Therapy for language formulation for a high schooler--any experience?

[cintinative]

We finally got the SLP testing done we didn't have money for two years ago.  Finally there are some words that I can use to describe what is going on with my teen.  It is an expressive language formulation issue (e.g. issues with story retelling other than just the facts, explaining what he knows)

So my question is, as we embark on this therapy, how crazy is it to think that he will make strides in two years? He is a rising junior.  I would love some encouraging words that we can get him on the right track to success in college and as an adult.

[Just for informational purposes: previous testing identified ADHD-inattentive, anxiety, stealth dyslexia (which may not be as big of an issue based on this SLP testing), some possible dysgraphia, and giftedness.  He is exceptionally strong in visual spatial--I am hoping he will pursue design or something along those lines.  School district denied IEP because he is high achieving and (I just learned) misreported his SLP test results (grrrrrrr).  At this point I am unlikely to pursue an IEP. Honestly I don't think I have the emotional bandwidth for it--our family has had a very hard year or so. ]

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by cintinative

[kbutton]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

It is an expressive language formulation issue (e.g. issues with story retelling other than just the facts, explaining what he knows)

My older son had language testing with an Ed psych because we didn’t have access to an SLP that tested teens at the time. This is his precise issue, and he made enormous progress in two years with a tutor who knew him and liked the materials I selected. She actually just took the framework and ran with it, finding specific stuff off of TpT to implement the lessons.

With an SLP, he’s likely to do as well or better; the tutor did have more hours to devote to the issue though.

You have to have patience with starting very simply (it will not seem IQ appropriate).

I highly, highly recommend working on it. It made serious positive changes to my son’s confidence and to his ability to communicate ANY important information. It would’ve been a barrier to employment, to be honest. He would still need some help with college writing from a writing center, but it would be to help him write faster and talk through ideas. Writing works, but he has more steps/nuance in his process to get to the same place, if that makes sense. What someone else might do in one pass through a writing task might be several steps for my son.

[Rosie_0801]

My 16yo daughter has made some progress with these issues in the last two years, and we are expecting more significant improvement in the last two and a half years of high school (work done by her, her guardian and I, not her school) but she will absolutely not be college ready at 18.

She will, however, be well placed for the trade she wishes to enter and has already won recognition in that area. 

 

My teaching methodology has had to be a wee bit creative. Our last breakthrough involved a chapter from a book of science flavoured fairy tales for kids, which I downloaded from Librivox when she was little. She'd been struggling with switching points of view in her head and that illustrated what I meant. The marvellous effect lasted for two whole sentences of her writing assignment, so she listened to it again to get herself back in the groove, and was able to continue a little further. So, she obviously hasn't mastered this thinking skill, but she now knows that it exists, what it means and how it feels. So now, we practice...

[PeterPan]

I find the hardest part about this age us being realistic. Yes your dc can make progress relative to themselves. Tgat does not mean all goals are realistic/wise. If the goal is employability maybe work backwards: what is doable but so fatiguing it’s not a viable full time path? Survive vs thrive and all that. The answer will vary with the kid. The more I do this the more cautious about REALITY I get. What does functional reality for the kid look like? 
 

So for instance my ds, who gets tons of intervention , just has limits. 4-6 hours of hard core language demands then no more. That’s just his reality and no amount of intervention is changing that. 
 

To become your most functional you is a great thing. It’s like we fight to climb walls so long and so hard that sometimes we don’t want to say ok time to plant roses on this wall.

Edited June 21, 2023 by PeterPan

[cintinative]

@PeterPan I really appreciated that the SLP kept saying that our goal is to get him launched well.  I am glad that she/her team are going to be directing this because I think I would 1) be overwhelmed and 2) probably try to do too much.  I really hope we can start soon and get in a groove with the therapy before "school" starts.