Speech Therapy after extended break?

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Has anyone here resumed speech therapy after an extended break? Were they able to get it covered by OVR or health insurance?

I'm HOH, stopped doing speech therapy after graduating from high school. I'm starting to think I should go back (I'm 29) - I'm a little worried that my speech is holding me back professionally. I'm skeptical that I could improve, but my mindset is different than when I was 18?

From what I read - speech therapy is not covered by insurance (blue cross blue shield) unless the hearing loss/speech issues is newly diagnosed, but I just wanted to check if anyone had better luck.

Thanks!
 
I would have speech therapy when I thought my speech was getting bad , it helped . But it's hard to find a speech therapist now b/c most of them when into private practice and don't take insurance anymore.
 
Just wondering..... what's the purpose of starting speech therapy again? Although dhh as kids people can develop pretty good speech, very few can develop "like hearing" perfect speech. Heck even late deafened people can have "deaf voices" Are you sure you're not just worrying a little too much? I mean if most hearing people can understand you easily, I should think that you don't really need the speech therapy. Although I do understand that there are really hard to understand "deaf voices." It's just like with accents.... Some people have really hard to understand accents, and then others have easy to understand accents.
 
deafdyke said:
Just wondering..... what's the purpose of starting speech therapy again? Although dhh as kids people can develop pretty good speech, very few can develop "like hearing" perfect speech. Heck even late deafened people can have "deaf voices" Are you sure you're not just worrying a little too much? I mean if most hearing people can understand you easily, I should think that you don't really need the speech therapy. Although I do understand that there are really hard to understand "deaf voices." It's just like with accents.... Some people have really hard to understand accents, and then others have easy to understand accents.
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Not sure if this will explain my rational in pursing speech therapy - they say that dressing well may result in better opportunities, etc. I'm not saying this is right or wrong - it is just an observation that some people agree with. http://www.forbes.com/sites/cheryls...n-dressing-well-increase-your-income-in-2013/

Thus, I'm somewhat intentional about dressing well in my workplace - partly to overcompensate what initial fears that people may have when working with me. I want them to know that I take my job seriously and so forth.

I would say 80% of people understand consistently within 20 minutes of listening to my voice. The other 20% just find excuses to not work with me or stick with email. It is fine and I don't feel like I'm being directly passed over for opportunities right now - but I'd like to move up eventually. A part of me wonders if my speech may play a role in giving a small bad negative impression and if taking 3 or 5 lessons to relearn how to make an "st" or "th" sound - I'd like to take the lesson for feedback and minimize concerns people have. While I'm not looking for a job relating to public speaking, I do interact with a fair number of people. On the other hand - having bad speech is good first impression in a way when people realize that I can't hear them - it invokes a weird pity/appreciation emotion as many of you may have observed. I just don't want my speech to be a make/break point in terms of future promotions - especially if the person making the decision is one of the 20% who avoid me currently. Not sure if anyone HOH can relate to this thinking?

I can't hear myself, so it is so hard to know if my speech is consistent or if I'm slurring or so forth.

Thanks for writing!
 
deafdyke said:
Just wondering..... what's the purpose of starting speech therapy again? Although dhh as kids people can develop pretty good speech, very few can develop "like hearing" perfect speech. Heck even late deafened people can have "deaf voices" Are you sure you're not just worrying a little too much? I mean if most hearing people can understand you easily, I should think that you don't really need the speech therapy. Although I do understand that there are really hard to understand "deaf voices." It's just like with accents.... Some people have really hard to understand accents, and then others have easy to understand accents.
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I would have speech therapy when I notice people having a harder time understanding me. It doesn't harm to have speech therapy if it made you feel better about your speech.
 
I think you're overthinking it, or you may be a little sensative about how your voice "stands out." Maybe a good idea would be to get a professional evaluation, but IMHO pretty much ALL speech therapists would tell you that your speech is fine, and that it's pretty much impossible for a dhh person to have perfect "like hearing" speech.
 
deafdyke said:
I think you're overthinking it, or you may be a little sensative about how your voice "stands out." Maybe a good idea would be to get a professional evaluation, but IMHO pretty much ALL speech therapists would tell you that your speech is fine, and that it's pretty much impossible for a dhh person to have perfect "like hearing" speech.
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Don't be silly. There is nothing wrong in her trying to improve her speech if she thinks it will help her advance professionally.
 
deafdyke said:
I think you're overthinking it, or you may be a little sensative about how your voice "stands out." Maybe a good idea would be to get a professional evaluation, but IMHO pretty much ALL speech therapists would tell you that your speech is fine, and that it's pretty much impossible for a dhh person to have perfect "like hearing" speech.
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The OP is trying to see if any was able get their insurance to cover speech therapy . I was until most of the therapists when into private practice .
I was told if I had a speech therapist right from the start and kept up with long enough I wouldn't have a hoh accent. My dad didn't allow this to happen ! I know a guy that hoh and he doesn't have a hoh accent at all.
 
I suggest you to call bcbs, to make sure that they can cover it for 10 weeks or less or more of speech therapy.. Please let me know!! im curious too!
 
