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Thread: Speech therapy in NZ

  1. #1
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    Default Speech therapy in NZ

    Any one know any thing about or have any experience with Speech therapy in NZ? I have a 4 yr old who receives ST twice per week and I wanted to research the resources in more detail in New Zealand.
    Thanks.

  2. #2
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    You might try dropping a PM to Sam B, she's a Speech Therapist for under 5s, and do a forum search - there has been a fair bit of info from Sam and others on here.

    Gil

  3. #3
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    Speech therapy Services are free for children if they are eligible. The Service is provided by the Ministry of Education, Special Education. Pre-school children are seen either in kindy, at home or in clinic, and school aged children are generally seen in school. For pre-school children, they need to be classed as either having a moderate or severe communication difficulty to qualify, and for school aged children they need to be classed as having a severe difficulty.

    Although case loads here are much smaller for SLTs than in the UK, I understand that they are much larger than US SLTs are used to. There is only one child on my case load that I see twice a week, and she is very very severe, and even then I could only see her that frequently for a short time, before I had to drop back to once a week. From what I can tell, other SLTs here see children less frequently than I do, it varies. I think you will find that s/he receives less SLT here but s/he should get some and it will be free.

    PS SLT = speech language therapist

  4. #4
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    Thanks for your replies.
    Sam,
    He has been diagnosed with moderate Speech Apraxia and is receiving ST twice per week and we are trying to arrange 3 times per week between insurance and private pay.
    Are you able to pay for additional ST through private pay or private medical insurance in NZ?
    Thanks very much for your info.

  5. #5
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    You can pay privately for SLT in NZ, but it varies how much private therapy is available in different areas. A child with moderate apraxia should be fine with weekly or even fortnightly appointments as long as you do daily practice at home with him. I'm not sure about health insurance. Generally most people just settle for the free service I think.

  6. #6
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    We did a couple of private sessions with our small fella (3 yrs old) as the waiting lists in Auckland even for an assessment are horrendous.... first initial assessment was $150, sessions after were $65 for half hour.

    However if you already have a diagnosis then they should be able to get into the public system for help a bit quicker, for instance a friends son (3) has an autism spectrum diagnosis as is receiving free SLT along with his other help through the public system.

  7. #7
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    Our near 6 yr old son has seen SLT's since birth (in UK) and is still occasionally seeing in NZ (where we have been for almost 3 yrs). This was all sorted out via special ed. There appears from our experience a real shortage of SLTs and visits in our (and school's) opinion are too infrequent. We also found that when our SLT was on maternity leave we had no-one for our son to see. To be honest this is where NZ falls down a bit for us in terms of educational and medical standards. Most core services are comparable to the UK but in less common situations we have found a shortage of availability of services - from our experience this includes SLT, OT, paediatric and medicine availability (Pharmac restrictions)

  8. #8
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    Thanks for eveyone's replies. ,thanks again for your imput as a SLP. I really appreciate it.
    Here (maybe just different viewpoint) I have been told that he should be in ST 3 times per week and I am noticing a huge improvement after an increase in ST from 1 to 2 times per week. We work with him at home daily but our success depends upon his cooperation at the time part of it him being 4!
    A very important factor in our decision to move is making sure we can meet his needs over in NZ so all this info is very helpful.

  9. #9
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    To be honest, what child with communication difficulties wouldn't benefit from SLT every day or 3 times per week? The reality is most countries just can't afford this and so we kid ourselves that we can get parents to do it instead..... This is definitely an area where you will find yourselves worse off in NZ, although you may get a brilliant therapist - who knows?

  10. #10
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    Thanks for your reply Sam.
    I understand about the funding issues.
    So I have just submitted our ITA and we shall continue with ST 3 times per week (just got the school here to increase it to 2 times per week) and see how he does, and play the waiting game with NZIS.
    Thanks again for all of your replies.

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