A New Therapist

Big changes came to our therapy world in January! For one, Cigna denied coverage for any therapy. We used different codes and NOTHING. So we are appealing it, Dave is talking to HR, and we are looking into scholarships for families like us--not poor enough for Medicaid but have insurance that denies coverage for a child's therapy, a child who truly needs it. At that point, OT had to be reduced, but speech had to continue--it isn't an option for us. We had to give up the last of our extras. Lori's rates were slightly higher than a clinic, she isn't in network with Cigna even if they provide coverage, and she couldn't reduce the sessions to 30 min. Research shows that apraxic kids need 4-5, 30 min., 1:1 sessions per week. Most kids J's age go to a clinic, and it was becoming hit or miss with good, productive sessions each week in the home. He does much better in the therapy room at school. I network with many other moms of children with apraxia, and it seemed like the clinic was the way to go. This was a HUGE decision for us, and one can never understand such a decision unless you have walked in our shoes. But, I know, without a doubt, that putting J in a clinic was best for him, and Lori agreed. The timing was perfect, and a week sooner or later would have left me unsure, but God laid it out perfectly. We still very much appreciate what Lori did for Jackson. She came in and met his speech/language needs when we couldn't and directed us on what to do. She got him to start talking! Anyone who helps your child like she helped Jackson becomes pretty special!

I checked out a highly recommeded clinic about 30 min. from our house. There is no doubt in my mind that they understand apraxia at this place. The owner of the clinic read all of J's evals and placed him with Miss Megan. Megan is trained in the Kaufman approach which was designed by Nancy Kaufman, the apraxia guru. She also is trained in Cycles, a new program. During the very first session, Luke and I waited on Jack in the waiting room. She described their session when she brought him back, and it sounded just like Kaufman's session that I watched back in September. She also did a Kaufman articulation test that showed me exactly the errors/substitutions that he is making. We are fortunate that his errors are consistent, because many apraxic kids are inconsistent in their errors--I think J was at one point.

Backtracking a minute...but important in all of this change and HUGE progression for J is that we had his annual neurologist appt. in December. We switched neurologists for the simple fact that we didn't feel like we were getting a lot of direction from our previous one. Again, networking is wonderful, and it is no mistake that we were led to this man. We had to wait 6 mos. to get in with him--he is the best of the best & his name is known in therapy clinics and pediatrician's offices all around our area. He will sit down with therapists (our OT was so happy that he sat down with her one time!), and he often collaborates with neuroscientists, developmental pediatricians, etc. But, my reason for wanting to see him is that he is thoroughly knowledgable in apraxia. Most of all, I wanted to find someone who could track Jackson's progress. We were with him for two hours! I had a timeline typed out, and he listened to me go over it & typed as I spoke. Before I could even start talking, the tears started as the anticipation of being there finally hit and going back to our little boy's first year of life when we didn't know there was a problem. This 6 ft. tall, black man, looked at me and in the most gentle voice said, "I want you to know that no matter what is going on with Jackson, I am going to help him." I got it together and quickly became really chatty about Jack's four years of life. He listened and he cared. He saw Jackson as a whole child and not a disorder! This man loves the Lord, grew up a missionary kid in Africa, and comes from a family of doctors. I knew before he said anything that he was not only highly intelligent but a man of character. He interacted with J for awhile, and then explained how apraxia presents itself in children. He said you treat apraxia through therapy but also in a biochemical way. They drew blood to check different levels commonly seen as having deficits in apraxic children...zinc, creatine, etc. He put him on a different multivitamin and cod liver oil. He left us with these words, "After seeing how Jackson has presented himself to me, I believe he is going to do just fine".