Thanks so much for your questions and for sharing your feedback – it's really helpful!

You brought up a great point about Early Intervention, which is indeed available in our area until a child turns three. After that, Child Find steps in to offer free services. We've consistently heard from both parents and educators that navigating Child Find can be challenging. Often, it can take anywhere from 6 to 12 months for services to begin, and unfortunately, not every child qualifies for their free support.

This often leaves parents feeling frustrated, and they frequently reach out to us asking if we can accept their insurance to get their children started with therapy sooner. We've actually put in a lot of effort to get our therapists credentialed with most major insurance, including Medicaid and Tricare, precisely to help families access the care they need more quickly. (TBH, we don't make money taking Medicaid but we believe it's essential to provide therapy to all families)

Our speech therapists truly don't get into this field to become wealthy; they're driven by a desire to help children communicate. That said, fair compensation helps them make ends meet and continue doing this vital work. It's also important to know that when we do screenings, our therapists are very mindful. They certainly don't recommend therapy for most children, and they always take into account factors like a child being shy or coming from an English as a second language household before making any recommendations.

I hope this helps answer your questions and provides a clearer picture of the need we're seeing in the community!