Early Intervention – California Regional Centers
Are you getting the most from your Regional Center services?
We get it! You prefer in-person therapy. It almost seems silly to consider teletherapy when in-person treatment is available. Maybe you could even tackle those chores during sessions.
It sounds so good that you might prefer to wait, even if it means not getting help. But is that truly in your child’s best interest?
What if conventional Speech Therapy falls short, but there’s a specialist behind the screen? Why not have a conversation with a speech therapist who truly understands?
We can provide insights into aspects that we find are often overlooked.
Ensure you’re maximizing your early intervention time.
Here are the top seen mistakes made by either parents or therapists we commonly observe in early intervention that hinder therapy progress and lead clients down unnecessary, time-consuming, costly paths.
The following describes these early intervention mistakes.
1. You are waiting to start services.
Don’t wait – it can harm your child.
Whether you seek the right therapist, are dealing with a waitlist, or for any other reason, this choice may adversely affect your child.
Even if you choose not to stay, utilizing our specializations during your waitlist ensures your current treatment plan addresses all your child’s speech and language needs.
Remember, your next therapist may lack this insight, but we are here to help you.
Let’s collaborate during your waitlist period – don’t wait!
2. We don’t overlook similarities that kids in early intervention experience.
Let’s talk about something important. For most new clients, early intervention by doctors or other speech therapists often misses the connection between specific issues and speech, and they may not flag these commonalities as “speech issues.”
Some of these unflagged commonalities include the following: feeding issues, mouth breathing, noisy sleeping, even facial and body development, excessive drooling or mouthing objects, extended pacifier use, and always looking tired.
These are all interconnected and weave a narrative about why your child may struggle with speech. By collaboratively addressing these issues, speech improvement and alleviation of the broader challenges they pose are possible.
Did your speech therapist address and recognize any commonalities between speaking and other functions of the mouth?
3. Sessions generally do not involve the parent.
You’re an active participant, not merely an observer but an essential partner.
We work together, understand challenges, identify effective treatments, and support you in integrating strategies into daily life when we’re not around.
Active engagement by the parent is crucial, contributing to faster development, boosting confidence, and strengthening bonds.
Do you know what your child is working on in speech therapy and why? Do you know how to carry over what they learned each session into their daily living activities?
4. A Speech Therapist was assigned to you as if they were all created similarly.
Every Speech Therapist is unique, with varying expertise and approaches. It’s essential to recognize that they aren’t all created equal, and finding the right match can significantly impact the success of your therapy journey.
Our approach is comprehensive, examining more than just speech.
Our skilled Speech-Language Pathologists offer more than traditional play-based therapy. They also consider other issues for a holistic assessment, including eating habits, sleep patterns, and behaviors.
Plus, we’re in the know! As members of various professional groups, we have resources to find answers, even if it’s something new. So, we’ve got you covered whether you need a particular provider or have a unique situation!
5. You accidentally allow yourself to become treated like a number.
As the parent, you should have ultimate authority over any recommendations, but many agencies are busy. So, if you tell someone that you’d rather wait, they will let you stay, and with therapy on hiatus, their file becomes updated, and no one is wrong. But your child is still hurting.
Suppose you assume you know what is best for your child without consulting professionals. In that case, we will believe you because we respect your ultimate authority. You may be giving up a life-changing opportunity to sit and wait because you unknowingly refused the help you need.
Speech therapy funding is in high demand, and with high caseloads, it’s easy to become a number. Agencies often prioritize therapist availability over the ideal one for your child’s needs. When you tell your specialist you will not consider teletherapy, you may have mistakenly given up the only obtainable avenue to match with a specialist specific to your child.
Waiting may seem like an option, but remember, your child is the one who will bear the consequences.
It’s essential to be proactive, advocate for your child, and seek a therapist who understands and caters to your child’s unique requirements.
6. Structural issues often become overlooked.
General therapists may miss the structural component of the mouth, resulting in extended enrollment periods and unrealistic expectations for children. Meanwhile, their structure can impact speech, feeding, breathing, and overall development.
Ignoring these aspects may affect health and behavior, leading to improper diagnoses and unnecessary medications.
7. Diagnostic testing is generally vague.
Receiving an evaluation that only focuses on standardized tests and parent interviews might leave you with vague and incomplete information.
Clinical observation is just as important as other testing components because it fills in the gaps and captures real life scenarios of why your child is in therapy.
It is common to see the oral mechanism report, a crucial assessment aspect, simplified, generalized and often incomplete. Instead of using other forms of clinical observations, the therapist may blame its short fallings on the child’s inability to speak or follow directions.
Understanding how crucial this report is can help us make sure it’s done properly, and signs of hasty finalization may indicate a lack of specialized training in that area for the evaluator.
