speech therapy-input greatly appreciated
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| Mon, 11-20-2006 - 9:57am |
DS age 6 has been going to Speech Therapy privately for abot 8 months now. We live in Il and are using Easter Seals. Our insurance has consistently denied tha claims no matter how creative we have been and that is with our dr, speech therapist and Easter Seals billing working together. It's alot of money out of pocket but the benefits have bneen great. I don't have the money-we're playing the credit card balance transfer game and paying as we can...
The speech therapist (who I adore) is working on pragmatic speech, emotional literacy, and tongue and jaw issues. She suggested that she continue to work only on the tongue /jaw issues and that we meet seperatley with an intern working on her masters for the pragamtic and emotional literacy parts. The intern would be FREE because she is there on a grant. We would have access to her until summer. Although I would be paying out of pocket for speech still, the theory is that he would progress faster because it is more focused time and in the long run it would lead to less $$. Thoughts?
Ideas on what to ask the intern? The emotional literacy stuff has made such an improvement on his being able to handle his emotions and how to make differnt choices and throwing and hiting isn't his first choice anymore. He would instantly go to rage when angry with no warning and there was no talking about it until he was done and then to talk about it would bring on another rage. Now, his first reaction is still to clench those fists and he sweats but he with guidance he will find a better way to deal. I am just afraid of messing with a good thing.
I know many of you have done the therapy thing so much longer than I and I could use some input here. Heather

Hi Heather,
The plan you outline sounds good to me. We are in the same position in that our insurance also denies ST/OT claims.
I don't know much about the tongue/jaw issues, but I would say use the ST for the more complex problem and like she said, let her focus on that.
Our son (age 4) has private ST and our ST does spend a lot of time on emotion management. But we also have our son in a group pragmatics class that is much cheaper and that works fine. In fact, I think it is good for them to get used to relating to different people.
Katherine
Our ST and OT claims have been denied as well. Our insurance won't even pay for the therapy for swallowing issues or feeding issues-- but will for a stroke patient! grr! Our school district st has worked w/ our son on lots of these same issues and he's come a long way. We have even had extra one on one services which are not common in our school district.
I think the way you outlined the plan sounds good. Getting more therapy for the same price sounds good to me! I also like the idea of a grad student working with an ASD child! Maybe having a few appointments with both therapists would be a good idea so your child gets used to the new one while the one he knows is there. Also, you might come up w/ more questions for her as he works through the transition.
Betsy