Has anyone found an affordable option for speech therapy?

Have you contacted your states ECI program? We were able to get reduced fees for speech for a while

@Yarely What is ECI? I have applied for medi-cal even though my family doesn't technically qualify because of income, but I am hitting walls trying to find other funding for the same reason

Check your local public school system. They often provide these resources to children even when they’re too young for school. And they would be free.

It’s early childhood intervention. I think my daughter’s first speech therapist has mentioned it’s available in all states. And should be available to all children as long as they need speech. They do their own evaluation to confirm that they need speech and what they need to work on. If I’m correct it’s for children 3 and under. And it is free or reduced depending on income. I don’t qualify for Medicaid but was still able to get reduced fees for the service and was very affordable. I think I paid $38 every month for speech once a week for an hour.

Ask your pediatrician for a list of early intervention providers who service your area and set up appointments through them. They will be billed to your insurance but typically are free or very reduced costs.

@Yarely Ah, okay. We did speech through EI, but he aged out in his 3rd birthday, so now I am hunting continuing services

@GMF the local district only provides 30 minutes a week group sessions via telehealth, and he will not focus like that at all.

@Kelsi Sadly he is just slightly too old for the EI program in our area (it is 0-3)

Your comment about the telehealth, is this public education preschool doing that? I’ve never heard of that.

@Denise yes, I live in a severely understaffed, underfunded area. It has actually cemented my desire to homeschool because of the lack of quality teachers as well as repeated abouse by paras in our district. The lack of in person speech is just icing on the cake.

I went through early intervention and applied for Medicaid through the state to get a secondary therapist

@Christina🤱🏼🍂☕️♈️ we have graduated from the early intervention program, and I have an application in for medi-cal with an income waiver because of the autism diagnosis

Unfortunately speech through the school is the only way the state offers free services for delay after EI. After that it’s all on you, unless you have Medicaid. Wow I’m so sorry! Homeschooling makes complete sense though given the state of the world and that the speech they offer in your state is actually ridiculous. We’re also homeschooling and my daughter has speech delay. You can message me if you need support. My daughter’s almost at aging out of EI. Not sure what the speech costs through medical around here is but I’ll be looking into it in a few months. She wouldn’t qualify for speech through the school system according for her speech therapist because of her improvement so I’m not sure if she’ll even need therapy but I’d like it. Is it possible just to do at home therapy with the tools her EI speech therapist gave you everyday instead? That’s honestly how we made the most improvement, cause her speech therapist is barely here comparatively. I know it’s not ideal as the only

resource. Medicaid won’t approve you if you don’t meet the income requirements, regardless of child delay.

@Denise California has an income waiver for autism

Oh! I didn’t realize this was an autism group! It was on the main feed. But that’s awesome! Hopefully you’ll get it then.

@Denise Thank you, it is stressful waiting to see, but I am hopeful despite the current issues with medicare and medi-cal funding.