Re: Re: The Late Talker book, breathing support and EPA

January 22, 2009

Dear

Thank you for your kind response and for the resources in California. Maybe I

should start a group too one of these days....

Gretchen - This is how I got the school district to send their SLP to Prompt

training:

1) I had private evaluations done by a development pediatrician and a SLP. They

both diagnosed my son with apraxia

2) I requested that the school SLP be present at the IEP meeting

3) I requested that the director of special ed be present at the IEP meeting

3) I shared our private evaluations results with the IEP team

4) I shared the speech progress reports with the IEP team that showed that my

son has had almost no progress after 18 months of therapy twice a week thru

Early Intervention

5) I asked the S.D. SLP very direct questions at the IEP meeting like:

a) How many kids do you currently see that have been diagnosed with apraxia?

What are your ideas for treating my son?

c) How are you going to address his severe oral motor issues?

d) Would you please give me a list of trainings in apraxia you have recently

attended?

6) Needless to say, she did not have the right answers, could not show me any

training in apraxia or oral motor techniques. When I asked question c, she said,

" I don't know, we can start by blowing bubbles " . So I said " With all the

respect, don't you think that that has been tried in the last 18 months?

Conventional speech does not work for my son " .

So.... I proved that she was not qualified to treat apraxia. We tried to find an

NPA consultant to work with her but, honestly, in my area, there is almost no

SLPs that really know and treat apraxia. That's when I told the director of

special ed that I would only sign the IEP if the SLP had more training in

apraxia and that my preference was Prompt. If she did not agree, I was ready to

go into mediation. She went for it. I am very happy and so is the SLP. She said

that without my push, the school would not have funded the training for her. We

have a good relationship now and her first Prompt class is coming up in

February!

Lessons learned: Research, research, research. Be prepared to fight, have a lot

of data with you, learn about special ed law and how to advocate. Best of luck

to you, C.

________________________________

From: sharon lang <flipperlang@...>

Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 3:37:55 PM

Subject: Re: [ ] Re: The Late Talker book, breathing support

and EPA

signed Coop's IEP BEFORE anyone knew he had apraxia. He wasn't diagnosed until

about 6 weeks into the school year.

You can ask for an IEE..

sl

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Sharon Lang

From: kiddietalk <kiddietalk@ . com>

Subject: [childrensapraxiane t] Re: The Late Talker book, breathing support and

EPA

@groups. com

Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 5:09 PM

Gretchen have you secured private evaluations to find out what's

appropriate for your child?

Each child... " is entitled to a Free and Appropriate Public Education

in the Least Restrictive Environment. There are quite a few of us

here in this group who received services and placement that we were

told our child was not entitled to. This is where advocacy (and

squeaky wheels) come in.

If a school district can not provide appropriate therapy and placement

then their choices would include

1. Bringing in an expert to work with and train the existing staff

2. Paying for the child to attend therapy outside of the school

3. Paying for out of district placement.

As you can see from the above list -sending the school's SLP for

training in the options, especially since there will probably be more

than one child with apraxia in the school this year and next and the

year after that...is probably most cost effective. When I still lived

in NJ, Summit school district (not Summit Speech School -the actual

district) brought in Deborah Hayden herself to work with one of their

students with apraxia and to evaluate him...yes really.

What I advise is that even though through your town's school you can

have them pay for outside the school district evaluations, is that

each parent secure private evaluations and pay out of pocket or

through insurance for them. I happen to know in at least two

instances that even though the professional paid for by the school is

trying to advocate for what's best for that child -she or he is still

on that school's dime and didn't want to push for " too much " I never

heard that from any of Tanner's private doctors or therapists.

Tanner, like all children, is " ...(go back to beginning of email and

re read if not clear)

=====

January 22, 2009

It's so funny that you sent this tonight. I was almost at my breaking point.

The preschool director called me at home tonight and lectured me for about 10

minutes about the " public school system versus private therapy " and why the

public school system is unable to give my son private therapy once a week.

Right now he gets group therapy once a week. I felt like I was a teenager again

being lectured by mother about spending too much money at the mall.

The director also gave me a big speech about developmental pediatricians - and

how " she doesn't go to their office and tell them how to treat their patients so

she doesn't expect them to come to her school and tell them how to treat her

students. " What in the world? Doesn't a doctor trump an educator? I have a

feeling I really have my work cut for me.

Sadly, tonight...I feel flat out defeated. All this week - I have fought with

the insurance company. I have fought with the preschool. I feel like I am

spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. How can a school system that diagnosed

him with a severe speech delay deny my child a lousy 30 minutes of private

speech instruction a week.

BTW - the preschool director also gave me some load of crap about Extended

Summer Services. She told me they would only provide summer services if I could

prove that he had regressed.

What to do. What to do. I have a feeling it won't be pretty.

I really appreciate your help Cris! I plan on giving your plan a shot for sure!