Intro and Quest RE Kinderg. IEP

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone! I am a long time lurker living here in Phoenix, Arizona!

First off, I'd like to thank all the folks who created this forum

regarding verbal apraxia! I was elated that I fianlly found a source

of support AND info!

OK, here's my deal.. I am mom to a just turned 5 yr old son (DJ)

with verbal apraxia and that's it, no other underlying conditions. My

story with him is the same as many of you, where, back as early as 10-

12 months of age, you noticed something with the speech was " just not

right " . I too got the brush off with his pediatrition (whom we love)

but I insisted at 30 mos (doc tried to say wait until 3yrs) to get an

eval. and of course he had a speech delay! I was overwhelmed! Where

do I go, what do I do?

That was almost 3 yrs ago and he has since been in our school

district's special programs preschool, where he is finishing up his

second year with thereapy 2xs/wk in a group setting, (typical peers

and those with special needs-- most you can't even tell unless it is

physical) as well as private speech thereapy (private insurance BCBS

Az won't cover since we are self employed, grrr!) speech thereapy

2xs/wk at 30 minutes per pop. DJ has made leaps and bounds with his

speech, going from 1-2 word sentances to 7-10 word sentances now! He

is intelligable up to 85% of the time and 95%(up from 40-50%) when

the listener is familiar. In fact he talks and sings so much now,

sometimes I have to tell him to stop talking a hole in mommy's head!

It's still music to my ears though!

I have had him on the Nordic Naturals ProEFA for a little over a year

now and I think it has helped. I think that in addtion to his therapy

and the natural language maturation process, all in harmony are

helping DJ to speak better and better. I upped his dose to 2 capsules

a day (he is approx. 41 lbs and luckily he will take it right off the

spoon) and I and others have seen his language skills boost within

the last 6 mos. If you havent already tried it--DO! You have nothing

to lose and everything to gain!

Here is my question-- We are due on Friday to do the IEP for his

start in mainstream Kindergarten this fall. Is it unreasonable to

request 3xs/wk 1 on 1 speech therapy? He will only be going half days

not the full day so I am hoping we can do the therapy either before

or after school so he won't have to miss anything in class. Based on

the research I have done it seems that receiving therapy 5 times a

week (Husband and I will still have him in private therapy 2xs/wk, no

matter what) is ideal and necessary to help him not " fall behind " . Is

there a therapy matrix based on severity AND age/grade level out

there? I would like to have an idea of what's appropriate before I go

into the IEP meeting. His private speech therapist had an emergency

with her child today as we were going to talk about this after his

session, so hopefully I can talk to her before Friday too, (she is so

busy). I would appreciate any comments and/or suggestions, regular or

professional! Thanks in advance everyone!

Vivian, mom to DJ (5, verbal apraxia only.)

Hot 'ole Phoenix!