Private Speech Therapy

Today was Landon's first official private speech therapy with Ms. Lori. I'm not sure if he was excited but I sure was. I am amazed at what she could get him to do with a little persistence. As you know, I was not overly thrilled with the speech he was/is getting at school. I don't think it is any fault of the therapist, just the way "things are" in the school system. I am very excited about the potential Landon showed today considering I don't feel that he progressed as much as he could have with a little more "push" during the school year. I have VERY high hopes for the months ahead. She has even agreed to allow me to video her sessions with Landon so that Travis and I can look back over it to help us better work with Landon at home.

The first thing we discussed was goals. Ms. Lori has written out a few goals for Landon to get him started. First let me show you the goals that were written in Landon's IEP for last year.

Area of Need: Expressive language
Annual Goal: By August 2010. Landon will increase expressive language skills to be able to communicate effectively , orally or by using signs, in 80% of opportunities in the school setting.

Area of Need: Articulation
Annual Goal: By August 2010, Landon will improve the intelligibility of speech production to be understood in 70% of opportunities presented daily.

These goals sound great and I agreed to them BUT looking back I have a few problems. First, no one really used signs with him. If his speech was not moving along they should have been working on signs in order to meet his expressive language goal. Second, there is no mention of how Landon was going to get from "point A" to "point B". I understand that they can't write all of the short term goals in his IEP but that is why I requested getting update every couple of weeks to let me know what they were working on. How many updates did I get last school year from speech? One, and that was after I wrote a letter requesting an update. Nothing there after. 

Now, compare the IEP goals with the ones that Ms. Lori wrote after meeting Landon only one time for his evaluation.

1. Landon will select activity when presented with a picture choice in a field of up to 6 pictures 100% of opportunities with given a verbal command.
2. Landon will imitate a variety of CV sounds on 9/10 trials with minimal cueing.
3. Landon will produce simple CVC words 9/10 trials in two consecutive sessions without cueing.
4. Landon will use a sign or picture card with verbal approximations 4/5 trials to request an object during two consecutive sessions without cueing.
5. Landon will spontaneously use 5 two word combinations in one session.

Ms. Lori told me that she thought Landon would master #1, #2, & #4 soon but that gave us something to start with. #3 & #5 were the two big goals that she wanted to work on and that she would add more as she met with Landon and sees more of what his need is. I can't wait to show you what she does with him during a session. After only one meeting, she has inspired me to create a "communication board" , which I'll write about a little later, to help give Landon choices and chances to talk and put words together that we know he can say.

Due to Ms. Lori going on vacation and Landon and I taking a trip to K'ville before school starts we will not have another session until the 18th. I can't wait!!