If your child receives EI, I have a question...

thank you for your replies.

Message edited 8/17/2016 2:40:38 PM.

Re: If your child receives EI, I have a question...

My son was in EI from 18 months on, from 18 months to age 2 (before we moved him to a center based program) we had therapists come to our house, and with the exception of ABA the sessions were 45 min each... in my experience all of his therapists would spend the last 10-15 min writing up notes. I am not sure if the writing up of notes is the norm in home based EI though, once he moved to a center based program through EI, the service time dropped to 30 min instead of 45 minutes and I was told the reason was because they do not take notes during the session...

If your child receives EI, I have a question...

Same thing happened with us.

If your child receives EI, I have a question...

If the service is 60 they should be teaching for 60 not spending 15 minutes doing notes. I don't understand how it could take that long to write something up though. DD had ABA, Speech, OT at the house and none of her therapists spent that much time writing anything up. Maybe 5 minutes tops and the ABA was done as the programs were being run. I'd be interested in what exactly they are writing up.

If your child receives EI, I have a question...

I don't have a child in EI but I worked for many years as an ABA therapist for EI and that is unheard of. Session notes are to be written after the whole session is over. Now when taking data it's ok to jot down some notes, but taking 15 minutes to sit and write notes is ridiculous. I would love to know what they were writing for so long!!

Re: If your child receives EI, I have a question...

I'm OOS. But my son receives speech therapy. 45 minutes sessions and for 45 minutes he is being taught. If she takes notes its for a few seconds while she is still engaging with my son. 15 minutes is ridiculous!

Re: If your child receives EI, I have a question...

Yep, that happened to my DS when he was in EI for speech. She would spend 10 out of the 30min to write her notes. I spoke to a friend & former therapist about it at the time & she said that yeah some will do that but they shouldn't.

Re: If your child receives EI, I have a question...

Message edited 8/17/2016 2:41:27 PM.

If your child receives EI, I have a question...

I work in EI. Child gets 3 60 min sessions. I spend the last 10 writing up, reviewing with family, then they are required to sign following each session. Log notes take a long time to complete. Writing in IEP codes, goals for the day, actuaries, progress, and recording % towards criteria.

If your child receives EI, I have a question...

I don't recall any of my girls' therapists talking for than a minute or two to not things down after a session. I will say I've had plenty of occasions where they didn't stay the full amount of time. Especially with dd2 because she wasn't all that cooperative and cried through a good portion of sessions. Maybe if I found the records really useful in terms of them writing and going over suggested activities, otherwise I'd be pretty upset.

If your child receives EI, I have a question...

One of my best friends works in the field and part of her job is to provide services at their home, she spends the whole hr providing services and then at her own time she writes the report for the child, which takes a lot of time, def more than 15 min. I'm wondering if ur therapist, more than taking notes, she's actually starting to write the evaluation for ur ds?

Message edited 8/16/2016 9:37:50 PM.

Re: If your child receives EI, I have a question...

YES!!!! This was a major issue for us! But one of the teachers would actually take the last 20 minutes of the session to do her notes & then leave 10 minutes early!! I complained to the service coordinator who called her supervisor & she now stays the full time & is very careful about it (she knows I'll complain again).

I believe they're allowed 5 minutes to do their notes (it really shouldn't take longer than that). More than that is taking advantage & I would report it absolutely!!! Don't let her get away with it!!!! Your child is missing out on important therapy time.

Re: If your child receives EI, I have a question...

When my son was in EI he was receiving 45 min sessions. During our meeting with the coordinator I was told that therapy is 30 mins and 15 mins are for notes and discussing with the parents.

My DS therapists ended up doing 40 mins of therapy and then notes. A lot of the time they would stay a little later because they couldn't finish their notes in 5 mins.

Re: If your child receives EI, I have a question...

When my DD was getting ei none of therapist ever cut her time short to take notes. You should call the agency you are working with. If your child's IEP states a specific amount if time for therapy than that is what they should get.

If your child receives EI, I have a question...

Depends on how they note take during the session. Some of mine (we've had a LOT of EI therapists come to the house) waited to fill the end to score/write up his notes, others did it in the session itself with about 5-10 minutes at the end to finish everything up. All of them kept my son in the room with them while they did so.

Message edited 8/17/2016 7:21:52 AM.

Re: If your child receives EI, I have a question...

In EI, the last 15 min of a session is to be spent writing up the log note (which needs to be signed by the parent/caregiver before the service provider leaves) and for parent/caregiver consultation/education. Some or ideas take the whole 15 min to do this and others might take less, but it is totally ok either way as long as the provider can get the log note done and signed and leaves time for the parent/caregiver to ask questions and be filled in on how the child did that session.

If your child receives EI, I have a question...

My 11 month old gets 45 mins of speech, pt, and SI 2x per week. They all do their thing for 45 mins, then write their notes. The only time they've ever not given the full 45 is if the baby is extremely fussy but she's usually pretty good so that's only happened a couple of times.

If your child receives EI, I have a question...

I don't do EI so I'm not familiar with the rules, but I would call the service coordinator if you have a question.

If your child receives EI, I have a question...

i'm a speech therapist, and did one of my internships in EI. (but i live in NJ, so it might be different...) BUT i ( and the therapist who was supervising me) would do 45-50 minutes working with the kid, and the last 10-15 minutes was writing notes. BUT a big part of that is reviewing with the parent WHILE WE"RE WRITING . answering their questions, giving them "homework", ways to work with their child in between sessions. so we weren't just sitting there by ourselves at their kitchen table writing LOL we were basically telling the parent what we were writing while we were writing it. honestly, at that age, a full hour is a lot to ask the kid to keep attention (even though i know most of the activities are play-based). the paperwork is considered part of the services for the child. Even when i worked in the schools, we got a few sessions a week built in to our schedules to do paperwork, because thats part of our services to the kid... if its more than like 10/15 minutes though i would say something, definitely...

Message edited 8/17/2016 10:52:34 AM.