Charlotte, my 4 year old (isn't she cute?) has some speech articulation issues. Actually, I think it might qualify as a lot of speech articulation issues - I had her evaluated by the local school's speech therapist and she had 42 errors out of a possible 77. I guess it clearly could be worse, but I feel like I've got my work cut out for me over the next few years. For next year, she will be attending 2 -2 1/2 hour days per week at the local preschool, and we will be moving on to Kindergarten work at home (I did Eva's kindergarten over 2 years, and I am planning on the same for Charlotte.)
Obviously, the goal is to make as much progress as possible over the next year, as she will not continue to qualify for speech therapy services unless I enroll her in the school district (I am looking into alternatives like virtual charter schools, just in case I still need a lot of help!) So, I am looking for any advice or resources from anyone who has been there and done that with a child in speech therapy. Here are some things that I am aware of - I would love opinions or reviews of these, or any other programs/books/curricula/games you know of that might help with speech articulation issues.
Speech Tails - online speech learning program at a cost of $25 per month. Looks like it is mostly speech therapy videos, there is a week free, so it might be something I try, but at $25 a month, it could get pretty expensive to use!
Heads Up Now! - Has materials for all sorts of special needs. The speech articulation workshop was recommended to me at one point, but the shipping cost for just that is super high (workshop is $5, shipping is $12.58...seriously???) They also carry Speechercise level 1 and level 2, which are both significantly cheaper at Amazon. I'm never very sure about the whole CD with printables thing, so I wouldn't buy those without a firm recommendation.
Super Star Speech - These look the most promising to me, books to give me ideas of how to train speech that don't cost an arm and a leg, and don't have a monthly cost.
Speech Buddies - These look pretty cool, as most speech problems are related to incorrect tongue placement. I like the idea of something to help feel where the right placement is, but at about $300 for the professional set (includes all the speech buddies, and with Charlotte's speech issues, we would need all of them, plus would need to work on other sounds as well) it is quite a bit more money than I would like to spend. It is cheaper than a private speech therapist, though (and since we don't have any of those in our rural area, more convenient, too.)
Thoughts? Recommendations? Thanks!
Have you thought about dual-enrolling your daughter so that you can then access speech therapy through the AEA? I know of a family that has done that and it worked for them. Your daughter could take music or math and that would suffice. I hope this helps.
ReplyDeleteI have thought of dual-enrollment, however, we live 16 miles out of town (5 miles of that is dirt roads) so it would be a lot of driving for me to dual enroll - plus, I don't know how the elementary school would react to dual enrollment. There aren't very many homeschoolers in our area, and a majority of the very few homeschoolers I know of are actually enrolled in virtual charters.
ReplyDeleteI tried the Super Star speech. I didn't have a lot of success with it because I just couldn't quite understand all of the "put your tongue here" commands. I just think I wasn't dedicated enough. We ended up taking our 10-year-old to a speech therapist, and she has done wonders in just 6 weeks. (He was tongue-tied and had trouble with his "L" and "R" sounds. We finally had his tongue clipped, and he needed to be trained to use it correctly.)
ReplyDeleteWe have had 5 sons recieve Speech Therapy. The first and second one was with Des Moines Speech and Hearing now Child Serve. They both had excellent results. When the fourth child was born and required speech therapy when he reached 4 or 5 we went with the therapy provided from the school systems. After almost two years and not seeing a whole lot of progress we decided to find another place. We found a company here in Des Moines that provided speech therapy and after paying lots of money did not see the results we wanted. So we took him to Child Serve. His speech improved very fast. We have had two more that needed speech therapy and we tried using Heartland with the second to the last, but only Child Serve did a good job with excellent results. The Therapist were very caring and efficient. I would suggest Child Serve over any other company out there. When we had our last one seen for therapy we decided we would just go straight to Child Serve, and we were surprissed how soon we were able to get good results.
ReplyDeletehere from the carnival, my 2yo just started speech therapy, he barely qualified with he few words he has, but my biggest concern was articulation as well, though they don't really look for that at this age. I'm glad I was able to get him in early, so hopefully when the cut of age for services comes along I won't have to decide on sending him to public school or not (especially here). My DH had to have speech as a child and several of my nieces and nephews (on his side) have as well. Best of luck on your journey!
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteI am a speech therapist. My site, http://www.Speech-TherapyAtHome.com offers parents ideas and materials to help parents work on speech sounds at home. Hope this helps. I’m happy to answer questions.