Speech therapy - Frustrated!!!

[mumoffour]

My son with Asperger syndrome needs speech therapy - he'd been assessed in the UK just before we left (by the time the appointment came round!)

 

He had some teeth coming up in the wrong places affecting his speech so first things first is I got those sorted - 4 months of to and fro to state dentist - his teacher tells me - those really need to come out and get some speech therapy because he's hard to understand which is affecting his making friends (already a challenge with AS!) SO I drop nearly $300 on getting teeth pulled and so onto the next phase.....

 

Today I phone the state dept and ask about speech therapy - too bad he's 7 "we only help 0 - 6 year olds"

 

Our theory moving out here was that we used the state system in the UK and that'd be fine for us here as well. Fine in theory but in practice this SUCKS!

 

I guess we need to find more $$$ for speech therapy. Back home, he got disability living allowance which would've helped but hey - here we don't get it cos we're new migrants :arghh:

 

Sick of battling for my son.....:cry:

 

 

PS He's developed an AS related tic since we arrived where he squints his eye and screws up his face nearly constantly esp when under stress so that made the concert last week horrible to watch and ended in my first tears in Oz (privately of course!)

 

Any advice?????

[Loopylu]

My son with Asperger syndrome needs speech therapy - he'd been assessed in the UK just before we left (by the time the appointment came round!)

 

He had some teeth coming up in the wrong places affecting his speech so first things first is I got those sorted - 4 months of to and fro to state dentist - his teacher tells me - those really need to come out and get some speech therapy because he's hard to understand which is affecting his making friends (already a challenge with AS!) SO I drop nearly $300 on getting teeth pulled and so onto the next phase.....

 

Today I phone the state dept and ask about speech therapy - too bad he's 7 "we only help 0 - 6 year olds"

 

Our theory moving out here was that we used the state system in the UK and that'd be fine for us here as well. Fine in theory but in practice this SUCKS!

 

I guess we need to find more $$$ for speech therapy. Back home, he got disability living allowance which would've helped but hey - here we don't get it cos we're new migrants :arghh:

 

Sick of battling for my son.....:cry:

 

 

PS He's developed an AS related tic since we arrived where he squints his eye and screws up his face nearly constantly esp when under stress so that made the concert last week horrible to watch and ended in my first tears in Oz (privately of course!)

 

Any advice?????

 

 

Firstly, you have my sympathy with regards to the lack of care provided here for kids with disabilities. Parents are often lumbered with huge extra costs that mainstream kids don't have.... If it's any comfort, mainstream kids are treated just as badly when it comes to elective surgery such as tonsilectomies, adenoidectomies and grommets. My daughter had to wait 3 years just to see a consultant under Medicare. She is now on the priority list for surgery but will still have to wait at least another 6 months...! And don't get me started on the lack of state subsidised dentistry for kids and the less well off!!!!! I know of people who have relocated back to the UK because there is a lack of support/suitable education here in Australia for their child's condition. However, if you want to make a go of things here, perhaps if you haven't already done so, you could join your local Aspergers/Autism support group who may be able to help you navigate the pitfalls of the Aussie systems. They may also have links to charitable organisations who can provide some help if you are struggling with medical costs.

 

I really hope things improve for you and your son. All the best! Loopylu X

[Wellers and Whitehead]

My son with Asperger syndrome needs speech therapy - he'd been assessed in the UK just before we left (by the time the appointment came round!)

 

He had some teeth coming up in the wrong places affecting his speech so first things first is I got those sorted - 4 months of to and fro to state dentist - his teacher tells me - those really need to come out and get some speech therapy because he's hard to understand which is affecting his making friends (already a challenge with AS!) SO I drop nearly $300 on getting teeth pulled and so onto the next phase.....

 

Today I phone the state dept and ask about speech therapy - too bad he's 7 "we only help 0 - 6 year olds"

 

Our theory moving out here was that we used the state system in the UK and that'd be fine for us here as well. Fine in theory but in practice this SUCKS!

