More speech/language therapy for IEP?

My dd has a language disorder. She is in 2nd grade right now and is about 1 year behind in reading. I finally found a private SLP to work with us. I am wondering if anyone out there has requested additional speech therapy for their child as part of their IEP. THe thing is, her main problem is this language disorder and everyone on the IEP team agrees, yet the service she gets the least is speech/language therapy. She gets 30 min twice/week. And it’s in a group setting. This year they offered to have her spend part of her time in the special day program, which is for kids who are much more cognitively disabled than she is. I refused. They crossed it out on the IEP right in front of me and said that she is not eligible for summer school if I refuse that service and crossed that out as well. Both of which were insulting to my intelligence because I know that every child who performs below grade level is eligible for summer school. Anyway, off topic, sorry. So, I was wondering if I should have countered with “How about more time with the speech therapist instead”. I didn’t even think of it, but we have her IEP again next fall or maybe I can request a change to her IEP sometime in the fall. I think they pretty much just give each speech/language student the same amount of time no matter how severe her problem is.

Kathryn

Re: More speech/language therapy for IEP?

My child receives speech and language based upon her IEP for the past year it’s only been once a week for 30 minutes and next year too. She is older, 11. When she was younger it was once a day, with two kids total. One summer the school did offer SL twice a week. As she got older it was harder to have her out of the classroom too much and miss stuff in class. At one point the SLP and or a ESE teacher was in the classroom to help her and another child, that was good, to work on coping skills and organization too.

I have to keep speech and language services in her IEP or she is not considered an ESE student and would not receive the accommodations. Right now the accommodations are more important than the speech. I find the school district doesn’t recognize auditory processing as a need for an IEP. It’s classified as speech and language impaired. I think the school has done all they can do, due to funding and their rules and regulations, but it’s not enough. I wish the school offered Fast Forward. That’s why we have looked more into private therapy services. It has taken years to pieces this all together and I’m still learning and working the issue.

Re: More speech/language therapy for IEP?

Well, let us know if you do Fast ForWord. I have heard great things about it.

I met with the private SLP again today and she said that it is possible to do outside speech therapy but that we just need to write it into her IEP. I know that we can modify the IEP too, but I’m not sure they will be willing to do that on day 1 of the school year next year and her IEP meeting is not due until the end of October.

I’m probably overly paranoid, but I can already feel the school pushing back trying to quickly offer more services when I start talking to an outside SLP. Also, they cannot possibly give her private therapy which is what she really needs right now.

So, if anyone out there can offer any advice or experience in getting an outside therapy session written into the IEP as part of the child’s school day, please let me know.

Kathryn

Re: More speech/language therapy for IEP?

We had more speech written into our daughter’s IEP.

You can call an IEP meeting however many times you need to in order to get the services your child is entitled to.

The school sometimes try to make you think you are only “entitled” to one meeting a year, but that is not the case.

You might consider bringing your child’s private therapist (or recommendations from your private therapist) to the meeting with you. Also if you can, bring along someone supportive, so you don’t feel overwhelmed.

Don’t let them bully you. If you don’t like the way the meeting is going, leave and tell them you need to re-schedule. Then get on a board, check [url]www.wrightslaw.com[/url], find an advocate, do anything other than give up!

Re: More speech/language therapy for IEP?

Well, the meeting went so-so. My dh and I met with the resource specialist, the school speech therapist, the school psychologist, the teacher, the principal and we brought along our private slp. The private SLP probably did the majority of the talking, but in the end they gave us one on one speech therapy at school, which is what I was after. They also said they would work closely with us, but let me tell you, it was the most unenthusiastic yes I have ever heard in my life. They’ll do what we want, but I don’t think they’re exactly crazy about a parent coming in and telling them what we want them to do with our daughter.

I’m planning to meet one on one with the school’s slp and go over everything we have been doing in private language therapy and hopefully she will be eager to work on the same things we have been doing. For consistency sake.

Kathryn