Northwest Neurodevelopment Center LLC/Katie Jackson, M.S.Ed

The goal of speech therapy is to help your child communicate effectively with other people across all environments. This may take the form of using gestures, simple signs, verbal speech, and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC).

Some other common things speech therapists can help with:

• Nonverbal skills, such as signs or gestures
• Forming speech in a clearer way
• Communicating thoughts and feelings clearly
• Understanding and responding to questions
• Discerning facial expressions and their corresponding emotions
• Noticing and understanding body language
• Feeding and swallowing
• Stuttering

When you visit a neurologist, they’ll assess your child’s needs, run some tests (think imaging or EEG), and diagnose. From there, they’ll create a customized treatment plan. Medication, lifestyle tweaks, or maybe even a referral to another specialist could be on the table.

There unfortunately isn’t one test for all neurodevelopmental conditions. Most likely you will go into a visit to test one or two medical conditions. If you are looking for a comprehensive autism evaluation, developmental pediatricians, psychologists, or neuropsychologists are the preferred specialists who can diagnose autism.

No, neurologists focus mainly on non-surgical interventions. If your child needs surgery, neurologists might point you in the direction of a pediatric neurosurgeon.

This happens. The results of the school’s evaluation may be different than your child’s medical diagnosis. It’s also important to remember that school is NOT the final say on your child’s potential. They may offer very little support to your child, underestimate their abilities, or disagree with you on what support your child needs. You will probably need to advocate for the services and support you believe your child needs.

Here are a few alternative options to consider:

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT helps by identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. It's useful for those dealing with social anxiety or difficulties. CBT addresses cognitive patterns and provides strategies to manage social challenges.
• Group therapy: Group therapy offers a supportive space where individuals can practice social skills. They can feedback from peers and a therapist. It allows interaction with others who understand and learn from each other.
• Play-based interventions: Play therapy or play-based interventions work well for younger children or those who learn through experiences. Play activities target specific social skills like turn-taking and problem-solving in a safe and engaging setting.

Even if a provider offers parent training, it may look different from one provider to another. For example, an in-home provider might conduct a parent training session directly following a therapy session with your child to help explain what they’ve been working on with your child. At larger organizations, you might have a support group of families who are dealing with similar issues.

There isn’t one set way that an IEP meeting is run, but generally it involves everyone on the IEP team reviewing your child’s goals, progress, and sharing ideas and suggestions on what supports or accommodations may be helpful to accomplish those goals.

It’s required that the school staff go over every section of the IEP with you and explain every part. This is only a draft, because the IEP may change based on what’s discussed in the meeting. You do not have to sign or agree to the IEP at the IEP meeting. If you don’t like the IEP, you may not have to agree to it at all.