Ok…here are my suggestions for those who are concerned about small kids and their sound productions in particular.
If the parents choose to, they should contact the primary school speech language pathologist to discuss their concerns. Public school SLPs are very happy to answer questions, and provide guidance on what to do next.
Every state has an early intervention way of providing services to students who are not yet eligible for school age services. In some states this is under three, and others under 5. Regardless, your public school therapist will be able to refer you to the appropriate contact people for your area.
To receive services, the child must be evaluated and determined to be eligible for these services.
If the child is eligible for speech services, goals will be set, and the frequency and length of time for each session will be determined by the team. Parents included.
Parents are the ones who must make these requests. As public school SLPs, we cannot give any specific information to grandparents. I have given out developmental communication information, but that’s it. This is a confidentiality issue.
There is a pretty broad range of typical sound acquisition. Unfortunately, the very normal kids on the slower end of this are compared to those on the higher end.
We have 144 sounds in the English language. If your child is making one wrong, that will stick out, but it doesn’t mean it’s a disability. Your local SLP can guide you.
Communication is a two way street. It needs to be positive, and positively reinforcing for the child.
It is important to remember that all children are different, and variability of skills is common. Many sounds are developmental.
It is also important to distinguish between the medical model and the educational model. Qualifying for services in a hospital or private practice does not mean that the child will qualify in the public schools. There needs to be an educational impact in order to receive school based speech therapy. Educational impact is not limited to academics- there might also be a social impact etc.
For preschool, there needs to be a 25% delay in 2 areas (ie speech and OT, speech and PT, etc) or a 33% delay in 1 area. I believe this is true nationally.
SLPs often see progress long before others do. This is because we build on skills and see small changes that might not be evidenced yet in class.
Public school speech therapy is no longer for articulation disorders. It is now for communication disorders - so if your school aged child’s speech is insufficient for effective communication, they’re eligible. If they have a horrible articulation disorder but their speech is intelligible, no free speech therapy.
My recommendation is that if your child has an articulation disorder beyond the age of 6 (most have resolved by then), and the school deems them ineligible, seek out private speech therapy. It’s worth it!
In California, speech and language services for children, under the age of 18, are provided for FREE by the school district. At risk children can receive services, up to the age of 23. At risk adults can receive vocational training and guidance without an age limit.
I am assuming, that in most large states, funding for speech and language services is free or on a sliding fee scale.
Sometimes the school district is behind in assessments, so a number of parents choose to go through their insurance companies.
Typically, depending on who you are insured with, there’s a limited number of sessions. Since I am a California speech therapist (retired) I often recommended that the children use their 30 sessions per year, during the summer (or holiday breaks) with their clinicians at the hospitals and clinics. Throughout the year, they could use our public school services.
A number of private, nonprofits provide speech and language services for free, or on a sliding fee scale. These include places like: Easter Seals, Lions Club, Military hospitals and clinics, Children’s hospitals and clinics, and a number of the large public universities. etc.
This is not always true. As I said, an unusual sound substitution is different than one what is a typical one. We also look at the developmental sequence of sound development and compare that to what the kid is doing at their age. Plus, how can a kid have a “horrible articulation disorder” and be intelligible?
Articulation therapy can be provided in the public school if there is an educational impact. For example, if the child is embarrassed to raise their hand, if the teacher states that he/she cannot understand the child while reading, asking questions, etc.
If there is a substitution error such as th/s but the child does not exhibit an educational impact, then the child will not qualify for school based services.
Note: schools are now required to provide RTI prior to evaluating a child (under the guidance of an SLP). RTI is provided by the teacher, who takes data, and after a period of time (ie 4-6 weeks) the team meets again to determine if the trial therapy, provided by the teacher, helped. I am not a fan of this for a variety of reasons…but a trial period of RTI needs to be documented.
For school based special education speech services, federal law MANDATES that this is done at no cost to the family.
For those services for kids not yet school age eligible, some places do use a sliding scale for services…but where I am, evaluations are all at no cost for this population.
I agree about RTI- that is one of the problems. When I evaluate a child I am required to document what the classroom teacher did prior to the evaluation. The idea is - if it helps, we continue and therefore the child does not need to be evaluated at that point. I don’t like it, but have to do it.
Good point, but there are kids who have serious articulation problems, but you can still understand them. However, if this persists into adulthood, it is the first thing anyone notices about them when they open their mouths.
When kids have serious articulation problems - the teachers, at least here, are pretty good about giving me a statement about educational impact.
Is the student intelligible while reading? Does the articulation impact spelling? Is he/she understood by peers? Does he/she appear to be self conscious?
I had speech “class” in school when I was in second grade. I lisped & needed to work on pronunciation of the s sound. Would that no longer happen? Or is that still considered important enough to address at school? (I certainly would have had issues had I not had speech therapy!)
Legally we need to show an educational impact. If the teacher tells me that she understands the child all the time, peers understand him/her, the child is not embarrassed etc…then no, speech therapy will not be provided (as a classified student). When I write my reports I always have to include what the educational impact is.
Some schools have what is called “building level services.” This means services without an IEP. I am allowed to do this to pick up some of these kids.
@kelsmom a single sound error like a lisp can usually be corrected with short term regular education interventions. I was allowed to do this…which also enabled me to collect data to see if the student was able to improve.
And what kind of lisp? A th for s sound…or a lateral lisp (a slushy sounding s sound)? Laterals seldom self correct…and tend to need some direct instruction.
Some states have eligibility guidelines. Where I live, for articulation ONLY special education speech services, a student has to have sound errors and intelligibility issues.
That would not happen nowadays. Me too! Thank God for that speech therapist. I got 6 years of it, all through elementary school, in a small group. And she was such a nice woman, it was more than speech therapy, it was psychotherapy, being with this nice lady once a week.
Yes, and unfortunately a problem with this requirement can be when teachers and peers understand the child (at least well enough), and the child is not embarrassed at the time, and only much later becomes embarrassed when the articulation problem persists into adolescence. When a 7 year old says wabbit instead of rabbit, people think it’s cute. Nobody thinks it’s cute anymore in a 17 year old, and at that age it can be harder to fix. It’s especially humiliating when your own name has an “R” sound, so you can’t even pronounce your own name!
Or a lateralized S. A person with this problem is completely intelligible, and may not even notice they have a problem. So no services. But if you don’t get it treated, it can keep you from certain professions (acting, announcing etc.) This is the issue with a close relative of mine.
Also schools vary in the quality and availability of their speech services. Different relative of mine: went throughout kindergarten without a single concern about speech being raised by the school. For first grade transferred to a new school where it was caught on Day 1 and child was started rapidly on services. Worked hard for the next 18 months and speech became intelligible. Child was then “graduated” from services…and backslid significantly over the next few months.
Long story short: I would get my kid evaluated early and hit it hard. The schools’ “good enough” is often not good enough.