Guest Post! As the Community Outreach Manager of Social Security Disability Help, Deanna Powers knows her way around applying for disability benefits on behalf of a child with a speech disorder.
From trips to the doctor’s office to therapist bills, if you are the parent of a child with a speech disorder, you know the added costs your family incurs. Fortunately, there are financial resources available for families who qualify. The Social Security Administration (SSA) offers monthly disability benefits for speech disorders for children who have a qualifying disability.
Families with a speech disordered child often face a financial burden due to the high cost of speech therapy and other needed treatments. In fact, a survey published in Public Health Reports found that 40% of American families with children with special needs report feeling the strain of the financial toll that those healthcare needs cause. The survey further reported that children with disabilities are more likely to grow up in single-parent households, and that those parents often hold lower-paying jobs.
As you can undoubtedly attest to, the mere cost of speech therapy isn’t the only factor in the equation. You’ve probably had to take time off of work numerous times to take your child to speech therapy sessions and other treatment sessions. And you probably spend much of the rest of your time researching new at-home speech therapy techniques and working on articulation practice with your child. In fact, you probably spend your nights in realistic, lucid dreams rehearsing speech therapy techniques. But that’s vastly preferable to dreaming about speech therapy bills and denied insurance forms. And after developing a financial plan of attack with our tips, you may be able to reduce the nightmarishly high cost of speech therapy.
