[QUOTE=nakama] I'm not sure how things in Canada work regarding special ed. Do they have therapeutic preschools where he would receive speech, OT, and ABA together through the day?
nakama
[/QUOTE]
Hi
Our name (hopefully) is on the waiting list but they even cannot say when we will get the public services (Speech therapy and 20 hours of ABA). They said it could be 6 months, one year or even more. That is why now we are doing everything privately (ABA and ST) but I am not sure we will be able to continue it for a long time.
We did 2 hours a week for over 2 years with Sarah and the progress was slow and steady..they do the same as we were doing at home but Sarah needed to learn a different mode of teaching her speech from other professionals than just our home therapists & me. She responded well to speech tx and we made sure that the ST carried over & reinforced the skills we were working on at home and vice versa. Sarah always did better with others than with me teaching her. I got lucky in that the speech therapists we had was a retired professor that specialized in autism...she and her husband written a few books on it..especially teaching social stories with pictures. Her name is Jane Giddan if anyone is interested:) She would have Sarah express events in her life by making visual books and social strips modeling the correct way to say things..since Sarah could read it helped her pragmatics so much. We ended it when school started because she had all day kindergarten and it was just too much money
Blessings,
Shelley
Shelley
When we started ST when C was 2 they didn't give us a plan to work on at home. However they did ask me to read 2 books, which were helpful.
- The Child with Special Needs: Encouraging Intellectual and Emotional Growth
- It Takes Two to Talk: A Practical Guide For Parents of Children with Language Delays
For C's 1st year of speech, one of us went with him and sat in the therapy room and watched. The SLP would explain to us what she was going to do and why. This was great as we were able to build on this at home.
My recommendation is to set up a meeting with the SLP to discuss progress. Say that it has been a month since he/she has seen your child and you would like to hear his/her observations and that you would like to better understand what specific things that you should be doing at home to support what they are doing in therapy. The periodic progress meetings we had with our SLP helped a great deal that 1st year.
I was wondering the same thing. We have speech 2x a week, and all the therapist does is work puzzles with my nephew. What are some of the ways that they work with nonverbals to prompt them to speak.
thank you....i'm new at this
It is more than a month that we have started to visit this speech therapist once a week, but I am not sure if this is enough or even should I continue to go there (and pay from my pocket) any more?
The problem is that she has not been able to give us some guidance that we are not already applying to our daily life style. We got this great book "More than words" a few months ago and have been trying to apply its recommendations to our 2.5 years old son and do not see a big difference between what we have done and what she recommends.
I am not sure what is the task of a speech therapist? Is (s)he supposed to give us a plan to work on it or what? I am thinking that maybe ST is something that could easily be done by the parents in the daily life.
Any comment is appreciated.
Tweeker's Mom
The health care system problems in Quebec - like the rest of Canada- are due to lack of money and souvereighnty has nothing to do with the problems here. All over Canada health care system sucks.
Niether English nor French are our first language, but we have recently switched to English in order my little 2.5 years old ASD son has less chalenges. He also goes to an English daycare.
I am not sure speaking with chief of staff could make we get services earlier, but thanks for the advice. I will give it a try.
Daddy,
What province are you in????? I'm in ONT. My son attended speech, OT, & PT from the age of 20 mths until he was 6yo at Niagara Peninsula Children's Centre!!!!! He only "waited" 6 weeks!!!! If you need direction with respect to getting "ON TOP" of the ever dreaded waiting list please PM me and I'll try to help. Your child shouldn't have to wait any longer than 3 mos. with an ASD dx!!!!!
PS. those of you in the U.S.....FYI: some folks think Canada's health care system is "great"????? People who have cancer in Canada literally DIE before they're name comes up on a "wait list"
My boys have barely gotten any ST, I have been thinking about paying for extra outside of the school out of my own pocket. They seem to be making great strides anyway. I noticed an improvement is speech once they started watching Dora, I was shocked. I never let them watch any Nikolodean shows, but about 4 months ago the tv was on that channel for some reason and on and they started repeating what she was saying, so I let them watch it now.
Tweeker's Mom,
I live in Montreal. We were very lucky that had not to wait the "normal" 9-12 months for the ASD dx. But for the services no one knows when it will be available!
Completely agree with you that Canadian health system sucks. One of my friends who was suspicious of having a tomor had to wait 6 months for a simple MRI!
Bonjour/salute!!!!
As you know, Quebec differs from other provinces in many respects. I am uncertain as to whether or not this is due to souvereighnty or not?? Anyway, (pardon mois) mois parles francais nes pas bien
I hope that's OK. Was your child diagnosed with autism? How old is your child? I am uncertain due to the information contained within your profile. If in fact your child WAS dx'd, is your primary language french or english? I know for a FACT that it will be necessary for you to teach your child ONLY your primary language for now. At any rate, if your child has received an ASD dx, proceed to the organization at which your child is on a wait list for speech therapy and ask to speak with the pediatric neurosurgeon OR the on staff pediatric head. produce confirmation of your child's DX and your child should be receiving speech therapy within the next 6 weeks! If that doesn't happen go to the chief of staff! I wish you luck! Bievenue!!!! In New York, speech therapy, when needed, is REQUIRED to be at least twice a week. Even the state recognizes that once a week is a waste of time. For kids with autism here, the law REQUIRES DAILY SPEECH THERAPY. Only in this state, though. Still, that shows that at least ONE legislature recognizes the essential need for LOTS of speech therapy for autistic kids. Get as much for your child as soon as possible using whatever means possible. PLUS do what you've been doing -- learning to support speech at home. The one exception is that if a child is getting plenty of ABA, ABA addresses speech through that therapy. If your child is getting lots of ABA, the speech therapy might be adequate. That all said, one month is a tiny drop in the bucket. It takes YEARS for kids to catch up in speech, and many never truly do, but the earlier and more intense the speech intervention, the better. I take my ds once a week for the last six months, and have not noticed much improvement either. I feel like he just goes there to play and read flash cards. I think he has improved more by hearing other kids talk in school and how they interact with the teachers/aides/therapist there. They use the picture schedules and PECS for activities, instruction, and choices they are able to make. As crazy as it sounds, I actually take advantage of his echolalia. His echolalia derives from either Dora the Explorer or Scooby Doo. Dora is great because she asks alot of ?'s, they do alot of repettitive "interaction" He usually goes into echolalia mode while we are driving, and should he see a small pond or water retention area, I hear him say "Do you see the crocodile lake?" and I chime right in with a response just like they do on Dora, and build on it. I start pointing things out like bridges, train tracks, trees, buildings, signs, etc. in the same fashion as they do on Dora. He learns new words, phrases, places, and I get more than two word sentences.
I still take him to speech, but he only goes once a week, and I am beginning to reconsider the effectiveness as well.
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