Rights when raising a child with a speech impediment

Introduction

There are many different types of speech and language impediments that can effect children in many different ways. Speech disorders in young children is 8 to 9 percent and by 1st grade around 5 percent of children have speech delays. These different kinds can range from articulate disorder, to fluency, language and voice issues. Not only are their many kinds of language impairments but there are also different ways these impairments can be created. It is important to keep notice these speech and language issues early on due to the fact that it is so prevalent in our world today seeing that the "U.S. Department of Education’s 2018 Annual Report to Congress, speech or language impairments (42.6%) represent the most prevalent disability category of children ages 3 through 5 served under IDEA Part B" (ASHA, 2018). In order to catch these issues early on, it is important to know different important milestones in your child's life in order to be able to recognize when something may be wrong.

Important Milestones

Throughout a child'd life, they are seen to hit certain milestones that are important in order to develop certain abilities. These milestones are fundamental in order to notice speech or language problems early on, but it is also important to know that each child is different as well. From birth to one year old, it is important that your child begins to be startled at different sounds, smiles, cooo's, and moves eyes with moving objects. Also, they usually notice toys and interacts with long string of sounds. From one year old to two year old they are seen to point out minimal body parts when asked as well as follow one part direction. Also, they are seen to listen to simple stories and point to pictures. From two to three years old they understand opposites, follow two part direction, has words for most things as well as asks "why" questions. For three to four year olds they begin to respond and understand colors and shapes. They also begin to use plural words as well as as questions and put 4 words together. Finally, from ages four to five it is seen that children understand order, follow longer orders and direction and use names, letters and numbers. Also, they are seen to use sentences that have more then one action. These milestones that are seen through a child's development are extremely important to keep in mind when trying to intervene in a speech or language issue early on.

Real World Scenarios

The Mother of a 5 Year Old Boy with a Speech Impediment

When interviewing this mother she stated that she was a mother of four children and her youngest son was the first child in her family to have a speech impediment. She was very new to speech impairments and really didn't know what to do or how to know for shore or if she was just over reacting. When she first started to notice issues in her sons developmental skills she took a lot of time to do intense research on how to intervene early on. She was the first out of teachers or medical professionals to recognize any issues and went forward with testing that showed in the end that he did have a speech impediment. When he finally was diagnosed the mother explained that he never had problems with inclusion in the classrooms, although she introduced how she wished his IEP team was more transparent of the rights she had, due to the fact that she had to do an excessive amount of research to clarify all her rights. In her experience, she was close and open with her IEP team, but they could have done more in order to help her understand legally what her and her sons rights were. Also, when introducing the major issues she had in regards to working with professionals it was trying to get the best experience for her son in the classroom. She introduced the idea of one on one teaching with her son, although her IEP team said he was on track and they didn't think it was necessary. At first they thought it was fine to keep him integrated in the normal classroom until he started to fall behind more and they then began having a teacher work one on one with him in the classroom

40 In-Depth Interviews with Parents with a Child with a Speech Impediment

When looking through the interviews of these parents, it is seen that in almost all the cases they were the first to notice any issues with their child's speech or language. Many of them saw that the main issues they faced were with health professionals. Almost all the health professionals reacted to these parents initial worries with answers similar to , “oh, some are slower than others" or "one day he'll come out with a mouthful and you'll wish he never had … you know, he'll never stop talking" (Rannard, Lyons, Glenn, 2005). The danger to waiting until the child begins to talk or not taking early intervention steps is that it could eventually lead to behavioral/ psychiatric problems, decrease in academic success, and personal or social difficulties. Many parents have to rely on these medical professionals opinions also because there is no universal screenings that are valid. Almost all the parents that were interviewed described that they first started seeing issues with their children's development around two yeas old. Around 70% of the parents also remembered the first time they saw something wrong as well. It was seen that many of these parents would go to health professionals and they would all come back with answers like "well he's only two" or "leave him until he's three". Answers like these can be extremely detrimental to the development of children due to the fact that if they end up waiting another year to see if they get better, it can cause life long issues that could of been prevented if they intervened earlier.

Also one of the main issues parents saw was if their child already had an existing issue, many health professionals almost put their language developmental issues on the back burner. for example a 3 year old child at a pediatric orthopedic hospital was unable to form two word sentences but their mother didn't feel like they prioritized that sue to the other issues he was facing. A small number of these parents that were interviewed were referred to a speech or language therapist and almost all had gaps in their referral or check ups.

