Child Care Provider Needs Advice

I have learned that some children just take a little longer and others learn a little differently. I agree with talking to the parents because they may have been concerned about this themselves and not had the proper information on how to handle it. you are in that sense the professional with experience and knowledge, not out of line. i am a strong supporter of using sign language as a bridge to the spoken word. It worked wonders with my daughter. there are many wonderful dvds(Signing Times) and books available for parents who don't personally know it. This could be a good lesson for all your students/kids and a way to include him into the group.

Hi M.. After I read your post since I am a parent of a special needs child, I would be wanting a caregiver to tell me if they think it's a problem. They depend on you to give their child teh best care. It would be doing the child a dis service otherwise.
I read that someone mentioned Head Start which is City of Pgh I live in the SouthPark Area so anyone in Allegheny county goes thru DART.
My so has a form of autism so he gets his preschool for free which includes speech threrepy and OT therepy.

I have the name of an incredible speech therepist if you would like the number.

Good Luck
N.

Hi M.,
As the childs provider during the day I think you are kinda obligated to inform the parents of your recomendations, as hard as it may be. I would expect that from my childs provider. As for recomendations you can give, my nephew had a speech problem as well. We had a very hard time understanding him and he would also call things different names so that we would understand what he was talking about. For instance we live on a farm and instead of calling the wagon a wagon he would call it the hole. What my sister-in-law did was had him evaluated by the elementry school that he would be attending. Once he was evalutated they saw that he needed speech therapy. So he went to the same elementry school 2 days a week for a half hour. This was also paid for and nothing had to come out of my sister's pockets. My nephew was also 3 at that time and the therapy made a tremendous difference. Good luck and if you need further info please email me.

absolutely yes.
tell the parents what your concenrs are and then suggest they make an appt. with the early intervetnion program (EIP, every state has it maybe under a different name). it is a state funded agency which provides evaluation for kids up to a certain age (for free) and if the child qualifies for any service (including speech) they will get the speech therapy to go to parents home, or daycare providers and work with a child a few times a week. all these are for free.
please do so, better wrong than sorry. if it turns out he's just late well the speech therapy will help him. i bet there's a lot of frustration from child's part not being able to communicate needs with the adults
good luck
vlora

I would just talk to the parents about it, I think they'll be happy to hear your concerns. They may not really think much of his speech problems, especially if he's their first. My daughter had a stuttering problem for a brief period and my daycare approached me about it. I wasn't offended it all. I was glad to know that they want the best for her, and they had great advice to offer. I'm not sure where you live, but I'm in Montgomery County, PA and they offer free speech therapy for kids that age. Maybe before you talk to the parents have some options for them ready. Good luck!

where are you located? if you are in the city of Pittsburgh or the state of Pennsylvannia contact Head Start they have an Early Interventation Program. Since your son is 3 they will evaulate him and if they beleive he needs help they will provide the help for free. My son is in the EI program becuase he isnt where he needs to be but we contacted them becuase of his behavor so they are helping us with that. My daughter is in the head start program and she gets speech therapy from the EI program. Alot of the centers in the city of Pittsburgh do both. For the state of Penns. or any other place start with contacting your board of education or your local school district. Ask them about what programs they have.

There is also another route you could go, but its harder and not free. You could talk to your pediatrician and ask them about his speech and tell them the concerns you are having. I dont know where you are so I do not know if you have a Children;s hospital near you but they usually have a developmental unit that could also help with that.

Now i just realized that this isnt your child. Just let his parents know what you have been notcing. Also if you could maybe get information and go to them with the information and tell them you think it would be a good idea for him to evaulated. Let them know that there is nothing wrong with getting help. He will need it later on when he is in school adn it is easier to deal with at a younger age. If you let me know where you are from maybe I could help get the information for you. Let me know how it goes

I am also a Child Care Provider.You are honestly going to be the best help though.Why?You are going to have to follow through with his needs also.He is learning from you everytime he sees you, all day, and he will listen to you.He will eventually understand you more and more and you will be able to listen and understand him more and more when he starts this program.As he goes through the speech therapy, just speak very slowly, so that he can take it all in.Speak only a few words at a time, and wait for him to answer.For instance,"Are you hungary"? Wait for him to answer you, and if he doesnt....get his attention again by getting on you knees, and looking at him in his face, and hold his hand, and ask him again...If he knods his head "YES", you say,"Yes, you are hungary?".Show him how to put words together.I am sure you get the jist.Good Luck, and let all of us know how it went.

I would contact DPW only after speaking with the parents liek them know you are concerned and show lots of compassion. Let them know exactly what you are seeing as far as withdrawing from the group. Parents will be defensive but the also will do anything to help their child :) I am a child care provider also and through PA dept of public works early child learning you will find a lot of help for your child care.

hooray for you being a single mother is very hard let alone having a in home business on top of it. i have a 5 year old niece who has a very strong speech problem there is a fine line when it comes to business and how to deal with children that are not your own not being a professional in this field i can only tell you from experience that unless the child is in some kind of speech therapy in a preschool program there is no way you can solve this problem with out the proper skills and tools and sad to say that unless the parents of this child see the problem and seek the appropriate help the child will have to wait till school to get the help he needs and deserves and as for you speaking to the parents you need to make sure you are on that kind of level with them or you may lose one of your clients which is you income be careful good luck

I think that everyone here has given great advice on this and I would have to agree that the best thing you can do is talk with the parents. I have three year old triplets that needed speech therapy which we did for about a year from the age of about 1 1/2 until they were 2 1/2. I think one of the best things we all learned during therapy was simple sign's that way when they wanted something and weren't able to say it yet they could sign it. They have since stopped using signs and just talk none stop but it really did help, because even though they couldn't say it they could still communicate what they needed and wanted and there was no screaming and yelling. Some of the most useful signs were drink, milk, juice, more, and hungry. Hopefully the parents realize what a good caretaker you are and they are lucky to have found someone that really is taking care of there child. Good Luck.

Can I tell you, the parents are probably going to be happy to have the input. My firstborn sound like a very talkative Teletubbie until he was almost four, but it took six months of speech therapy to get it straight. It was my son's childcare provider who confirmed my worries for me.

But I would suggest preparing yourself for the conversation. I would cite specific behaviors. Take a language sample. If you have to phonetically write down the sounds, or make a notation that says "unintelligible," that might help.

For instance, "[Boy] said [unintelligible]. After a time [his name] went away from the group and sat down and started crashing matchbox cars together/crying/staring out the window/having a tantrum."

I would preface your conversation by saying that this has nothing to do with intelligence and it seems like the boy is frustrated and this might help. You might even suggest having the boy evaluated by the county, because the services might be free, and so might the evaluation.

The mother might not have any trouble understanding her son, and that is quite common. Or she might. But she may have had more than her share of people telling her not to worry. Your confirmation might actually be welcome.

Good luck!

When parents are in denial of anything being wrong its hard. Remember you can't diagnose but you can request that they see a speach theripist. A lot of states offer testing, and if needed the therapy for free. Needing speach therapy isn't a big deal and a a parent its a joy when you see it helping your child.