 

I guess we need to find more $$$ for speech therapy. Back home, he got disability living allowance which would've helped but hey - here we don't get it cos we're new migrants :arghh:

 

Sick of battling for my son.....:cry:

 

 

PS He's developed an AS related tic since we arrived where he squints his eye and screws up his face nearly constantly esp when under stress so that made the concert last week horrible to watch and ended in my first tears in Oz (privately of course!)

 

Any advice?????

 

I'm angry for you! Which 0 to 2 year old needs speech therapy?? Crazy! Its so easy to take the nhs etc for granted..I did! Now I think its amazing in hind sight. keep putting money on the lottery..:-) maybe look at getting in touch with UK services who could offer you some advice on how you can help you're son?? Just an idea? Keep smiling!

[Paul1Perth]

Firstly, you have my sympathy with regards to the lack of care provided here for kids with disabilities. Parents are often lumbered with huge extra costs that mainstream kids don't have.... If it's any comfort, mainstream kids are treated just as badly when it comes to elective surgery such as tonsilectomies, adenoidectomies and grommets. My daughter had to wait 3 years just to see a consultant under Medicare. She is now on the priority list for surgery but will still have to wait at least another 6 months...! And don't get me started on the lack of state subsidised dentistry for kids and the less well off!!!!! I know of people who have relocated back to the UK because there is a lack of support/suitable education here in Australia for their child's condition. However, if you want to make a go of things here, perhaps if you haven't already done so, you could join your local Aspergers/Autism support group who may be able to help you navigate the pitfalls of the Aussie systems. They may also have links to charitable organisations who can provide some help if you are struggling with medical costs.

 

I really hope things improve for you and your son. All the best! Loopylu X

 

Our son has autism, ADHD and epilepsy and really can't complain about the help and support we've had. From being diagnosed he's been under a doctor till this last year when he was 17. We get some sort of allowance from somewhere, I think it's called carers allowance. The primary school provided a special desk and chair which wrapped around him to stop him fidgeting and messing with other kids pencils and books. The secondary school he went to had a special education stream where there were a few kids with the same sort of difficulties, they formed a strong bond and he liked school a lot.

 

He has had help from an agency called edge who try and place people with difficulties in work experience and paying jobs. He had a work experience position for a year and now has a paying job, not great pay but a job at least, which might lead to something more.

 

It wasn't easy getting it all in place and my wife chased everyone around for ages. One of the teachers in primary school was a right witch and said she couldn't cope with him and wanted him kicked out of school (basically). My wife got the school psych and the headmaster involved and she had to get on with it, she made his life pretty difficult in the first year or so though. After that different teachers and a much happier pupil. We had to get referrals from doctors to specialists but once the ball was rolling we got to see heaps of different doctors and they ended up doing genetic testing on the whole family. We found out through that he has a chromasome disorder. I think it's a matter of getting professional medical people interested and then things started happening from there.

We got referals from one doctor to another to another, just because they thought the other doctor would be interested in the case. The geneticist was the strangest one, wouldn't have liked to talk to him about anything other than genetics but, boy, did he know his stuff. We all had to go for tests and luckily me his mom and brother are all fine. Unfortunately he has a 50% chance of passing on his problem which can lead to terrible things. We realised how lucky we were when the doctor showed us what the problem our son has got could have caused. Downs Syndrome being one of them.

 

Good luck, keep pushing and asking questions of the medical profession and if you can get a referal to see someone. It didn't cost us anything btw, once we got people interested.

[Freckleface]

I'm angry for you! Which 0 to 2 year old needs speech therapy?? Crazy! Its so easy to take the nhs etc for granted..I did! Now I think its amazing in hind sight. keep putting money on the lottery..:-) maybe look at getting in touch with UK services who could offer you some advice on how you can help you're son?? Just an idea? Keep smiling!

 

 

I have no idea about the range of issues that speech therapy might be required for in babies but a speech therapist worked with our friends son who has Down Syndrome from well before his first birthday. I don't think they thought it was crazy.

[Alaska]

Doesn't the OP say 0-6 not 0-2 anyway?

 

I hope you get the support in place that you all need. The idea about support groups is a good one.