What Parents said they Wished they Knew

Due Process

When interviewing the mother with the five year old son with a speech impediment, She went into depth how frustrating it was when the school wouldn't listen to her concerns, or wouldn't accommodate her concerns in a timely manner. It wasn't until a year or so after she finally got her son the accommodations he needed after she had argued with the school about one on one teaching, that she had learned about due process. Section 504 allows parents to approve an initial evaluation of their child as well as allows families to be eligible for certain aids or services. Although many parents may not know that this also includes a portion that if a parent disagrees with a decision made by the school they can also request a due process hearing. This is a written document used to request a due process hearing related to the evaluation or placement of a child, you can also find details about this file from a state educational agency. This process also allows your student to stay in their current school system until the process is over, but you can also call for an expedited hearing timeline as well. When talking to the mother of the five year old son, she explained that this would have helped her situation greatly, if she knew about due process. That although her school was very helpful in accommodating to her son, she wished they had put him in one on one teaching earlier so he didn't fall so behind. This mother explains that this is a major right that she wished she knew she had as well as hopes to inform other parents about.

Individualized Treatment

Title II of ADD Section 504 includes individualized treatment. This explains that individuals with disabilities "must be treated on a case by case basis consistent with facts and objective evidence" and that individuals cant be treated on certain generalizations or stereotypes. When looking at the interviews of the 40 parents, many of them explained their main issue when telling professionals about there child's delays were that they were usually told its only because there still very young or to wait because 2 year olds can be shy and by 3 they will be talking. Although, based on individualized treatments, it was these parents right to be properly examined and tested without generalizing or stereotyping their behaviors or actions. Due to the fact that these professionals didn't withhold their duty to assess these students without any stereotyping or generalizations, they didn't fully do their job.

States Early Intervention

This early intervention plan is under the Federal grant program run by individual states under part C of the individuals with disabilities act helps children from 0-3 years old. You can be referred by either a pediatrician, parent, grandparent or a child care provider. Also, they don't necessarily need a diagnosis. Your EI's team of specialists can test and evaluate an individual to see if they qualify. Once a child qualifies, they then received an IFSP to explain services that are recommended for your child. This also helps describe your child's current developmental level, how to improve, outcomes to expect, specified services, and goals from start to finish. Also, some services in each state are free of charge.

SLP at Local Elementary Schools

Another tool that many parents don't know about is the SLP at local elementary schools that can test children's speech and language skills, although each process varies among schools. Based on their results it can allow them to get help either alone or inside the classroom/ Also, it can allow professionals to refer your child to a study team for testing where the SLP may be part of the team with teachers, special education teachers, psychologists and others. American Speech Language Hearing Association also indicates that the speech language pathology assessment includes

• Case history, including medical status, education, socioeconomic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds and information from teachers and other related service providers
• Patient/client/student and family interview
• Review of auditory, visual, motor, and cognitive status
• Standardized and/or non-standardized measures of specific aspects of speech, spoken and non-spoken language, cognitive-communication, and swallowing function, including observations and analysis of work samples
• Identification of potential for effective intervention strategies and compensations
• Selection of standardized measures for speech, language, cognitive-communication, and/or swallowing assessment with consideration for documented ecological validity and cultural sensitivity
• Follow-up services to monitor communication and swallowing status and ensure appropriate intervention and support for individuals with identified speech, language, cognitive-communication, and/or swallowing disorders

The Parents Final Advice

In conclusion, I wrapped up the mothers interview with asking what final advice they would want to give mothers when being introduced to the fact that their child may have a speech impediment. This mother said it was important to keep an open mind and trust your instinct when you think something might not be right with the development of your child, but also remember that not every child is the same. Also she stated that its important to ask for professional help and to also do your own research. That theres so much to know about your rights and when you are able to research it to the best of your ability your only benefiting both you and your child.

References

“Concerns That Screen Time May Affect Children’s Communication Development.” The ASHA Leader, vol. 23, no. 7, 2018, pp.

26–26., doi:10.1044/leader.aag.23072018.26.

“Figure 2f from: Groom Q (2014) The Distribution of the Vascular Plants on the North Frisian Island, Amrum. Biodiversity Data

Journal 2: e1108. Https://Doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.2.e1108.” doi:10.3897/bdj.2.e1108.figure2f.

“How Does Your Child Hear and Talk? Speech, Language, and Hearing Developmental Milestones From Birth to 5 Years.”

Speech, Language, and Hearing Developmental Milestones From Birth to 5 Years, American Speech-Language-Hearing

Association, www.asha.org/public/speech/development/chart/.

“Speech and Language Impairments.” Center for Parent Information and Resources, 16 June 2015,

www.parentcenterhub.org/speechlanguage/.

“Statistics on Voice, Speech, and Language.” National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services, 1 Dec. 2020, www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/statistics-voice-speech-and-

language.

“What Is Early Intervention?” HealthyChildren.org, www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/developmental-

disabilities/Pages/Early-Intervention.aspx.

This article "Rights when raising a child with a speech impediment" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Rights when raising a child with a speech impediment. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• Alimi Sikiru
• Mo Urooj Khan
• Amit Sharma
• Lower Saxonian State Medal
• Hee Hee
• Terence E. Horgan
• List of High Schools that Start with the Letter M

---