[ Post a Response | Articulation, Language, and Fluency ]
Posted by slpgrl on 2/6/2009, 7:26 pm, in reply to "Re: Just need to vent"
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Some may believe that we are spread too thin; however, severity within caseloads, district mandates, and staffing needs have all contributed to our evolving roles and responsibilities in the schools. It is a fact that we are serving a wide range of disabilities and diverse needs. School districts do not have a legal obligation to provide services that do not impede learning. If every child that exhibited some weakness within our scope of practice received school-based services it would put SLPs in private practice out of business. This is why there has to be set criteria for receiving services within a school system. What about the kids that have articulation issues that attend private/religious schools? How do they receive support? Or even kids that are home-schooled? Private schools in the US are not governed by IDEA unless they accept funding from the US government. If typical kids are having difficulty transferring what they have learned in school that day to their homework assignment at home, should districts be obligated to also provide and pay for home tutoring?
My colleague and I have gone above and beyond and are utilizing our free time (w/o compensation) in order to assist these articulation students. If other SLPs have extra time in their schedule, then hopefully they would utilize that time to initiate some of the programs that we have. With that being said, my character reveals that I am not a therapist that would turn a parent away and say, "Yes, I could help your child, but it's not our worry in the schools, get private therapy". If SLPs do not have the time to implement articulation programs and do not have availability in their caseloads then they need to research alternatives and provide them to parents.
Insurance companies often list “speech therapy” as a reimbursable service, but frequently will not provide coverage for speech therapy; particularly if the therapy is not due to a “medical” condition. Isn’t it fair that school districts follow the same procedure and require documentation of an educational disability in order to receive services? Why should a school district be obligated to pay for services for a child who does not exhibit a disability? There is nothing wrong with asking a parent to contact his/her insurance provider and inquire about speech therapy. If treatment is not covered, they should request the reasons in writing. This data shows that the parent took the initiative and will be helpful for working with building level administration on how their child can receive services to some degree.
Parents can also be referred to their local university communicative disorders clinic. Most of the clinics work on sliding fee scales and provide cutting-edge therapy with less anguish (and cost) than public school programs or private practitioners. Most importantly, the graduate students providing the services are professional and still retain a fresh view of the field and their abilities to help. Parents that pay for private home tutoring and/or speech therapy seem to be more involved and have greater access to consult with the therapist more frequently, thus contributing to their child’s progress.
Just as teachers have back to school night and other related events at night, SLPs can offer an Articulation Workshop night to train caregivers of children with articulation difficulties. Offering a night event like this shows the community that although their children may not be eligible to receive direct intervention at this time, the SLPs are sensitive to their needs and are making an attempt to reach out. The training night can be designed to empower caregivers with the ability to learn the skills and motivational techniques they need to help their children. It could be set up where parents rotate to different tables that are specific to their child’s error(s) and watch SLPs role play. Activities, word lists and other items can be presented and handed out as well.
There are even speech videos (developed by Certified Speech-Language Pathologists)that are designed to produce resources for children to use at home, to get parents more involved in the progress of their child's therapy, and to make drill and practice more interesting and meaningful. There are even websites that display step by step video modeling on how to produce target sounds.
The key is knowing what is out there and doing the research and then being able to provide that to parents if articulation needs can’t be met for whatever reason. It’s not that hard for an SLP to speak with their administrators to assist in planning for the development and evaluation of existing and new programs, offer professional consultative services, to aid in educational planning, and participate in designing and providing in-service education for teachers and other school personnel.
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