I think wherever you are, you need to fight for it which is totally wrong. I know a little girl in the UK who had a brain tumour and her parents have had to fight so hard for the support she has needed when she went to school and they came across a lot of obstacles.

 

Good luck. xx

[Wellers and Whitehead]

Doesn't the OP say 0-6 not 0-2 anyway?

 

I hope you get the support in place that you all need. The idea about support groups is a good one.

I think wherever you are, you need to fight for it which is totally wrong. I know a little girl in the UK who had a brain tumour and her parents have had to fight so hard for the support she has needed when she went to school and they came across a lot of obstacles.

 

Good luck. xx

 

Yes the op did say 0 to 6, but I put 0 to 2 as couldn't see much need for speech therapy at that age. :-)

[Guest Julz]

I share your fustrations, my son badly needs speech therapy, he is aged 5 in Prep and basically even though the teacher has recommended speech therapy the school is too underfunded to do anything about it. She has also recommended that he has a full paediatric assessment and thinks there may be some dyslexia or some other problem, but again school funding can't help!!

 

I am moving home in December and it will be interesting to see what help I get when I move home.

[Petals]

My son had speech therapy, it was good for us as first parents as well. Anything that is funded here in Aus there is always a wait list so long its months, months and months. My friend's daughter anorexic was 27 on the list to see a child psychiatrist at children's hospital when she was admitted to hospital.

 

We just looked up speech therapist made an appointment and it was well worth it.

 

Just to add that Aus is a bit like America in that we are expected to fund a lot of our health problems ourselves. That is psychologist, speech therapy, physiotherapy, anything that is not connected with a stay in a hospital. Only health care card holders and pensioners get treatment free and sometimes there is a co payment for it.

[Bob1]

Where are you Mum of four and if it is in Perth, is a State or private school? Has the school applied for funding? You should be covered by the Disability Services commission. Do you have private heath insurance?

[Naomi from Manchester]

'Speech therapist' and 'speech pathologist' are misleading terms. We work with people who experience speech, language, voice, social interaction and swallowing / feeding difficulties. This includes very young children experiencing difficulties developing the early cognitive skills which are pre-requisite to language and speech, and infants with feeding difficulties. I'm not really sure what we should be called, 'communication therapist' wouldn't even cover it because of the swallowing / feeding element.

 

It's really ridiculous how kids with Autism / Asperger's only get funding up to 7yrs, and as someone mentioned, government health service waiting lists seem to be completely out of control. They aren't free, but have you contacted ASPECT (Autism Spectrum Australia)? They offer therapy, social clubs, parent training etc. I'm sure they'd also be able to direct you to parent support groups, which would be free.

 

Maybe he'll benefit from the National Disability Insurance Scheme once it's in place - families who include kids / adults with a disability are meant to be getting a budget which they choose how to spend (e.g. on speech therapy, physio, equipment etc). I'm not too sure where things are up to with this though, and exactly who will qualify. http://www.ndis.gov.au/about-an-ndis/what-is-an-ndis/

 

Hope things improve for you quickly :o/

[Guest lucy m]

My 7 year old son has similar difficulties, have been told that you can ask the GP for a 'healthcare plan' which covers up to 10 appointments including speech therapy and can make things generally cheaper. Hope this helps:biggrin:

My son also has a tic/stim which was more or less constant when we first arrived probably due to the stress of the move but it is becoming less frequent as we've settled in so take heart. I know how distressing it can be to watch your child responding to stress in this way. The school have allowed him to skip assemblies which he finds very difficult and they also didn't want parents etc focussing on the behaviour.

Try ASPECT, they provide satellite classes if he does find it difficult to settle in school. We are considering this for our son at the mo.

[mumoffour]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read and respond. You've given me lots to look into and the knowledge that I'm not the only one dealing with this kind of stuff. For now though, am off to bed (made it to 10pm on a Friday!) been an awful week for sleeping so that also won't be helping my resilience.

 

Tomorrow's another day!

 

@ Bob1 = we're in Victoria at a state primary school (grade 2) been there almost 2 terms and teacher already suggesting an academically selective private school at grade 7 for him - he's smart and mild mannered and she thinks he'll fit in well.