Frisky Feline said:
I suggest you to call bcbs, to make sure that they can cover it for 10 weeks or less or more of speech therapy.. Please let me know!! im curious too!
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What does bcbs stand for ? I think insurance cover speech therapy if a person had a stroke or other medical health issues so I don't see why they won't cover if a person is hoh .
 
whatdidyousay! said:
What does bcbs stand for ? I think insurance cover speech therapy if a person had a stroke or other medical health issues so I don't see why they won't cover if a person is hoh .
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BCBS is blue cross blue shield, my insurance company. I'll report back once I make the call. I likely won't get a hold of them for 2 weeks or so as I won't have access to a personal computer during business hours/business days for a while. Thanks Frisky!
 
whatdidyousay! said:
What does bcbs stand for ? I think insurance cover speech therapy if a person had a stroke or other medical health issues so I don't see why they won't cover if a person is hoh .
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They do, but unless you have incredibly generous insurance, they won't cover it if your speech is really good. They cover speech if you're severely defiecent in that area, but generally don't if you're understandable. They figure that a particular benchmark is good enough. I'm not sure what the exact cut off is... Also health insurance is in the business of making money. They make their money by denying services. They figure it's a safe bet to pay for people who need a lot of help, but generally won't pay for people who have VERY good speech or very good functioning.
 
Bottesini said:
Don't be silly. There is nothing wrong in her trying to improve her speech if she thinks it will help her advance professionally.
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That is exactly what I was going to say. Great minds think alike.:giggle:
 
Angel1989 said:
That is exactly what I was going to say. Great minds think alike.:giggle:
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I said something like this too and look at James Earl Jones , he stutter really bad when he was younger . Now look at how successful he is .
My dad had a friend who was a business man ,he was very handsome but he stutter terribly, I bet this was a handicap to him when he tried to talk on the phone.
 
I have been wondering about speech therapy myself. As a late-deafened person, my speech has maintained well for quite a long time until the last couple of years. It seems to be much more difficult to find these services as an adult. I wondered if I would just get a "you speak fine" or a "there is nothing more they can do" response.
 
zephren said:
I have been wondering about speech therapy myself. As a late-deafened person, my speech has maintained well for quite a long time until the last couple of years. It seems to be much more difficult to find these services as an adult. I wondered if I would just get a "you speak fine" or a "there is nothing more they can do" response.
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I took speech therapy when I had to start repeating myself more often . You could try calling a school and see if have a speech therapist that would work with you . Or ask your audi if they know of any speech therapist , I know there are speech therapists to help people learn how to talk again after having a medical issues that affected their speech. I was told after having a few weeks of lessons there was not much more they could do . I was to set in my way , if I had the proper speech lessons as a child I was told would not of had a speech defect at all.
 
My insurance will cover my speech therapy now that I just got a CI. I wonder if I didn't get one, would it cover it? Makes me go hmmmmm...

My speech is not perfect and I can see that about half of the people at my work don't want to work with me or if I go to them and ask questions or inquire about something, I see the "0h boy" expressions on their faces. Good thing that the other half don't have any issues with me. Hearing people are a strange breed.
 
shel90 said:
My insurance will cover my speech therapy now that I just got a CI. I wonder if I didn't get one, would it cover it? Makes me go hmmmmm...

My speech is not perfect and I can see that about half of the people at my work don't want to work with me or if I go to them and ask questions or inquire about something, I see the "0h boy" expressions on their faces. Good thing that the other half don't have any issues with me. Hearing people are a strange breed.
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I called Comcast tonight and got a robotic voice and I had to say
"Yes " or 'No" and when I said yes the robotic voice didn't
understand me ! I said it 3 time and still no luck ! I finally said #$@** and the robotic voice said it didn't understand that response .
I finally got a real live person . When I told my hearing dog to
"Sit" while at a store people where like :shock: They thought I said "sh1t"
:giggle:
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I called Comcast tonight and got a robotic voice and I had to say
"Yes " or 'No" and when I said yes the robotic voice didn't
understand me ! I said it 3 time and still no luck ! I finally said #$@** and the robotic voice said it didn't understand that response .
I finally got a real live person . When I told my hearing dog to
"Sit" while at a store people where like :shock: They thought I said "sh1t"
:giggle:
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It's just like having an accent. Most dhh people can speak, but very few will have flawless "Middle American" News Broadcaster speech. Just like most people with accents will never have flawless "Middle American" News Broadcaster speech.
 
deafdyke said:
It's just like having an accent. Most dhh people can speak, but very few will have flawless "Middle American" News Broadcaster speech. Just like most people with accents will never have flawless "Middle American" News Broadcaster speech.
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I been told by a Hispanic man I have a beautiful Hispanic accent . I was
really surprised When I went to Mexico with my b/f and another couple we went to a bank and I was talking to my b/f and a woman came up and started talking to me in Spanish , I had no idea what she was saying . She heard me talking and thought I had a Hispanic accent . I was told I had a beautiful French accent too. :giggle:
 
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