Intelligence:1, Apraxia:0
Gwendomama | Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 2:31PM Bubbles is being re-evaluated for services for an ESY (Extended School Year); speech therapy services through the summer vacation.
Our superintendent is leaving this year, and it shows. She did agree to ESY back in November, but now it appears that she forgot that. She said that our school simply does not offer ESY.
Which is potentially problematic for a child with severe Apraxia.
The real problem, however? The real strike working against Bubbles in this quest for consistent speech services? Is that Bubbles is doing too well. He is making so much progress with his current therapist, that he is testing too high to receive services!
This is both exciting and depressing to me. Exciting for the obvious reasons: My baby is so SMAARRRRTTT! My baby talk pretty someday!! My baby is a hard worker!!! My baby blows the mind of his speech therapist! Depressing because he still sounds like he has a mouth full of marbles half the time and his articulation and sentence structure are not nearly where they should be as he approaches four years old.
The problem, we are discovering (if this is a problem) is that he is so intelligent that his vocabulary and higher mental processes are far surpassing his ability to articulate and his word retrieval. He has thoughts which are more complex than most children his age, and combined with Apraxia, he gets all flustered and can use the phrases, 'My mouth is not working!' and 'My words are not working!' appropriately and with clear differentiation.
His speech therapist has been re-testing him in preparation for the IEP, and frankly, it doesn't look good for him. Sadly, he is passing the tests!
As part of this testing process, she holds up a card and asks him to say the one word. But the problem is, he cannot say the one word. He tells her a story about the card.
"Bubbles, can you say, 'SAD'?"
"Oh no! That girl is sad! Her mommy went away but she will come back. It's okay!"
"Bubbles, can you say, 'RAINING'?"
"The rain will make flowers wet! We need umbrella! We need boots to jump in puddles!"
"Bubbles, can you say, 'PUPPIES'?"
"Puppies like chase balls. I throw ball for puppy and we run!!"
We are totally screwed.
Stay tuned for the results....but I'm not holding my breath....the boy has made way too much progress!
Reader Comments (7)
This is the same thing we are facing. My boy is not getting services through the summer because there is "no way" he would qualify for the extended year services. And to make matters worse? About a week before I delivered my second child he developed a stutter. What started out as getting stuck on the first word of sentences has turned into a full blown "fluency" problem. Yet he still doesn't get services. So right now, when he needs the most help, his therapy is going away for the summer. And his insurance denied private therapy so there is no way I can afford to up that to twice a week. Sigh...it is so daunting to continue to have to fight for your child. I feel you...
I have a similar issue with my daughter: she tested high enough on intelligence and receptive and expressive language that she would have been disqualified for services if her articulation wasn't so poor. I'm glad that they're not re-testing for summer and next year bc she might be booted out all together! And she's also developed that same first-word stutter.
When we did our last IEP, the therapist put down as a marker or progress how well SHE was able to understand Charlotte at the end of the year, in addition to the old "parent report." I actually requested that, rather than having the regular therapist do that test for articulation, they bring in another therapist who hadn't worked with Charlotte before. As we all know, the more time you spend with the child, the better you are able to understand them, so it made no sense to me to have the test done by the person who sees her every week.
Gwen, this is one of those times when you have to tell Bubbles to play dumb and only answer the actual question. Go all Law and Order on him: "Just answer the question: rain or sun." :-D
You may not be able to get ESY this summer, but I would encourage you to carefully document any regressions you see in Bubbles' this summer, and get him tested again at summer's end. If he does in fact regress, you will have a strong case for ESY next year.
And your school had better have ESY! Ask your Superintendent if s/he has ever heard of that little federal law, known as IDEA, which requires that ESY be provided by schools (I got the following from the Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy website) FYI:
§300.106 Extended school year services.
(a) General.
(1) Each public agency must ensure that extended school year services are available as necessary to provide FAPE, (FAPE=Free and Appropriate Public Education)
consistent with paragraph (a)(2) of this section.
(2) Extended school year services must be provided only if a child’s IEP Team determines, on an individual basis, in accordance with §§300.320 through 300.324, that the services are necessary for the provision of FAPE to the child.
(3) In implementing the requirements of this section, a public agency may not--
(i) Limit extended school year services to particular categories of disability; or
(ii) Unilaterally limit the type, amount, or duration of those services.
(b) Definition. As used in this section, the term extended school year services means special education and related services that--
(1) Are provided to a child with a disability--
(i) Beyond the normal school year of the public agency;
(ii) In accordance with the child’s IEP; and
(iii) At no cost to the parents of the child; and
(2) Meet the standards of the SEA.(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(1))
§
I dream of the day when Nea will be making "too much" progress. At the end of this month she'll be 5.
If it makes you feel any better, Nea will be attending ESY for the third summer. It sucks. The program just flat-out sucks, and no one has ever pretended otherwise. I'll be sending her twice a week (instead of 5 days) just so we can get our 45 min/week. During the school year she gets 90 min/week. So for us, ESY = 180 total minutes of ST. Whoopie.
Well, at least you guys know if you are even getting ESY this year. they still haven't told us yet. And, if we do it is such a paltry offering.
2 days a week for 3 weeks, 3 hours a day. It is just play time and frankly I don't even know if the speech person is even around for it!
It sucks.
Oh my God, how frustrating. And how maddening to force you to be ANNOYED at how well your child is progressing. Of course you're proud, but...gaaaah don't graduate us! No!
We had the SAME PROBLEM with Early Intervention -- Noah progressed so well verbally that we were made to feel like interlopers, freeloaders getting therapy for our kid who was clearly just a late talker, even though the testing process for these kids is sooooo flawed. They gave a child with severe sensory issues a single-word articulation test, at home, in his element, at his pace. Yeah, he rocked it. Doesn't mean he can actually string those words together to like, SAY STUFF to people when he needs to, or answer basic questions. Or not dissolve into a non-verbal panicked mess when confronted with changes in routine or more than one sound going on in a room. But, you know, HE CAN SAY "SAD."
And despite our IEP team originally recommending PEP Intensive Needs for Noah, we didn't get ESY either.
I have come across a few other forums related to this subject in the past couple of days in doing a research report for school. I have to say that what you're saying here makes perfect sense and is helping me to get my head around this subject. Do you have any other blogs you could recommend to help my research?
Regards,
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