Private speech therapy cost?

[YappityYapYap]

Hi, I'm really considering getting speech therapy for my DS but privately as the NHS is taking too long. My DS is 3 years 4 months now with no words at all. We initially had to wait almost a year to see a speech therapist and to be honest, she hasn't actually really done anything other than do a course with me which has now suddenly stopped and we're waiting yet again for someone to get in touch about seeing DS at his nursery.




His nursery need the tips and advice and we need someone to actually interact with DS and use their skills to work out the best way to try and get him talking then let us help him with a tailored plan. None of this has been done with the NHS and I'm starting to get a bit desperate as DS has no words at all and is getting quite frustrated. He is a very happy little boy but you can tell he gets frustrated that he can't express what he needs.




Has anyone ever used a private speech therapist and if so, what was the cost? I have contacted a company local to me that offer a service whereby they assess for a session to see what tactics might be best, they then write a report so we know what their plan is and how many sessions they think DS will need then we agree or disagree and go from there. I imagine it will be charged per session and sessions are, from what it says on their website, usually weekly for 1 hour. He needs this so bad but we're not exactly swimming in money, we get by ok but I can make sacrifices on a few things if I know the cost won't bankrupt us. Thanks in advance for any advice

[AladdinMum]

Not a single word at 3.5Y old is quite a severe speech delay, is he still babbling? trying to make sounds? - speech delays are common at around 2YRs old but tend to clear up by themselves so for him to not have picked up a single word by now I wonder if there is else something going on, like dyspraxia or the like. Is he communicating effectively? I assume he must be using a ton of gestures to communicate to compensate for the lack of words.

Depending on location, private speech therapy costs between £50-£75 an hour (in London), however this type of general speech therapy will only yield results if the child has no underlying issue that is stopping him from talking (i.e. speech therapy at this age is play based where words mean rewards - you can look at examples in YouTube)