My 3 yr. old son is very delayed in speech. He is bright and comprehends, but just can't verbally express himself. We're in the process of seeking help with the school district, but it's a long procees. In the meanwhile I would like to get him in some speech therepy. We live in Union City/ Hayward area.
My girlfriend has been very pleased with the progress her 10 year old son has made with Natasha Arakawa in Castro Valley. Sorry I don't have the phone number, but maybe you can look her up. Good luck!
Sounds like speech therapy would be a great idea for your son. We go to a great place in Castro Valley called Jakubowitz Associates. ###-###-####. I highly recommend them.
I have a similar situation with my son. Two good places to check out would be CSU East Bay Communicative Disorders Dept. on the Hayward campus. They offer speech therapy for a good price. Your child is seen by interns but the interns are supervised at every visit by a licensed speech therapist. Also the Scottish Rite Clinic in Oakland offers free speech therapy. Only thing is you may have to go on their waiting list for a while. I'm sure these two places might have some suggestions of clinics that are closer to Union City as well.
Best of everything!
A.,
When my oldest started first grade he was placed in speech. At the time I asked the speech therapist at his school what I could do for my four year old who was really struggling with pronouncing words. I was surprised, mostly because her preschool never mentioned this service, to find that here in the east bay the school disctict will pay for preschool speech therapy. We have since received six months of weekly 30 minute sessions and there is a remarkable improvemen! I would imagine your school disctict offers a similar program. You can also call the program we are with and ask them if they have any suggestions in your area in addition to contacting your school district. They are East Bay Therapy and have offices in Pleasanton and Livermore. ###-###-#### www.eastbaytherapy.com. In addition, you might want to also ask about occupational therapy for him. M.
Hi there A.,
I've had experience with Speech Therapists and the School District. If your son has already been tested by the district they should be drawing up an IEP for him which would be inclusive of Speech Therapy as a "commitment" by them for a certain amount of time per week. If they don't have an available Speech Therapist on staff, they are required to provide a private therapist and pay for it through the district. My daughter goes to East Bay Therapy in Pleasanton, and I've been really impressed with their knowledge and skill, and the School District is paying for it. I would press them to hurry up the process as early intervention is really critical at this stage.
Good luck!
D.
Most definitely work with the school district on this. My son only grunted or growled for almost the first 3 years of his life. He was part of the early intervention program at our local school district (check with them if the "Early Start" is not part of your school district). This early intervention program provided the speech therapy classes he needed. They essentially trained me to help him out too. At home I would sit with him in front of a mirror and I'd try to get him to make sounds, "MMMM", "la la", etc. with a frosted cherrio as a reward (he didn't have sugar cereals at this point, so it was a treat--if you son already eats this stuff, maybe a mini M&M). I also spoke to him all the time, explained stuff all the time, read to him a lot, played the Disney musical tapes all the time in the car, played a lot of games where I'd make sounds for him to imitate (a couple of his favorites--at the park I'd bring several different size plastic cups, fill them with damp sand and create a row of "sandcastles". He'd then get to stomp on them when he made a sound (smash, bang, etc.) The whole word didn't come out, but he made sounds, which eventually led to the whole words. Another was to take bandages and put them all over his stuffed animals and we'd say "ow" or "owe", then he'd get to pull them off and say "rip" or "woosh". Again, not full words at first, but it got there. I'd add different food color to containers of water and give him a paint brush and he'd go crazy "painting" all the lawn furniture, the house and things outside. We'd say "brush, up/down, right/left, back/forth, and name the colors". I did most of it at first, but eventually . . . Long story short, he didn't really start talking until he was 3 (his b-day in fact), and had a little time before the enunciation came in properly, but by kindergarten he was a talker, and at 13 now he doesn't stop talking -- making up for lost time. In the absence of speech therapy at this point, you can start some things like this at home (if you haven't already). I'd also set up stories with some figurines (usually from Disney movies, but you can do Transformers, or any kind of toy he likes) and try to get him to make the sounds the animals/people/cars/trucks/etc. makes. My son loved this!! Good luck.
