Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

Maybe I'm overreacting but I am VERY upset with the response that I got from my son's Elementary school speech therapist.

My older son who will be 8 in January, still has a lisp with "s" words as well as some R word issues and the letters "Th" which he pronounces with an "F" instead. Anyway, I emailed my concerns to his teacher and she forwarded my email to the speech therapist there and this is what she said...

"I did get a chance to talk to her and to him. You are correct that he does have errors, on R and S sounds. WCPSS
guidelines for speech therapy involve whether the errors impact the child socially (ex: refrains/withdraws from
talking, other kids remark about speech,etc) or educationally (writing errors as he hears/produces them (ie writes W for R in "red--wed"). Caiden does not fall within the guidelines for having a social or educational impact due to his errors. He is well liked, a good student, his intelligibility when speaking is good~despite his errors. If
you wish to discuss this further, I would be happy to meet with you. Thank you for asking about Caiden's speech."

Ok, I understand for the most part that his speech isn't horrible, but it is HORRIBLE for them to say that he doesn't qualify for one reason being that the kids don't tease him??? REALLY??? That is the point of getting him help is to prevent that from happening, no? And how do any of us know for sure that he's not being teased? So basically, I have to wait for that to happen and his self esteem go down for them to help? How can they do that to a child? I know how mean kids can be and I don't want him to go through that if I can help it.

I just can't believe part of their reasoning...

What do you think?

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

Sorry but that's a pretty standard answer. The school is only required to service a grade school aged child if his speech impacts his learning, which includes his confidence being lowered because of teasing.

You can find an outside therapist and either pay out of pocket or go through your insurance (which may or may not cover articulation) if his speech really bothers him or you.

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

I would be upset as well. I would ask for a meeting with the speech therapist & including the school's special education director.Prepare yourself with your concerns. If he's still not saying words correctly I just don't see how they can end the services. I do know they are making it really hard to qualify these days for services.

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

From what I understand, if there is only one area of weak development (speech, fine motor, gross motor, etc), the standard deviation needs to be at least 2.0 SD below the norm to qualify (at least in NYS), Articulation rarely makes a test score 2.0 standard deviations below.

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

Speech is a special education service. In order to receive special education services of any type (speech, OT, resource room, etc) the student must demonstrate a disability that significantly impedes his/her ability to progress academically.

From what you wrote, it does not seem that your son fits the criteria. That being said, any parent has the right to refer their child to the committee on special education for evaluation.

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

i have to agree with what Erica & ladybug wrote....

if you are that concerned you can go through your insurance or you can hire a private speech therapist.

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

Thank you soooo much everyone. I do see where they're coming from, it just upset me what they said about the other kids.

I have insurance and will look into that. What kind of "provider" do I need to be looking for, for these services? I don't remember seeing speech therapist as one of them?

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

You would need a speech / language pathologist.
HTH!

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

Unfortunately, that's just the way it is. Services are provided for students who test below a certain score. It's standardized. You can always go through insurancel; we did.

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

Thanks everyone! I understand most of the reasonings for not qualifying him, it's just the one remark about if the kids were saying things to him that he would qualify? That's just not right? I'm checking with my insurance but I don't think it covers it. Only for extreme cases??? Whatever that means? I copied what the insurance booklet says but I don't understand it.

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

Hi Caiden'sMommy,

I am a speech therapist and completely understand where you are coming from. However, and I know this does not make anyone happy (including myself), it all comes down to money and standard deviations below the mean on standardized testing. The "well-liked" comment was probably just a way of the speech therapist trying to be friendly and point our your sounds strengths. It seems like he has many :) However, I might have taken it the same way you did if the roles were reversed between myself and you. The other parents explained the system well, so I won't...but if you look for a private speech therapist (a PROMPT certified SLP is often awesome)...you could pay-out-of pocket and sometimes the errors might not take super long to correct. I know it stinks...really, I do. The speech therapist may be able to offer some tips to you to work with him at home (I would avoid oral-motor strategies, though...I can provide research stating why they are not considered efficient anymore). Let us all know the outcome :) Hang in there!

Kristi
MA, CCC-SLP

Re: Should I be upset? School won't qualify my son for speech?

The district is required to give your son a formal evaluation if you write a letter to the committee on special education requesting just that. It may not provide any different results than you've already received but at least you'll know for sure with the formal test.