I was reading some old posts a while back and when we first began to worry about Jasmine's speech one of the initial fears we had was Autism. How ironic (?) then that Taylor is the one who ended up with the diagnosis and our little Princess is now singing "You've Got a Friend In Me" in the background as I type this. Little Miss Jazz is quite the talker these days. She loves to sing, but is just a chatterbox in general. She can also be quite sassy...I certainly don't know where she got that from.
So here we are one year from Taylor receiving the PDD diagnosis and 8 months from him receiving the Autism diagnosis and we are still waiting for speech therapy. I think I found the place, but I won't believe it until September 2nd at 5pm when the paperwork is in and the session is done. I have to be grateful because we do have really great insurance, but unfortunately many insurance companies deny speech for Autistic kids. Yes, I plan to appeal and once I have a copy of the evaluation he received last week I plan to do that.
As we started down this path with Jazz, I went ahead and self referred to DDD to try to get coverage that way. While he was determined to be medically eligible for DDD services, he was denied by ALTCS who provides the funding. Basically DDD will cover treatment for certain disabilities/diagnoses. It's much easier to get help for kids 3 and under, over three are usually referred to the school district. Five and over gets really tricky. I keep wondering what if I would have realized sooner what was going on and how things might be different now. But, I didn't so here we are.
Yes, Taylor gets therapy at the school, but it is not enough. Any services provided by the school district are only for the child to be able to function in an education setting. I don't know any condition that limits itself to Monday-Friday 8-3. We have so many issues at home it wouldn't be enough for us to rely on the school to address everything. Plus, I learned last year his therapist had over 100 kids on her caseload! That's crazy! Gotta love Arizona and our fabulous emphasis on education.
So anyway, I have been trying to get speech. I tried through insurance. I tried with DDD/ALTCS- which took over 7 months by the way for the whole paperwork/interview process. Finally we gave up and figured we'd have to pay out of pocket. Regular price is $300 a session, but there was a cash discount where he received his other private therapies of just $90 a session. We waited two more months for the evaluation only to have the therapist tell us that Taylor needs more than what they could offer. I broke down and cried in front of the therapist. I couldn't even explain why, I just was done. "But, he is really high functioning" she said. Which is great and I get that. But because he is so high functioning getting any help is a constant battle. High functioning for a kid with Autism does not equate to able to function.
So I went home and Googled the clinic she mentioned. Then called them and immediately they emailed the paperwork over. They offer group sessions every other week for the bargain price of $50 a session. This is cheap compared to everything else. So I've got the forms filled out and we'll be starting him on September 2nd. I know I should be optimistic, but I still have this feeling something else will happen. Maybe these sessions won't be a great fit, maybe after a full day at school and an hour drive he won't respond like he should.
...or maybe this is it. Really it and we've finally done it.
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