'Group' speech therapy?

[SammyeGail]

I don't know if its our school or if this is common, but at our 1st IEP meeting for my son with autism Monday the special ed lady said there were too many children needing speech therapy and the therapist couldn't do one-on-one with them all, so they do 'group' speech therapy. Only 2-3 children got one-on-one S.T., and it was only 1/2 hour a week.

Just wondering........


Samantha

[swrc00]

I have worked in several school districts and students usually receive speech therapy in small groups. The students are grouped by similar needs. If you feel that your son would benefit most from a one on one I would fight for it.

[sidmand]

That's what we have too. I wasn't so sure about it at first, but now it kind of makes sense to me. DS just started preschool (turned 3 in June) and has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS and although he does talk, he is speech delayed.

They do the speech therapy in groups, but they also explained that even though it's only 1/2 hour, the speech therapist works closely with his preschool teacher and they emphasize what he's learning all week long. So if he's working on four-word sentences, they would tell the teacher and any time he was talking in school they would ask him to elaborate, etc.

It was never worded though as too many kids to work one-on-one and that's why they did it this way (although that may very well be the case!) but that this works well for the kids.

So far so good, but if you think your son would benefit from one-on-one better, definitely fight for that.

DS had been receiving one-on-one ABA services for almost a year, but I do see why a group setting/preschool can prepare him more for the real word NOW than continuing one-on-one type services. He's ready at this point to do more real world things, but if he wasn't ready yet, I would've fought for different services.

[SammyeGail]

I can see how this would be ok for my son Noah who is speech delayed and absorbs everything around him.

Jonas has autism and is currently not talking, but he does babble. He has said words in 1-on-1 ABA sessions, he's been in ABA 3 months and gets it 1 hour a day.

both boys (twins) have been going to a Mothers Day Out program (very good, very structured, I call it pre-pre school, lol) for a year. Jonas is around kids his age but has yet to really interact with them.

I just know Jonas would not do well. In a group he just goes into his own little world. He's passive and thats just his way. We start with a ST next Wed who works with children with autism, she finally had an opening when school started.

I had a letter from my pedi stating the things that were medically necessary for Jonas to treat his autism, it said 2 hours of ST a week. The special ed lady said 'this is just some doctor mouthing off' and threw the copy of the letter across the table. I explained all 9 pedi's in the practice had a meeting specifically about my son, I think 9 pedi's know more about autism than she does.

This is a rural county in TN. The school system is great, as the special ed program, but they've had 3 children with autism is the past few years. Call me picky, but thats just not enough exposure/experience.

I just wondered if group ST was common practice.

thanks, its good to hear they all work together. They said my son would get a one-on-one assistant, I asked how this person is determined, how much they are 'trained' in autism, what are their qualifications, etc. Anyone with a HS education or GED. She would do the intense training herself, every hour of everyday for several weeks. DH asked her if she did that, how would she run her program? We finally stumped her on that one, lol.

Thanks goodness there is a great program at a college about 40 minutes away. We may have to pay for it ourselves, but that's where he's going. We're also moving out of this freaking county, sorry DH will have a long commute : (.

Samantha

Samantha

[icunurse]

That's how it is done here, too. Well, actually, our district has 3 levels of therapy - small group (for slight delays), a special group for kids who only have pronunciation issues, and 5 day/week intensive therapy (must have more than 1 delay). DS has been in the small group therapy since aging out of Early Intervention. Honestly, I don't really care for the group therapy. They really don't give us a choice of times, so it isn't convenient around his pre-k schedule. And, based on what the therapist told me at the end of each visit, I felt like she really wasn't pushing DS or really knew what his delays were (for the entire year, she kept telling me the same thing - "we worked on wh- questions"). Also, the two other kids in the group were over a year younger, stayed for a whole hour, and were noticably more behind than DS, and I was told that he would be a good example for them. Um, here's not there to be an example when he needs help himself!

