Ppcd Program

I know very little but maybe I can help. I teach Kindergarten and we have lots of kids who have graduated out of PPCD or on PPCD monitor. To be on monitor means you are still part of PPCD but rather than being with the PPCD teacher you are in a regular PreK or Kinder class and the PPCD teacher works with the classroom teacher to make sure needs are being met. A PPCD student is evaluated at the age of 3 after getting ECI (early childhood intervention from birth). You do not have to have taken part of ECI but it's an automatic evaluation into PPCD and since its free lots of parents take advantage of ECI. Ok, a PPCD student (or any student receiving services for speech etc) will be evaluated once yearly until the age of 6. After the age of 6 it jumps to every other year (don't quote me on that though). PPCD ends after Kindergarten. A student in PPCD is able to qualify for tons of great stuff. It's like a building filled with wonderful opportunities but you have to find a way in. PPCD is your door. Your child will work with the speech therapist during school hours rather than you driving him to the apt. He will also be offered OT and PT based on his personal need. PPCD kids get bus service to and from their house which builds great independence (if you are ready, AHHH). I will say as a teacher and mother of a child with delays it is better to take care of it now rather than later. Your child may not grow out of his speech issue and will need services into elementary school. In that case he will be pulled out of regular class and that can be hard on some kids. As for it being a disability I am not sure what to say. My best friend and teacher (3rd grade) has her son in PPCD for speech. I would never deny this opportunity for my own child and I know she does not feel like he has been labeled. It's a momma decision but when you go have him tested by the school diagnostician talk to her about all your concerns.

My son is a speech therapist in a school that has PPCD. The heavy case load and fact that most of the PPCD children need speech therapy causes him to do group sessions with the PPCD classes 2X a week. Private therapy is done individually, focusing on the needs of that one child. Our older son(who started speech therapy at age 3) made much quicker improvement while in private therapy than during the time he was only in public school therapy. A younger son of our's also needed speech therapy, beginning at age 3 with a private therapist who told us NOT to even mention it when he enrolled in school so it would stay off of his school record because Speech Therapy is considered a disability and does fall under Special Ed. Either way, private therapy or PPCD, your child will receive the needed speech therapy. I would start by checking with your insurance company to see if they will cover speech therapy. Ours didn't, but we felt that it was the best investment we ever made for any of our children (2 of 4 needed speech therapy). The older boy (who we were told at age 3 had "unintelligible speech") went on to pursue a professional career and has just received his Master's degree--who would have guessed!

Doctors will almost always refer you first to the state program. The reason being that if you qualify for services it is MUCH more economical, as in it is free. At 3 years old the school district takes over Early Childhood Intervention and you are left with PPCD. ECI would have had a speech therapist come to your house. PPCD is a daily preschool setting. He would pulled out every so often to work with a speech therapist. Will he be considered disabled? No. Will a speech delay become part of his permanent school record yes and that is not necessarily a bad thing. If you chose not to do PPCD you will have you should seek a private speech therapist to take him to, which should be covered by your insurance, but you would have to check with them.

Having watched how school districts work, if I could I would do both PPCD and an outside speech therapist. The school simply does not have the resources and time that a private speech therapist will have.

As a point of reference I have a 3 year old who has 2 medical diagnoses labeling her disabled. Denton ISD says that she does not qualify for services and that she is not disabled. I guess here is when and why we are glad that the school district is not qualified to practice medicine. :)

Ok, I went to the website for PPCD:

http://www.texasprojectfirst.org/PreschoolProg.html

I did a quick look through and could find nothing on your question. I would suggest calling and asking, but I think it would be similar to Arkansas Head Start Program. Kids in Head Start get the therapy they need and it does not effect their record in public school unless they continue to need help well into 8th - 12th grades. School grades that affect you for life are mostly from 8th grade and beyond. I would say that if you kid no longer needs extra help after elementary and can take regular classes and keep up, it will not effect their record in a bad way. Lots of kids need help. I myself and my sister had to have therapy in elementary school. We both went on through the rest of school like normal students and made good grades. We both went on to college. My son has been diagnosed as behind in speech by both the doctor and the school. He is no longer getting help and is doing well. It did not affect his grade. I wish I had known he was behind in speech early enough to have gotten him proper help before he started school. The first child in the home has a bigger chance of being behind in speech than the second, third and beyond children in the home. Lots of first children require speech therapy and those that don't get it early enough struggle through elementary school. Your child is not considered a disability child if speech is all he is behind on. It simply means that he did not have someone to talk to and develop proper speech with. Stay at home moms are not always articulate (I am not much of a talker) and so the first child plays in total silence and never develops those skills. The second and third child in the home has a better chance of developing those skills because they have siblings to talk to.

I do not know about this program, but I have a question. If your pediatrician advised antibiotics for your son, would you hesitate because someone might see that as a weakness? If your doctor thinks this will help your son, do it! As a retired HS teacher (38 years), it always made me sad when parents were more concerned with the "label" than what it would do for the child. As a parent, I am sure you want to do everything you can to help your son.