Friday, June 18, 2010

Speech Eval


We finally had our speech eval this morning. We originally had it scheduled for last week, but Finn got sick so we had to put it off.

Anyway, I liked the SLP a lot. She was very warm and spent close to an hour playing with Finn while asking questions of me and taking notes. When I told her that Finn has never received any speech therapy and that we've had to fight just to get this evaluation, she was appalled. When I told her that the reason we've been given is that Finn is supposedly "not cognitively ready to benefit from speech therapy," she was appalled.

So, basically we've been screwed big time as far as ST goes.

Unfortunately, we can't turn back the clock. Here we are, and all we can do is move forward from here.

She had lots of things to say and observations to make that left me feeling very hopeful. She noted that Finn does mimic certain sounds, he does babble quite a bit, he does follow some verbal cues and commands, and he definitely responds to music, which she said is a wonderful tool in teaching communication. She said, "He's got lots of potential." I told her, "He's got TONS of potential."

Without a doubt, though, he's got severe speech delays. He needs speech therapy. She's going to submit her recommendation to our service coordinator that he begin receiving ST as soon as possible, hopefully with her.

In possible bad news, there is talk that Regional Center is sending letters out to families informing them that they must go through their private health insurance now to receive services, and that Regional Center will only cover what isn't covered by insurance. This could be not so great for us because:

  • We would only be authorized to see therapists in our network (presently, neither Emily, our OT, nor Rebecca, this SLP are in our network), and those therapists may not do home visits, plus it would mean starting with therapists we don't know or have any rapport with;
  • The co-pays! Sheesh. At 20 bucks a pop . . . sheesh.
But so far we haven't gotten any letter from Regional Center about going through our insurance, so for now I'll just keep my fingers crossed.


7 comments:

The Sanchez Family said...

Such a handsome lad! Do you just get lost in his eyes and face sometimes?

Jodi said...

Glad you had a great experience. Hope the rumor on funding is just that. Jason loves his speech therapist and she must have magical powers because he's never sat still for an hour for any of us!

Sweet Pea's Mommy said...

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you! We are going through that process now. Luckily many of the therapists are starting to join the insurance network because they are being hit with losing so many RC clients. It's painful to go from zero cost to a hundred or two a week, but we will make it work if we have to. I'm hoping you won't have to!!!

Lisa said...

so happy to see this post, Lisa... our RC has been making us do the private insurance since last year when the law changed - if you have to do this, contact me. I have ways :) we've all been through it up here and we're still with (or back to) our original therapists through the RC.

Cindy said...

Finn will get there sometime. Sounds like he is advancing well and positvely! And he is looking so adorable here! In fact, he looks alot like his older brother, Kevin.

Tricia said...

Holy smokes! That's a BOY not a baby!!! When the heck did this happen???? ;)

doulamom said...

Will the insurance eliminate the co pay on the grounds that it is overall in his best interest (and less expensive in the long run) to get him the therapy? I know with certain "severe conditions" they waive the copays and even the maximum visit rules...