I finally talked my ped into getting him a private eval and, surprise, he qualified. I showed the therapist the last report from the school and, while she didn't really say anything out of professional courtesy, I could tell that she was a bit shocked at how little they expected of him and how his goals never changed ALL year. We are just finishing the 12 weeks that were approved by our insurance and he made a ton of progress. He is at age level now for all parts of the eval. The therapist told me that we really need to stay on top of things (she said we did a good job of that because we noticed in the first place that he wasn't getting the help he needed at school) because a kid like him looks great until you really start to dig with him and he can get behind easy that way (meaning when you talk to him, you don't notice a delay until you start to really get into age-specific things - like he still has some issues with using the past tense and needs a few seconds more to process things). We'll see how school therapy goes, as he won't qualify again through our insurance. At least now I have some new info to share with the new therapist to get them started off where DS needs the most help instead of what the last school report said, KWIM?

All I can say is to stay firm in getting what your child needs. If 1/2 hour isn't enough, fight for an hour. You know your child best and if you think you need a metting to get answers or to discuss your concerns, do it - that's what they are there for. Unfortunately, schools are so overwhelmed, they do their best, but most cannot be a true advocate for the kids. So we need to do that and, sometimes, be the squeaky wheel.

[mom2binsd]

I'm an SLP and worked in schools in Ottawa (Canada), San Diego and Salt Lake City for the past 13 years....group therapy is very common no matter where you go. I will say this though, even when I had over 60 kiddo's on my caseload I was always able to fit in some individual therapy- often some children would be in a group on one day and individual another day, there are just some children who you really need to spend 1:1 time with...SLP caseloads are sometimes ridiculously highy and the SLP is at the mercy of the principal/school district who often have no control about how many kids have IEP's and not having the budget for additional staff....not knowing your son or the SLP caseload it's hard to say anything specific but you should definitely ask how many children in a group (my max was 4) and whether there will be an 1:1 sessions and whether there will be consultation with the classrom teachers..I found it was most important that the teacher truly understand the child's speech and language goals and how they could support the goals of the IEP in the classroom setting...I tried to spend a lot of time with my teachers giving them the same cues I was using in therapy/and making sure they were able to make accommodations that allowed the child to fully participate in classroom activities.

Email me if you have any more specific questions!

[hellokitty]

Wow, I did not know that they still did that. When I had speech therapy when I was in 2nd grade, it was group therapy. The therapist would just take all the kids in one class at the same time. In my class there were three of us. At the end of therapy, we did a big project together, which was putting on a puppet show for our classroom. I think in a way, it was less intimidating to do it in a group atmosphere than 1-1, at least for me it was, b/c I was a shy child.

[AngelaS]

They recommended the 'classroom' for M for this fall but that was going to be 3+ hours, FOUR days a week. That seemed like a bit much to me, so we opted for 2 30 minute sessions. I *think* they're one on one, but I don't know yet.

[kijip]

As the product of speech therapy for over 5 years (starting at age 4), I think a group thing would have appealed to me because frankly I spent a couple of years convinced I was the ONLY kid in the whole school that had to see the Speech Therapist. Of course, that was not true, they did not have a 3 day a week office set up just for me, LOL. It would have been nice to not feel so different.

[mytwosons]

Our school does both. Some kids do really well in group, other kids really need private. My son loved group, but I think he got a lot more out of our private 1-on-1.

You have a long road ahead of you, and unfortunately, it can be a fight with the school districts to get the services your child needs. By law, they need to provide him with what is best for him. If that is 1-on-1 and they need to hire an additional ST, that's what they need to do. BTW, around here, they usually just contract out if they need more staffing. If you aren't familar with it, definitely check out Wrightslaw, and go to a conference if one is around you. www.wrightslaw.com

[trales]

I am really bothered by the rxn at the IEP meeting. The Sped coordinator was totally out of line and inappropriate. I have been to hundreds of IEP meetings, and never experienced something like that. I would call the district Sped coordinator, not the school level one and let them know you feel the behavior regarding your doctors letter was out of line and while you do not want to bring a Sped attorney or advocate to future meetings, if you are going to meet this kind of unprofessionalism you will. You are going to be dealing with them multiple times a year for 12 years, you want to let them know now that you are not to be messed with and you are going to be actively involved in your child's education.

Good luck, stand firm, I have found that the most involved parents tend to get the best resources.