Private school for Speech Delay (Dallas, Allen: insurance, house, school districts)

[Mylillymay]

My son is in the Allen isd pre-k program for speech. He goes 5 days a week and gets speech 2 of those days. Our pediatrician agrees with us that he needs more speech therapy. The school district refuses and says he is on track for kindergarten. We know he is not even close. He meets all the kindergarten requirements which is basically nothing for entering kindergarten. He is a very smart boy but his speech is affecting his learning because he cannot communicate properly with his teachers and peers.

We have been fighting insurance like crazy to get him into private speech but they refuse. We didn't worry about private speech because he was really making progress until we switched school districts. We are about to do private pay just to get him more help. I feel he needs a stronger academic environment just to get a good foundation since he will not be caught up speech wise by August

So my question is are there any private schools in the North Dallas area that specialize in speech therapy for kindergarten and up? All my searches have come back with schools for autism, dyslexia or learning disabilities which he has none of. I know he will not succeed in the public school until he overcomes his speech delay. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[seek2advocate]

I don't know the answer. My daughter has dyslexia and auditory processing disorder and I'm in the admission process at shelton. You might talk to fairhill as I hear good things about them. You are smart to address it now. I tried to make things work in the public schools and lost time as a result. They are great at making it seem the issues are minor. For example, testing at shelton shows my 8th grade daughter is reading at the 5th grade level and comprehension is at the 3rd grade level. Her middle school specialist tells me she is reading at the high school level when she was in 7th grade. I can even see where that couldn't possibly be true.

[tuesday2]

Try the Callier Center, Child Development Program - Callier Center at UT Dallas

It's not in North Dallas, but might be a good resource as far as asking about other programs available that would be closer.

Shelton is for kids with learning differences, but they have in house speech therapists that see you child as part of the school day. Might be worth checking out. The child to teacher ratio is very low and your child would receive excellent instruction there.

Good luck on your search, early intervention is the key!

[RonnieinDallas]

TCU has a great program done by their speech pathology students, but that's probably too far.

http://harriscollege.tcu.edu/centers...miller-clinic/

[Mylillymay]

Thanks for the suggestions. Will definitely check them out. I am needing to stay as close to Allen as possible. I have 2 other elementary kids in Allen isd so I have to be able to get everyone to school.

[bamaintex]

Good luck on your search. I don't really know much about private schools, but my son goes to a great private therapist in Allen if you ever get your insurance to cooperate. My son is in K and the school provides speech 2 times per week for him. I had the opposite experience as his deficits are milder. I started him in private speech first with no issues, but it took two evaluations with the school district to get him qualified.

[tuesday2]

Another thought. Private speech therapy will probably be about the same cost of private tuition, if not less depending on how many hours a week he goes. Maybe supplementing the school curriculum at home and finding a great speech therapist close and paying out of pocket would work better for you.

When my oldest was that age and he was in private speech, his speech therapist worked with him on all kinds of kinder readiness skills while she was working with him on his speech. Maybe look for a clinic that has Occupational therapists and speech therapists. Those speech therapists are used to working in conjunction with other therapists to address the whole child, not just speech. That was my experience anyway.

[jbsb]

We had a speech therapist at Shelton visit with one of our children once a week at his current school. The therapist was amazing and he really enjoyed seeing her every week.

[seek2advocate]

Great suggestions here. Just to share my situation- we tried filling in with private therapy and it seemed to work well through elementary school. Then slowly through middle school the challenges surfaced. Daughter was exhausted from coping during the day. There were just not enough hours in the day at that point to get in all the private therapy and still allow her time for her interests. I just share this with you because I never knew anyone to tell me what was coming up.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

I didn't think my grandson was getting enough speech therapy at his Frisco school when he started K. This year, now that he is in 2nd grade, his articulation is almost perfect. I was amazed at how well they had done with him. I truly could only understand less than 25% of his speech when he was in K. In pre-K, he went to a Speech program at a different school, daily; free as it was offered by the ISD.