Frequency of speech therapy?
Hi,
My 2 year old has been referred by his pediatrician at Kaiser to speech therapy for an expressive delay. His receptive language is fine and he has no other developmental delays. We are currently scheduled for an appointment every 2 weeks. I am curious if this is a standard frequency or if I should be pushing for more frequent follow up.
Thank you!
Sep 18, 2021
Parent Replies
it should be at least 1-2 times a week
Typically, anything do you want to get improvement in is best done at least once a week. My kid is now 20, but he had his speech therapy from the school district weekly. It was both at the Berkeley and Oakland School District since we moved, and both were fantastic. Have you done the IEP assessment with your school district yet? I forget if a child needs to be two or three years old for that. Whatever that is, submit a request for an IEP immediately when your child is eligible, even a little bit before that.
Until then, try to push for more or supplement with private sessions. They simply may not be able to provide you more frequent sessions, so you need to look for other sources of therapy. Take care and good luck
We took (via video) my now 2.5 year old grandson to speech therapy January-March of 2021. He is one of the "CoVid kids" who showed the same delays you are describing. His therapist worked via doxy.me with me weekly for 12 weeks, and it really got him speaking. two weeks is a very long time when a child is only 2: I'd push for more frequent sessions. BTW, the therapist said that due to CoVid and not being able to be around anyone but our family, he wasn't exposed to other kids' language and kids rely on that to learn speaking. so even though you are reading to them and talking and singing--they still need other children as models. He started with nine words of expressive language and at 12 weeks of therapy was at more than 100. good luck--you will get there!
Hello,
Your situation sounds so similar to mine. My daughter is currently receiving speech therapy through a private speech therapist paid by our Kaiser insurance. Based on reviews, I selected a speech therapist from a list that was given to me by Kaiser.
It was her Kaiser pediatrician that first detected the speech language delay and like your son, there's no other developmental delays. My daughter is a few years older than your son and we were approved to received in-person therapy for one hour, once per week. In our situation, it was determined at her initial assessment that one hour per week was sufficient and matched what our Kaiser plan covered. Perhaps the 2 weeks schedule might have been decided based on your plan benefits. If that's not an issue, then I suggest pushing for an appointment every week if you feel that's needed for your son. Parents know their children best and you know what he needs. It can't hurt to ask and request.
Having Kaiser cover the services has been so valuable and I can't say enough how speech therapy has been a blessing for my daughter. It's been a wonderful experience for us and changed her life. She's more confident, able to express herself better and getting the help she needs to thrive. Best of luck to you.
My sister is a speech therapist. She says if he isn't talking, she would recommend 2x/week for 45 minutes. This is usually covered, although she practices in New York.
We also received Speech Therapy through the RCEB, had it 1x a week between KP & RCEB. We had Lakshmi from Kaiser & she was AMAZING. I’d recommend seeing how this frequency works for you & your kiddo before exploring more options. I found the sessions more about educating us parents rather than the kid so we could work consistently snd effectively w our kid.