Why In-School Speech Therapy Often Isn’t Enough
A common objection from parents when they hear about speech therapy outside of school is: “My child already gets speech therapy from their school.”
While in-school therapy is great, it does have its limitations. Don’t get me wrong, the in-school SLP servicing your child is a ROCKSTAR, and we are fortunate to have speech and language therapy (along with pscyhology, social work, ot, pt, reading/math interventionists) offered for free by our local school districts.
As someone who has worked 4 years as a school SLP, here are the positives of having speech therapy in the schools and the limitations that come with it:
Positives of in-school speech therapy:
Your child is receiving specialized educational services by a highly skilled health professional who has graduate level training.
Therapy sessions are conveniently during the school day.
Your child most likely will have an IEP, which is a protected legal document that follows your child no matter where you might move to.
Your child will have goals that are tailored to their specific educational needs.
Your child will have the opportunity to work with other students in a small group setting which can lead to friendships and building work group skills.
Limitations of in-school speech therapy:
In schools, speech therapy is offered through pull-out or push-in services. Pull-out means your kid will be coming out of the classroom and missing instructional time to have their speech therapy. While push-in means they will be met inside of the classroom, which eliminates more one-on-one time.
School speech-language pathologists have very high case load numbers. In Michigan, the caseload maximum is supposed to be 60 students, but many school districts submit a waiver to increase the number to 65 (sometimes even higher). Because of those high numbers, it is uncommon that your child will receive one-on-one therapy and will most likely be in groups between two and four students.
Some therapy is tailored more towards the SLP pushing into the classroom and offering whole group sessions. Because of this, your child will have even less one-on-one time receiving speech-language services.
Another limitation of having high caseload numbers in the schools is it results in lower therapy time and frequency of sessions. On top of that, there are laws stating your child can only be missing classroom instruction for a certain amount of time and they cannot be seen during specials and recess. Typically your child will only be receiving 15 to 30 minutes of speech and language therapy per week.
Again, having speech-language therapy offered in the schools is a wonderful service and has many benefits! However, as a result of high caseload numbers and laws restricting the amount of work time with the student, progress can sometimes be slow and limited. Having your child receive additional speech-language therapy one or two times a week can be very impactful to further develop their speech and language skills.
At Best Side Speech:
Your child will receive one-on-one speech-language therapy which means they will have our undivided attention.
We provide hour-long sessions which allows us to dive deeper into your child’s needs, implement a greater variety of treatment methods, and allows more time for parents to ask questions.
Our treatment plan can also work off of their school plan to further increase their educational skills and address their areas of need.
Because of our school experience, we will even help advocate for your child to ensure you, the parent/guardian, has all questions, comments, and concerns heard and answered!
