The System Wants to Take Away His Speech Therapy

Finally, after how many months? Let's see....school started in August of last year and I have practically been begging for an I.E.P. ever since then and yes I even put it in writing and nothing ever came of it. They lollygagged around so that they didn't get in trouble with the rules, the took their time testing and such and NOW that school is practically over, in a matter of a few months.......they want to have an I.E.P. and better yet they want to take Griffin's speech therapy away from him!

I spoke to his speech teacher last week and she told me that she feels that his speech issues is just a matter of self-esteem and that his peers can understand him just fine. Well, let me tell you this my friend...NO they cannot! When I took Griffin's service dog for show-n-tell one of his peers came up to me and asked me what was wrong with Griffin because she couldn't understand what he says. Then this winter one of the neighborhood kids came up to me and asked me what Griffin was saying because he couldn't understand him. And...to top all that off....half the time I can hardly understand what he says myself!

Granted, he is doing much better at slowing down and annunciating his words much better without me having to ask him to but there are still times that I have to ask him to repeat himself several times in order to understand what he has just said. And exactly what does she mean by self-esteem issues? Does she mean that my child has a home life that is so hard that he cowers when spoken to in public? That when he is around others he doesn't know how to act because he doesn't have a good example to live by at home? What does that mean? And how could it not be a direct insult to me? I AM the only parent he has and the ONLY influence that he has so it would have to be me who would be to blame right?????

Let's just say that his peers could understand him. Then we still have the hyperlexia to deal with. He still needs to work on his reading comprehension. He still needs to work on his conversation skills on his socialization skills. All of these he was working on in his speech class two times a week and I do believe that it was helping him and making a big difference. So, why would his teacher want to take it away from him? I cannot figure this one out. Does anyone have an idea? Apparently medicaid is paying for the class so it is not a funding issue, there is no funding conflict with his private speech therapy. And the fact that he is taking private speech has zero influcence over whether or not he gets it in school or not. Besides they are working on completely different issues in private speech anyhow.

Any ideas anyone? I was hoping that Griffin's new case manager would be helpful but he came over today and didn't seem to be so willing to pull for Griffin. I mean he will be going to the meeting but he was saying that if it didn't work in Griffin's favor then.....Well, by *** it IS going to work in his favor because I am NOT going to sign an I.E.P. that does not include speech therapy end of story!!!!!