My daughter is receiving speech therapy through our local early intervention program. She receives two 1/2 hour sessions each week and has standing appointments. The SLP comes to our house every Wednesday and Friday. No complaints about that or the SLP. My daughter LOVES her! I am just a bit annoyed because she has been cancelling a lot (IMO) of sessions lately - ie this week she cancelled both sessions! The Wednesday one I understood, she was sick, that happens. But today she cancelled at the last minute saying "they dropped an eval on me at the last minute". I mean, she was supposed to be arriving at my house and I get a text saying this. I understand my daughter is not the only child that needs help and I am not trying to be selfish, but I am honestly very annoyed that they cancelled my daughter's standing appointment! Couldn't they have just scheduled it at another time? Why did they have to take our slot? To make matters worse they didn't even offer to reschedule us. She just said she'd see us next week. My daughter will be too old for speech therapy through this program soon, so I really want her to get everything she can get right now. KWIM? Am I being unreasonable? I really don't see how this evaluation could have been an "emergency". If a child has a speech delay its not like its going to get monumentally worse in a matter of hours. Ugh. I am wondering if I should just suck it up and deal with it, or if I should ask our coordinator through the EI program about this. I don't want to be "THAT" mom, but you know what, I am her mother, her advocate, I (along with her Daddy) am the only one looking out for her best interest. Does that make sense? I guess I may be a little sensitive because she was just diagnosed with being on the Autism spectrum this week and I am realizing how important things like therapy are for her. Advice? Input? Encouragement? What would you do??
***I am not paying for the sessions out of pocket. My daughter's insurance is covering it. ***
Contact the EI coordinator. Tell her that you make time every week for this important therapy. Tell her that you understand that people get sick, but to cancel when they are due to walk in the door is unacceptable.
I used to take my son to the school for his speech therapy. We had a schedule and we stuck to it. It never varied -- ever. If his therapist was out sick, the other would cover.
LBC
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I would be ticked off too. The last minute eval??? sounds suspicious. I would either speak with her and let her know that you expect her there EVERY week or that you will need to get a new SLP. OR call her supervisor and go that route. You need to be "that mom" b/c if you're not.... you most likely won't be heard.
When my son was in EI he had a speech therapist and a developmental therapist - both came once a week. There was a week his developmental therapist couldn't make it and the following week we were going to be out of town. The developmental therapist said, "lets find an alternative day that would work because I do not want him going two weeks without therapy or we'll take steps back in his progression; otherwise the first two weeks we are back on schedule I want to set up two appointments each week to help him get back on track."
I would tell the therapist that if there is going to be a cancelation by her she needs to tell you which day she intends to make it up.
I think it was a lie thinking you're not going to call her out on it.
If they didn't catch the scheduling issue SHE should have caught the problem. She should have said "no, I already have an appointment scheduled."
I REALLY think she dropped the ball on this one.
She's getting paid not matter what and probably doesn't even KNOW who's covering the bill so that should't/couldn't be a valid excuse.
You better learn how to become "that kind of mother" It will be the only way to navigate the system.
Truth be told, you can work with your own daughter everyday and get quicker results then waiting for her big half hour 2 x a week. Ask for homework. Go to the Super Duper catalog and order things that can help her. Go to Talktools.net and get some kits to help her oral motor. There is so much YOU can be doing. Definitely call the coordinator and tell her this is unacceptable for the time you have left to receive EI. Babies Can't Wait is so broke that they use whoever they can get to go run and do evals. There are too many kids and not enough employees or money. Tell them you expect those sessions to be made up.
I agree with most other posters - you are not being unreasonable at all. She should have called and offered to reschedule both times. I wouldn't go to the EI coordinator this time, since your child likes her. The next time she comes to your house, please tell her that in the future, she should call you, not text, so that you can discuss a time to reschedule the appointment. And then, if she cancelled without rescheduling again, go to the coordinator and tell that person it's not working out and why.
My son is speech delayed and is going to special education preschool and receives services through his school. To answer your question, yes I would be annoyed if they did this to me. I think you should call the speech therapist and ask to have your appointment re-scheduled, your daughter should not miss any appointments even if she is sick. If she is not willing to work with you, I would call the director. I always pick my battles, and this is a battle worht fighting kindly. I mean some doctors and dentist charge when you cancel your appointment when you do not cancel within 24 hours, same thing should apply here. She should have a back-up. Its very unprofessional if you ask me.
Well I contactd the help me grow (EI) in my area and got her eval and a speech therapist set up through them and applied for state medicaid for her and we go to a speech therapist THEY told us about once a week for a haf hour session, I would see if you can apply for state medicaid if your husbands insurance does not cover speech and ask them about a speech theripist you can take her to for her sessions, and just go that way this way if he still needs speech once he is three you dont have to go somewhere else you can stick with the same person which is what we are doing with my daughter we started through them but are now on our own with our therapist
Well, if you are paying for this service, then yes it is completely out of line to be blown off like that. If not, then I guess that you have to take what you can get. In your situation though, I would be very annoyed and I would be forceful and ask that she re-schedule the missed visits.
I think it's entirely possible the last minute eval was because someone else got sick, since those of us who have been thru it know these evaluations are scheduled ahead of time with a team of people that's why it would take precedence and pull your therapist to cover an evaluation that was supposed to be done by someone else.
Have there been cancellations before this week? Do you have a record of dates she comes, dates she cancels and reason for cancellation.
