have you paid privately for SALT?

[thisisyesterday]

if so how much was it? and how did you find one?
and was it more/less/the same helpful as NHS provided ones (ha!)

You might want to post on the SN board, i'm sure there are many people who have payed to go private. We were lucky that dd2 was seen by a SALT very quickly and then referred to a SN nursery where she recieved SALT every week, now she's at MS school its a different story (SALT visits school but not very often).

we paid (are paying!) £60 for an hour session. We live in central London. We initially took our son, aged 2:10 at that time to the local NHS service. The appoitnment for the assessment took a long time to arrive but when it did the therapist was very good. We then had group therapyof one as no-one else turned up . However, the followup took forever so it amounted to six session over about a year. We went private due to the frank lack of resources in the NHS. I prefer the approach of the private SALT (more holistic, a tad psychological, a bit of attachment theory) and our son seems to have responded very well to it. Good luck!

There is a directory of speech and language therapists (you can check past threads for the link) and you can search by post-code. I think we paid around £100 for the initial assessment and report and then £75 for each 45 minute session (although she charged £60 if you went to her) at the nursery and then the school. Not cheap but it also enables you to see what they do so that you can follow up with the exercises.

Hope that helps.

good idea Marne, will do that as well!

and thanks makeminemango, that's less than i thought it might be! did you have an initial assessment too? or use what the NHS one had said?

we've had an assessment and a follow-up visit by the NHS salt who was very good, but we've been on the waiting list for regular sessions for about 8 months now and no sign of anything happening.

thanks also lionheart, we x-posted. will look that directory up

Also www.rcslt.org/speech_and_language_therapy/how_to_find_an_slt/howtofind

Our NHS one was pretty useless. She made it pretty clear we had no real cause for concern and went on about all the children on her books who really needed help. DS had quite a severe problem with processing language.

I should add that although we've used a private SALT for around two years the sessions have been in blocks with breaks between and and we have carried on the work between times (so not £75 per week for two years!).

we had an initial session too which was £100ish. 8 months seems like such a long time to wait. Our son bilingual and we felt that his problems with verbal expression were beginning to affect his social skills and his behaviour (lots of frustration, biting etc).

I would second what Marne said about the sN threads. Fantastic advice from parents with expereinces and some SALTs too.

Try the website helpwithtalking.com. You enter your postcode ane it gives you a list of private SALT in your area.
From experience, the local NHS SALT are rubbish. Rescourses are so stretched they could only offer my DS 6 weeks on / 6 weeks off, of weekly therapy, and we got a different SALT at every appointment - no continuity and we felt like they were not taking the issue seriously. A child with SAL issues needs regular and consistant therapy from the same therapist to build confidence and a good sense of trust.
We found a great private SALT on the website and paid about £55 per session (London area). It's not cheap but we have no regrets as DS would not be doing so well today without that early intervention. The other advantage of private therapy is that the SALT usually comes to you, meaning the child feels more relaxed and comfortable having the therapy in their own home as opposed to being in an unfamiliar, sterile environment.
Good luck.

thanks all so much, have a list now of local private SALTs but a friend has also given me a list of "chatterbox" sessions which are run at local surestart centres from September, so I think we might contact a private SALT for another assessment to see where ds2 stands now and then see what the chatterbox sessions are like, plus ring up and find out when our proper appt will come through before we book any regular private sessions.

it's great to hear that everyone thinks they're worth the money though! it's definitely the road we'll be going down if the local NHS resources are not good enough

Good luck!

If you can afford to, go private! My friend saw NHS SALT and was given exercises to do with her child at home, that she was already trying because they were common sense. She also had trouble getting regular appointments as she should have done, although that could be poor management of one dept rather that a common theme.

In addition, as a teacher I was once told by a SALT person that the child she had just spent 30 minutes with had no problems at all. Quite unprofessionally I said "WHAT???" in a shocked and quite loud manner. His name (changed to protect the innocent ;) ) was Robert Richards and he couldn't say it properly. When I told them that he couldn't say his own name, and also gave examples of several other letters that he could not pronounce, they then went back and reassessed him. Lo and behold, he then had SALT sessions within school.