I thought I’d just write a post to thank y’all for your suggestions and encouragement and give you some more info, etc.
I had Anna Grace evaluated for her progress. She has been seeing the same therapist here in Florida since September and she has been in speech therapy for the apraxia since July of 2005. The only reason I wanted the evaluation was to check on her progress, to make sure she’s keeping up with new milestones since she just had a birthday and to see if we were closing in on a time when we could stop therapy. In other words…. is she ready for us to say Apraxia: Resolved?
The first part of the eval went well and Anna Grace did well. But there were people moving in and out of the room (a big no no when evaluating kids), the therapist let her student do the eval (usually not a problem but this student did not have enough clinical experience for this) and then the eval kept being stopped by the therapist to do teaching moments with the student. Now, these teaching moments need to happen and all students need the experience but I needed a good eval on AG and these moments led to Anna Grace being distracted. Eventually, Anna Grace shut down and stopped fully participating.
And then the therapist told me that her language had regressed because Anna Grace wasn’t participating. They had done everything they possibly could to prevent her from being successful and many of the things she missed she absolutely knows.
I can’t go over the therapist’s head because this is a private practice. She’s the owner, therapist, manager all in one. And there’s nothing to appeal… Anna Grace isn’t gaining or losing services based on this eval. But I needed the eval to see where we were. To have a realistic picture etc.
So… what am I going to do?
Well, first I’m going to get a new movie made of Anna Grace and I’m going to do it PDQ. The last one I made is nearly a year old. So, I’ll make another one showing what her skill level actually is and post it, notify her therapist, etc.
Then I will be writing an email to the therapist outlining my concerns and asking for a new eval for the language portion. And I’ll go from there.
I feel better today. Still frustrated but I’ve got a plan. I think I’ve got a bit of my fight back in me. Dana’s warming up the video camera so I’m putting my plan into action.
Thanks Y’all!
That’s so not Best Practices! Couldn’t she have taped the eval and then gone over it in detail with the student afterwards? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that ANY four year old is going to balk at cooperating when those sorts of adult interruptions are going on! That doesn’t help the student either.
At the very least, the eval should have a narrative at the beginning explaining the circumstances of the eval and reasons where it might not be valid. You registered for and someone paid for (insurance or you) an eval done using Best Practices. She should offer you another one at no charge.
Aren’t therapists licensed by the state medical board? Wouldn’t that be over her head? At the very least, this incident should be documented somewhere “official” for all to see.
I’m sorry for AG and you both. You all have worked so hard to overcome this, you deserve the recognization for it. She deserves a cake with ice cream, a crown and jewels for doing as she has been asked and taught so well. Don’t give up.
Enough of my ‘get outta your tree’ speech. Know I’ve said a prayer and will continue to do so.
I would definitely follow up if you don’t feel that a valid evaluation was done under the circumstances. As another apraxia mom as well, not to burst your bubble, but from what I know it’s fairly rare for a child with apraxia to stop therapy this early in the game. She just turned 5? Or 4? Either way, sometimes there’s other residual things. In the case of my son, he speaks rather articulately, but he has serious pragmatic language issues. I’ve also read in my many years of research that just because she hits her milestones now doesn’t mean she’ll hit her speech/language milestones as she gets older. A better analogy is that even if she can read Dr. Seuss’s “Hop on Pop” doesn’t necessarily mean that she’ll be reading “War and Peace” when she’s old enough– but this is all in speech terms. I would still do the re-eval, but you might want to continue speech, but just not as often, to just REALLY ensure that her apraxia is resolved. I’ve just read about so many people who thought, “Hooray!” only to have things crop up once they started school in either kindergarten or school full-time. I’m just cautious that way. If I really watch my son, I know that his apraxia is still at work. If he gets very emotional, or has a very complex idea or thought he wants to get across, he starts groping more (which has gotten better over the years, but it still happens now and then), or he uses much more simplistic language sometimes to get his thoughts across, again, even if he’s talking about something complicated. He’s more likely to say something’s “hard” vs. “difficult”. That sort of thing, and that’s not uncommon with apraxic kids.
Remember that apraxia, like dyslexia, never goes away. Apraxics just learn the trick they need in order to speak, just like dyslexics learn what they need to in order to read. 😉