What can I expect from an appt at Nuffield Centre

[janx]

I have a referral to the Nuffield in Kings Cross for ds 3.3 who has severe speech delay - anyone been?

i went to nuffield glasgow (privately) 5 years ago with ds. he was 5 had lots of problems, not talking was one of them. the doctor i saw was very thorough, asked lots of questions ie from pregnancy to date. checked ds over from head to foot. head, ears, back, hips, legs, feet etc. