I’ve always felt that my daughter was super smart. I honestly believe that all children are super smart. They have brains like sponges: they hear things and take them in, and then repeat them back at the most random (or inopportune!) times. At K’s four year well visit, she asked about the pipes under the sink then proceeded to tell me all about how water goes through a system to get filtered and remove microbes. Mind you, I had never spoken to her about water filtration. She’s just a sponge who heard about it somewhere and remembered.

At that same well visit, her doctor confirmed that her articulation is not where it should be for her age. Doc explained how we could address it privately or through the school district, and it was such a weight off of my mama heart. You see, it’s hard for most people to understand what my daughter’s saying. It’s even hard for me to understand some of the time. When asked directly, I had said I understand 75% of what she says within context and 50% out of context. But I’m not sure if this is even accurate. I feel like I’m constantly asking her to repeat herself and, although she does, she often will cope by physically acting out what she’s doing to add a second means of communication and give her a better chance of being understood.

Choices

Along with sharing that it was possible to get an evaluation through the school district, Doc gave us the phone number of who we could contact locally for a private evaluation. I was tempted to go for the private evaluation, but I shared online and asked other local homeschool mamas about their experience. One woman who took the time to respond offered to chat with me and answer any questions I had. After an hour-long phone call, I was more confident about going through the school district.

Since K is only four, going through the school district meant registering her and giving them all of her information. I know other homeschool mamas often don’t want to share so much with the district, but I live in New York State, a highly regulated state when it comes to homeschooling. Eventually they were going to get all of her information anyway. This will allow us to get some help from them in the meantime.

The Process

It turns out that getting an evaluation wasn’t a difficult process. I filled out the registration paperwork and brought it to the registrar’s office directly. She took a look and gave me an extra form to fill out to request testing. Within a few days, we received a packet from the district (pretty much what anyone registering would receive) along with a list of places that could do the evaluations. We chose a place and the district shared our information. Within a week, they called and told us what to expect, then the three evaluators contacted me to set up their meetings in our home (!!). With a one year old, having the evaluations in our home was much easier than packing up both kids and finding an office to meet, so I jumped at the offer.

K received an educational evaluation, a psychological evaluation, and a speech evaluation. It was a lot for her, but they were spread out over a week, and the evaluators each made sure it was as fun as they could. It was interesting how often the questions overlapped and I loved seeing their interactions with K. She was on cloud nine getting to be the center of attention, and I provided “translation services” as I tend to call it, helping them understand what she couldn’t effectively articulate.

The Conclusion

After all was said and done, she did great on all the testing, except her articulation. Now it was up to the school district. Just under a month after her last evaluation, we finally had her meeting last week. I know it wasn’t an excessively long time, but I’m so eager for her to get help that it felt long.

At the meeting, the evaluating agency shared a synopsis of the testing and the representative for the Committee on Preschool Special Education identified K as a “preschool student with a disability.” She recommended speech therapy twice per week and will be developing an IEP (Individualized Education Plan). Apparently there are other kids waiting to receive speech therapy in their homes, but if we’re willing to travel to an agency, she can get started sooner, so that’s what we’re going to do.

Communication: It’s a Big Deal

I know I said that my daughter is super smart, but being smart isn’t everything. Imagine if we didn’t address her articulation. I remember playing a game or maybe seeing it on tv – you see how many marshmallows you can stuff into your mouth. But once you do, you can’t speak clearly. As you add marshmallow after marshmallow, everything you say becomes confusing. Everyone laughs because it’s a game and you spit out the marshmallows and repeat yourself clearly. But what if you couldn’t. 

Have you ever spoken with someone on the phone and had no idea what they were saying? Maybe they mumbled or their speech was garbled. I’m sure it was frustrating for you, but what about them? Do you think they enjoyed being misunderstood? Do you think they might have wished they could’ve “spit out the marshmallows” in order to be easily understood?

I think that’s the benefit of speech therapy and why I’ve been advocating for my daughter to receive it. She is so friendly and loves to make friends with other kids, but they can’t understand her. She’s often shy with adults when they’re standing, but, when they get on her level, she wants to talk and answer their questions, but they have to look to me to understand what she’s saying. Speech therapy will allow her to learn the skills or build the muscles to better articulate her thoughts, her wants, and her needs. I’m not ready for a teenager by any means, but speech therapy will grant her some of the independence she so desperately craves. And she might even be able to ask our Google Home a question and get an answer.

I hope never to have this issue, but someone close to me had an accident while home with his kids. His daughter was able to tell Alexa to call her mom and they were able to get him help immediately. K doesn’t speak clearly enough to be understood. God forbid something happens, she wouldn’t be able to help. Speech therapy will give her the confidence to help if something goes wrong.

Interview with Amanda Owens, SLP

Recently I’ve been lucky to connect with a speech language pathologist named Amanda Owens. Every time that I see a homeschool summit or interview that includes any information on speech, Amanda is there and sharing ideas in a fun and relatable way. If going through the school district fell through or if I think I need additional support, she’s the person I’d go to for answers.

I had the opportunity to chat with her individually and asked if she’d be willing to share some information about the speech therapy journey from her perspective, and she graciously agreed!

Hi Amanda! Can you share a little about yourself and your business for my readers?

Sure, I’d love to! I am a homeschool graduate, homeschool mom of 4, and homeschool speech language pathologist. I teach parents how to teach their children to talk clearly and confidently using speech therapy you love to do together, courses, and workshops. I put speech therapy tools in momma hands 

I love that you have resources especially for homeschool families. What inspired you to advocate for them?

Wow, this is the first time I’ve been asked in this way, so pardon me if I tear up a bit. I’m a softy and this has my heart in a strong grip. I was reading in Psalms about how God illuminates our darkness and I was just struck with the weight of all the things I had been encouraged to keep quiet on and not share with parents, in the various settings I’ve worked in. Working in medical settings, early intervention, and public schools, I have seen parents want to learn how to work with their children but be denied critical opportunities to learn what their children needs. Sometimes it’s been money related (like a school encouraging you NOT to mention tongue ties or airway concerns), sometimes competitiveness (like another company or SLP would be a better fit), sometimes due to “safety” or “protocol” (like a parent not being allowed into a session or included in the session), or the job hasn’t allowed for the time to really work with the family because paperwork eats up all the time. So I meet families all the time that say “I’ve never heard about that” or “I’ve never was taught HOW.” If you add that into the fact that some homeschoolers feel less valued in a clinical or traditional academic space because they choose to homeschool…. it can be tough for homeschool families to be supported.  I don’t think it is necessarily meant to be that way, but the system doesn’t always work in the favor of the individual. I had no grand plans of being an entrepreneur, but God had different plans. 

As a speech language pathologist, why do you feel speech therapy is so important?

Speech therapy is important simply because speech and language development is so key to life as we expect it. The ability to communicate our ideas and learn new ones is central to our growth as a whole person and our ability to connect, however we communicate is key to relationships that span our whole lives! Lots of folks don’t realize how connected play, cognition, speech sound development, reading, the ability to navigate social situations, language, even math all relate. When a child has a speech or language delay, I can often see the effects in the child when they are older through their academics, especially if they aren’t supported with speech therapy and their parents aren’t given specific tools early on. Reading, reading comprehension, and written expression are big ones I see impacted by speech and language delays .

If someone is worried about their child’s speech or language development, what should be their first step?

Trust your gut. Most moms I meet are right. Pediatricians don’t always have great tools to gauge typical or atypical language development and  if they are going by the guidelines given to them, your child may still be functioning way differently than expected. I recommend the ASHA.org milestones as a gauge, because these are based on the most current data from the professionals that support speech and language all day, every day. Your pediatrician has other skill sets but often they have had minimal coursework, if any on the topic. Bring those milestones to your pediatrician if you need to, or ask for a referral to an SLP just to be sure. You can also contact an SLP directly and they can help you navigate your next steps. Many of us offer free consultations or low cost screenings, and we are allowed to operate without a referral from a physician for speech and language concerns. It’s more of an insurance thing though, so if you plan on using insurance, be upfront and most SLPs can help you figure that out. Never feel like you have to go it alone. I have a free ebook that can help you walk through those first steps too.

Where can my readers find you online?

You are most welcome to find me at illuminatecommunicate.com where you can get connected into my FB support group, classes and curriculums, and connect with me for speech therapy. I’m licensed in a few states myself, but I have a directory of homeschool supportive SLPs across the USA. I’d be happy to help folks find their next step. It’s kind of my ministry!

Thank you so much for your time! And thanks for joining us In Our Homeschool!