Can I use the Jon Peterson or Autism scholarships for speech or occupational therapy even if it isn’t on my child’s IEP?
Yes! In Ohio, if your child has an IEP for other areas (like academics), but not speech therapy, you can still use the scholarship to pay for speech therapy. We, as your provider, submit a modification form to add speech or occupational therapy. This does not change your original IEP, but allows you to use the scholarship for these therapies.
Does my child need speech or language therapy even if it’s not on their IEP?
There are many areas that speech therapy can help! For example, does your child struggle to explain what they’re thinking or get lost when trying to describe something (like “talking in circles”)? Do they read something and then struggle to answer questions about it or understand what they just read? We fill in the gaps by teaching skills for language and reading comprehension.
Speech Sounds- we teach how to pronounce sounds like R or S and can help with hard-to-understand speech .
Language Skills-we teach the language systems that help speech but also reading comprehension, spelling and writing. Many students who struggle with academics benefit from language therapy in areas like:
Vocabulary - if you aren’t sure of what words some mean, how can you understand what you’re reading?
Spelling and breaking down parts of the word
Describing skills - antonym/synonyms, adjectives/adverbs
WH questions both in speech and reading comprehension
Narrative storytelling/sequencing
Stuttering- learn strategies to reduce stuttering and increase speech fluency
Social Skills- learn specific social skills step by step with video modeling of peers acting out these skills.
Social Skill Groups-we offer social skills groups on zoom that allow students to practice their skills right from their home.