Status Update: Tav's Speech

I'm steeped in the application process for Medical Assistance.  Apparently this is a common route for those needing so much outpatient therapy as private insurance only covers a certain amount, but under some loophole situation in the government, it is possible to gain coverage for a child with needs such as Tavin.  That being said, it is not easily navigated or accomplished.  I'm an educated woman with an undergrad degree and Masters degree and it has been a tribulation dealing with the red tape, inefficiency and duplicity throughout the system (not to mention various numbers with no dial tone that are supposed to offer help).  Anyways, tonight I wrote an expose of sorts as one of my supporting documents as to why we need to gain this Medical Assistance.  I think I am probably going above and beyond what this government office requests, but if they are going to ask for information from this momma who loves her son so much and has been so amiss these last few months wrestling with this speech struggle, they were in for an earful.  I thought it made for a good way to catch up the blog followers, so here it goes.  Grab the tissues, well, at least I did.

Parental Description of Need for Special Services for Tavin Melder

At age 2 our son, Tavin, spoke many words with confidence.   He just failed to articulate well.  Since he was only 2 at that time we were not concerned.  As he progressed through his 2^nd year into his 3^rd we noticed his vocabulary increasing, his words stringing into sentences and sentences then into paragraphs, but unfortunately, he still lacked clear articulation.  Actually, instead we noticed patterns in his speech and that his verbose conversations were very much in his own language and unintelligible to everyone outside of his big brother, myself (his mother) and his father.  At his 3 year check-up with his pediatrician, in December of 2012,  I casually mentioned our concerns and the pediatrician, Dr. Paul Rowland, suggested we have him evaluated by UPMC’s Children’s Hospital here in Pittsburgh.  At that evaluation (in late January 2013) it was clear that Tavin falls short of the average intelligibility for his age group and they found him to have phonological disorders causing the lack of articulation.  Upon this evaluation they recommended that we have speech therapy twice a week.  Starting in mid-April of 2013, Tavin has had speech therapy twice a week at Children’s Hospital.  During the time between his evaluation in January and the commencement of therapy in April, we learned of the intermediate unit of Pittsburgh Public Schools’ early intervention program.  We pursued this avenue of treatment as well and therapy began once a week with Pittsburgh Public starting in early April 2013 as well.  So by May 2013, Tavin was seeing a qualified speech therapist three times a week between the two programs.

In the past three months we have seen progress in Tavin’s phonological issues, but there is much work to be done.  We are thankful that particular words have improved and those words are more understood by peers and adults, but his conversational speech remains mostly unintelligible by those outside his familiar inner circle.  In this process of therapy we have come to terms that we will most likely need to continue treatment three times a week until Tavin is school age or perhaps further in order for him to learn how to overcome these phonological problems.  In the paperwork we received from the County Assistance Office we were told to provide how this “disability” causes our child difficulty in social relationships and situations and educational opportunities.  

Here are my explanations…

Tavin is a child filled with joy.  He is vibrant, expressive, creative and imaginative.  He is full of life and this pours out of him when speaking to me (his mother), his father and his brothers (ages 6 and 1).  But in social environments, a paragraph of excited information can be cut short when he, at the age of 3, sees that he is not being understood.  When asked his name and he states it in his own way, he turns to me and says, “oo say i-ya, Mommy?”  He is clearly starting to be quite aware that he needs a translator and is misunderstood much of the time by most of the people he spends time with.  We are obviously working against this with therapy, but it is a long, uphill battle.  His social capability is great due to his fantastic personality, but the ill-function of his conversational speech does threaten it severely.

As for education…Tavin is heading into preschool this Fall (2013).  He will be attending a private preschool two days a week.  At the preschool, Pittsburgh Public’s early intervention intermediate unit will be providing 45-60 minutes of therapy in this social environment.  That being said, we are concerned about Tavin’s ability to be understood by his teachers and peers on his own.  He is so excited to go to preschool as he remembers his brother attending this particular school, but as parents we are wary about how it will go due to his language skills.  It particularly pains us to think that perhaps his lack of intelligibility could cause him to withdraw from his vivacious personality and feel uncomfortable in educational settings.  This is why we are so passionate about Tavin receiving the therapy needed to help him overcome his speech problems.  This child is not only gifted, tenacious and a huge blessing to us, but he has so much to say.  We know this, but we want the world to know what this special little guy has to say and we look forward to when they will.