Ensuring that diagnostic testing is done well is critical in getting the right information for your child.
Here’s how to tell if you’re receiving adequate services.
Take a moment to reflect on your evaluation and review your reports – they’re the building blocks of your treatment plan. Please pay special attention to the oral mechanism section in the initial evaluation report; it’s a game-changer.
Did your therapist ask you many questions that seemed like they had nothing to do with speech? These questions might be about sleeping, eating habits, behaviors, looking inside the mouth, teeth, and bite alignment.
Did your therapist watch your child eat?
Did you discuss sleeping patterns in depth?
The orofacial exam is the most essential component of the evaluation.
A mouth check, also known as an orofacial exam, is a must during your child’s speech evaluation. It helps us see how the mouth works – checking structures, movement, habits, and breathing.
This simple exam is crucial for understanding speech challenges and might uncover breathing or feeding problems connected to the mouth.
It’s a crucial step in figuring out how to help your child talk better.
Learn to identify indicators of an incomplete orofacial exam.
Some indicators can help determine an appropriate report. Signs of an incomplete or inadequately conducted report may include a lack of thoroughness or the presence of the following:
Blaming the child: There was limited data due to age or minimal usage of words. Lack of cooperation limited the assessment. The child’s inability to imitate or to follow directions limited the data.
Blaming outside sources: Limited data was available due to being on the computer. Based on the parent report, the therapist did not look for themselves – using an informal assessment without alternative attempts due to limited ability to obtain data.
Common phrases indicating an incomplete report: The report only states that the child presented with typical facial structures and oral motor function. The assessment was informal. Informal observation was the primary basis of the exam. Facial features appeared adequate without any further elaborations. We should monitor oral motor strength and range of motion as his oral output increases. Based on informal observation, oral motor skills appeared adequate for speech production.
Is it a non-personalized template?
Did the descriptions match your child?
As we collect reports from various agencies, we note whether they used the expected template for each report. Templates are helpful and serve their purpose. We use them, but there are ways to determine if they represent a personalized report for your child.
Look out for descriptions that don’t match your child. Some common examples include describing them as having a closed mouth posture when their mouth is frequently open, stating they drool when they do not, etc. They represent the wrong gender, only define and state the purpose of the report, and then say it’s informal.
Why are we different?
Our additional training and specializations go beyond traditional speech therapy, enabling us to offer a more comprehensive range of services that will help you solve your problems.
We are committed to understanding underlying problems, identifying practical treatment approaches, and supporting you in daily activities.
If you ever have questions or concerns that are new to us, our dedicated team leverages memberships in professional clubs and organizations to access a network of experts, ensuring you receive accurate and up-to-date information.
We go beyond a typical speech therapy session.
When selecting a therapist, prioritize training and experience, as the quality of service can significantly vary.
While the choice between in-person and online services may seem straightforward, not all therapists possess the same experience.
Our teletherapy services offer a valuable way to access expertise and convenience.
What can we do to help?
Don’t put your child aside while waiting for your ideal in-person therapist. Give us a try!
Did you know you throw around $500.00 in the garbage each week you wait for therapy? You’re also adding to your stress as a parent as you experience your child struggling to communicate and missing learning opportunities.
The first few years of a child’s life involve rapid brain development, particularly in areas crucial for language skills.
Don’t sit out on this developmental period. Delaying intervention may result in missed opportunities, making it harder for the child to catch up and reach their full potential.
Let’s use that time instead!
Our goal is to prevent you from waiting weeks or months for a therapist, further preventing you from possibly digging a deeper hole than you’re already in.
Talk to a specialized therapist to address meeting all your child’s needs.
We can use our unique approach to answer any questions that in-person speech-language pathologists may not be able to answer or your evaluator did not address.
Stop waiting and wasting time.
We want to provide a further in-depth assessment to research how the mouth performs in other regulatory functions such as feeding, breathing, sleeping, teeth eruption, facial and body development, and behavior and how it relates to your child’s overall health.
We can further your evaluation to ensure an accurate consideration of all structural or functional issues.
The process will entail doing activities you likely did not experience during your initial evaluation, including a feeding screening, sleep screening, structural screening, sensory screening, body posture screening, and parent education.
We’ll also provide the basics of speech and language therapy because we are Speech Pathologists, after all.
Don’t settle for an incomplete assessment.
Let’s finalize the missing pieces from your report and ascertain whether this area falls within the normal range or necessitates further investigation.
So, if you’re…
on a waiting list,
your reports reflect our examples,
not getting all the answers you want,
or simply wanting to work with a speech therapist with further training and specializations.
we recommend you call us to at least rule out the possibility.
If we’re not currently in your area, get in touch with us and your staffing coordinator to explore the possibility of making the necessary arrangements to obtain services.
