Speech services for gestalt learner

[Nittimom]

Hello, 

my child is 8 years old. She is a gestalt learner. She is verbal but Has a significant functional communication speech delay. For example after saying hi she can’t continue a conversation with an adult or her peers. We have to prompt her to say hi. She struggles in expressing what she feels specially emotional needs. She can’t describe things. Ex of you ask: tell me about mom. Of what’s your favorite food. She does tell about her needs like if she wants iPad pillows or sleep. Sometimes if she wants to go somewhere. You ask what is this , she will tell. 
 

she gets 20 minutes of speech therapy twice a week , one in group and the other one individual. I feel she needs more of individual speech in order to make progress on her language part. The school is saying she only needs group. It’s been 4 months and we are no where. I genuinely wanted to know what kind of services are more beneficial for a gestalt learner? 
thank you 

[Jenna]

Can you please help me better understand the timeline as you mentioned that it's been 4 months and you're getting nowhere? Is she still receiving 20 mins of group speech therapy and 20 mins of individual speech therapy per week? Did the school recently contact you requesting that the mins be decreased to only the group therapy session? If so, what was their reasoning for that?

For how long has she had an IEP? How long ago was her most recent evaluation? What did the SLP state in the most recent ETR about her being a gestalt language processor and the impact of her communication delays on her accessing the educational environment (including effects on reading, writing, literacy, math, etc)? What does the IEP say about her present levels of performance? Does your daughter use AAC to augment what she can say with her mouth? Has the school or any private therapists done an AAC evaluation?

Evaluations are critical as that drives the IEP. In the IEP, the school should discuss her present levels of performance, then the team should determine appropriate goals for her to make meaningful progress, and then services and supports (including how much time she gets and in what setting) should be decided. If you feel the  school's evals weren't done properly or weren't comprehensive enough, consider requesting an IEE for speech and/or AAC assessment. 

We can't control what the school does (though you have the right to file for mediation or due process if you disagree with the IEP), but I wanted to share the following resources in case they could help you and your family.

-Natural Language Acquisition on the Autism Spectrum by Marge Blanc
-Assistiveware has a short overview on AAC for GLPs, written by an AAC user, at https://www.assistiveware.com/blog/gestalt-language-processing-aac.
-CoughDrop's "AAC in the Cloud" conference last summer had a long presentation on GLPs and AAC; you can watch it for free at https://presenters.aacconference.com/videos/UVRVMFFUSXk=. 
-PraacticalAAC- has a lot of helpful info on AAC, including activities you could do at home to support AAC growth. 

Best wishes.

[Nittimom]

Hello, 

My apologies, I did not get notification that my question have been answered. We had her first annual IEP on September 29th 2022. My child moved from county to district last year. The first meeting they did not agree to approve my request of speech services. I made that request last year. They don’t refuse it but also not approved it. I requested PWN and they said they are not refusing it. Then we met again in November, December and then again in January. Before I post this message asking for help. As always we couldn’t finish the discussion and ended having another date as February 14th. We have so much to talk that we could. Not reach on services. 
 

their initial reasoning was my daughter doesn’t need individual because her goals are social and then they switched the statement by saying well her needs have changed. She had her assessment last year through county and after that her placement was changed to district. The district did not do any assessment. 
 

she has IEP since she was three years old. She just turned 8. We liked her teacher as she really work hard for her. I do not feel my daughter need AAC support. She was assessed for that and they didn’t recommend that either. She has visual support. She is pretty good and telling most of her needs. However she does have behaviors at home like screaming etc. the school don’t see them at all. Her main struggles are functional communication and when she is stressed overwhelmed or having challenges then Instead of communicating she screams. She also have sensory issues. She gets two push in session and one consult collaboration per month. 

[Jenna]

So the school said in the PWN that they are not removing the individual speech services and she will continue to receive the individual and group speech therapies? What ideas did the school/AAC evaluator have for helping your child learn to communicate in moments of frustration, and to help her become conversational, if not using AAC? What progress has been made since she's had an IEP? Is it consistent progress? Review previous IEPs and the progress reports and use that information to develop your request for the types and amount of services you think would be helpful to her as you prepare for the next IEP meeting.