[mercedez]

I pay $60 per session for half hour to see the language speech therapist and i have used up all the epc. How long should i continue to see the speech pathologist for? It is so expensive. How do you affford weekly sessions?


1> How much do you pay per session and how long are the sessions?
2> How often does your child see them a week and for how many months?

[baddmammajamma]

Hi mercerdez:

My daughter no longer needs to see a speech therapist, but if memory serves correctly, we were paying $125 for an hour (this was 4 years ago), so very much in the ballpark of your current costs.

You might want to cross post this on the Special Needs/Disabilities board, as many of us there are totally used to having to come up with creative ways to cover the costs of various therapies & specialists. You are in Sydney, right? There might be some local mums who can offer some advice, especially as it relates to free or discounted services.

To answer your second question, my daughter saw her speech therapist until the underlying issues went away. Depending on the severity of a child's needs, that time frame is going to differ child by child.

Although so well worth it, my daughter's early intervention has been really expensive. To be honest, the only way we can afford to do what we are doing for her is to have both of us working. I work part-time (at night) to help cover the costs of her various therapies. It would be tough for us to swing it otherwise.

I don't know how old your kids are, but is there any way you could increase your weekly cash flow? Could you pick up any sort of hourly or part-time work (even something casual like babysitting at home) to give you that extra cushion to afford the sessions?

It sucks that affordable therapy is outside the reach of so many deserving families. Hope you are able to find a way to continue it for your son if it's delivering results. Good luck.

[fairymagic]

Not sure what epc stands for so I apologise if this is what you are talking about.

Two of our three children had speech when they were younger. Our PHI covered some of the cost- I can't remember how much we were out of pocket - maybe $35 per half hour session.

You can apply to get some benefits from Centrelink though. Your Speech Therapist needs to fill out a form - they generally only give benefits to those that have a problem considered significant - our Speech Therapist said she would fill it out but she didn't think we would qualify as our son had already been going a while and had improved significantly and our DD1 wasn't bad enough to start with.

Hope this helps.

[Done]

my ds has been seeing a speechie for 12 months now. we have been seeing them every fortnight during school terms. (school holidays they don't see them)
the progress is very slow!! and his delays are moderate. we have been alternating between the public and the private system. the public will only see for 5 sessions at a time, then they have a break for a term and will see him again for 5 sessions. these public sessions are free and go for 30 minutes, and are fortnightly. i think he would struggle to concentrate longer than 30 minutes tbh.

so the term that we don't see the public speechie, we go privately the cost is $70. for 30 minutes.

we don't do weekly with the private because of the cost, and also it gives us a chance to get the homework done and make some progress at home

not sure what epc is either....

[Helen Magnus]

Mine was going too university clinic. She was seeing students but it was all properly supervised and assessed. And very affordable at about $20 a session. If you are near enough to a university with a speech pathology course it may be an option.

[mercedez]

Not sure what epc stands for so I apologise if this is what you are talking about.

Two of our three children had speech when they were younger. Our PHI covered some of the cost- I can't remember how much we were out of pocket - maybe $35 per half hour session.

You can apply to get some benefits from Centrelink though. Your Speech Therapist needs to fill out a form - they generally only give benefits to those that have a problem considered significant - our Speech Therapist said she would fill it out but she didn't think we would qualify as our son had already been going a while and had improved significantly and our DD1 wasn't bad enough to start with.

Hope this helps.

EPC - Enhanced primary care plan that entitles you to 5 visits a year. Its through a doctor and you can claim through medicare $50 and you pay the gap.

[newwoman1]

Our DS is nearly 11and he has been going to speech since he was 3.....long road. Went privately from age of 3 to 6 then in school system hasn't been getting much out of school sessions so this year back in to private we are paying $100 for 45 mins only going monthly now.

[lylac]

We pay $70 per half hour.

My son goes once per week (he has funding).
My daughter goes once a month, because that's all we can afford.

I always stay and watch and learn.

[blue4me]

My 4 year old DS1 goes once a week for half an hour and we pay $70. He has been going for about 6 months now and to begin with our PHI paid most of it- only cost us $28 but now we seem to have used up out limit for it and pay the full $70. He has hearing loss from constant ear infections and fluid and will be having grommets soon. They should help improve his hearing a lot and also his speech as he will be able to hear words properly. If the grommets do work for improving his speech, we will scale back appointments and stop going when he starts being able to say words properly. If not, I think we will have to change it to fortnightly anyway as it is just getting too much to pay every week.

[lsolaBella]

We are at $2.5 k for the past 6m of speech. Only $200 in total back.babout to intensively increase services. So I estimate $5 k OPE by Feb ( that is July -Feb costs).

We are doing work to get DS2 ready for school