has anyone brought their child to this school? I had an appointment with my child's pediatrician last week and told her that my son is a little slow with talking. He's 3 yrs. old and says less than 100 words! He is very, very smart tho, understands every single thing you tell him or are saying!! So she gave me this number for Camron(spelling??) school in el cerrito to get a speech evaluation done, but i called there, and they need all this information first! They want me to send them some kind of typed or hand written letter with all of my child's info(ie. name, birth date..) with a copy of our pg&e bill, a copy of his birth certificate and any other bill that is in our name! Why do they need all of this for just a speech evaluation test?? i just want to make sure there is nothing seriously wrong with my son, just want to make sure he's not autistic or anything else serious! Please need advice on school and if there is somewhere that i can take him localy just for a test! Thank you
I know nothing about the school, but I did have a similar experience with my first child - a son - not talking at age 3, but as soon as our second child was born(he was 3 1/2 then) and he needed to be heard and comunication became more important, he talked in full sentances not just one or two words together.
M.,
School districts are required by law to provide services for their residents. The paperwork is just part of that process to ensure you live within their service area.
Contact CARE Parent network ###-###-####) for support and information. They will guide you in this process for NO fee and inform you of your and you son's educational rights.
A. A
Hello M.,
As the other responders have said, the school needs all this information because they are a public entity and if anyone (Dept. of Education, or whatever) is going to refund them the cost of testing, they need verification of where you live, etc.
I would also say that children start talking at different ages. My son had less than 10 words two weeks before he turned three, and then started talking in complete sentences ("I want some juice" was the first thing he said). He was a couple of months past three before he said "Mommy". Boys are often slower than girls. Have him tested to make sure nothing is really wrong. Therapists love to get kids earlier rather than later, so if there is a problem, now is the time to find out, but I think you will probably find out that he's fine.
Take care,
E.
It sounds like they are trying to confirm your address and take care of paperwork, that's all. I've heard great things about that school. Good luck -- and breathe!
Our youngest son is 3.5 yrs & started speech thereapy at the Cameron School in September. He started receiving speech therapy when he was just over 2 but that was at home. He was assessed & diagnosed w/a slight speech delay around his 2nd b-day. I suggest you call the Cameron school now & get the process started since it may take a while to get an appt & be seen. Then it depends on your child's needs & if they have room in their program. As another mom said, they want your PG & E bill as proof that you are an El Cerrito resident or live close enough to qualify for services from them. That said I am very pleased w/the Cameron School. Our son has only been going about 1.5 months so he & the therapist are still getting to know each other. There are 2 other kids in his group, they meet for 45 minutes 2x/wk, & our son loves it! There have been times we've had to miss & he's so disappointed. He has a little folder that he brings to & from class & has 'homework' in it which he really loves cuz big brother has homework from school, too. It's nothing major, just practicing words they've worked on in class. So, I strongly urge to get this process started. At 3 yrs. your son should have more than 100 or so words. Our son was like yours....understood everything we were saying & was able to follow mulitple-step directions but was starting to get frustrated that he wasn't always being understood & was acting out as a result. The 2 things that really helped were the speech sessions & starting preschool earlier than planned so he could be around kids his age who were talking. So, you might also want to get him started in preschool or some type of play class where he's around talking kids his age. In the past 1.5 yrs, our son's speech has improved immensely: in the beginning, I needed to translate just about everything he said like he was speaking a foreign language & now the length & complexity of his senteces is typical to kids his age, he just has a hard time w/s's & letter blends like tr, bl ect. So, please get the process started. Best of luck.
Yes, the Cameron School is an excellent source of services for your child. While I pray that everything will work out, in order to make sure, testing is the first step and early intervention is best. I had my 2 year old tested there, and discovered some of the limits of her conversations was that I am raising her bilingual, but the help and support was excellent. She is now a 5 year old that speaks both English and Spanish fluently. I highly recommend Cameron!
I don't know anything about the Cameron school, but they have a website you can go to for information about their programs and what they involve. I do know some about testing in general, however. Any of the places you go would want basic background information about your child, his birth history (your pregnancy history), etc. to determine risk factors for hearing or developmental impairments. Even things like each parent speaking to the child in a different language (which lots of families do) will contribute to a speech delay, so those factors are all important to establish. Additionally, stuff like PG&E bills are used to establish that you do actually live in the county, because the county or the state are paying way more than what you will pay to the entity that is doing the testing--the equipment is pretty expensive and staff should be well-trained, and they (the school) gets subsidies so that parents do not have to pay the full burden, which is a good thing. Cameron School is part of the public school system, which may mean you pay nothing for their assessment, but that doesn't mean it doesn't cost the district anything to do it.
Another resource you can call is in West Berkeley, the Center for the Early Intervention of Deafness. They deal with all sorts of hearing impairments (which is often a reason for delayed speech), not just total deafness, and do great evaluations and help you with follow-up and advocacy. But they will require the same information, I'm sure--stuff like whether the baby was born early or exposed to certain antibiotics either before or after delivery is critical for them to know in order to help you out. Good luck, and (this is the hard part, I know well!) don't sweat the tests too much until you have the answers they give--remind yourself that what you see daily is the "very, very smart child who understands everything you are saying" that you wrote about. That means he is already compensating for any problems he may have developed, and that is a very good sign indeed. Just keep going forward remembering that the goal is your child's full development and the little roadblocks in the way won't seem so overwhelming!
