Ep. 66: What If Speech Therapy Doesn't Feel Right? Ft. Parent & Advocate Sandy Hughes

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The NeuroAffirm Podcast 28 min 1 speaker 7 chapters transcribed 5 hours ago
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Sandy Hughes 0:08
What's up, everyone? And welcome to Making the Shift for Autistic Kids.
Sensory SLP 0:13
We're an SLP couple from California with four boys. And we're here every week to bring you neuro-affirming tips, tricks, and tools. Are you ready to make the shift? Let's
Sandy Hughes 0:24
do this!
Sensory SLP 0:31
Hello everyone and welcome to Making the Shift. I have a very exciting guest with us today. I'm so excited to introduce you guys to Sandy. And Sandy is a mom who actually enrolled in the Inside Out program online and that's where I met her. And then she called me and now she brings her son in for therapy. And I'm just so excited for you to be here because I feel like so many families can relate to your journey and just how much you've been through and how many challenges you've been through. And now for you to get to this place where you feel the pieces are coming together. And I was thinking about this and I was like, it's kind of funny because I don't think any parent ever gets to the place where they're just like, everything's magical and perfect.
Sensory SLP 1:19
It's like there's always a next step. piece of what's what's coming and I really just wanted Sandy to come because it's so inspiring to see and hear her story and I'm also kind of nervous but I feel like you always tell me things that are happy things but are like happy tears
Sandy Hughes 1:36
yeah
Sensory SLP 1:37
and I'm like really scared I'm gonna cry
Sandy Hughes 1:39
we can pause
Sensory SLP 1:41
but I would love for actually let me share one story first okay this is like one of my big memories it was like one of the first times you came here and your son had brought in his big stuffies which he brought today too
Sandy Hughes 1:57
and
Sensory SLP 1:58
they come into the waiting room and I'm just like randomly in the waiting room I don't know why and his therapist comes out and then he just like walks back with her and doesn't even like look at you just literally like doesn't grab his stuffed animals just like goes
Sandy Hughes 2:12
straight in it was the first time he had abandoned both his like safety plushies And me and just like beelined to the therapy room.
Sensory SLP 2:22
And I just like looked at you and you started crying. Yeah, you start crying. Then I was crying. I was like, oh, my gosh, you know, because it was just like a big moment.
Sandy Hughes 2:30
Yeah. Well, when he's excited to go someplace, obviously he's a very different kid.
Sensory SLP 2:36
So,
Sandy Hughes 2:36
yeah. And that was when I kind of came to the realization that that's how it could be all the time if I had the right pieces in place. And we're still trying to make. Every aspect of his life reflect that feeling. He doesn't always feel that excited to get in the car. He's, you know, we're still struggling with the school situation.

What motivated Sandy Hughes to seek a different speech therapy for her autistic son?

Sandy Hughes 2:56
That's probably like a whole other podcast. But I, yeah.
Sensory SLP 3:02
Well, I would love you to share kind of like where you guys were and where you started. Maybe scooch up like just a tad. I just want to make sure the microphone gets you. Okay.
Sandy Hughes 3:13
Well, so I kind of want to go back a little ways and share about how I first started noticing that like the back and forth language wasn't the same as maybe other parents that had kids around the same age. they were starting to potty train and we didn't have the language to discuss needing to go or let's go sit on the potty or anything. And so I talked to my pediatrician when he was three and said, should we have a language assessment? And she said, no, it's, you know, he's talking enough. Like he's probably just, let's just wait and see. And I think a lot of people get that advice. And I really wish that we had been able to start, you know, whether or not he would get an autistic diagnosis in the end, which he did, but it would have been great to have the support and someone to help me support him at home.
Sandy Hughes 4:03
um so we got to the four-year well check and we still hadn't
Sensory SLP 4:08
really
Sandy Hughes 4:08
gotten you know too much more progress there was still a lot of scripting what I know now is echolalia and you know gestalt processing stage one um and so we did uh I asked for another assessment and at that point um we had to wait a really long time to get one. And then I got interviewed by the developmental pediatrician's nurse or nurse practitioner. And they said, oh, OK, well, we'll make you an appointment to see the psychologist in seven months or something.

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