start was definitely a factor.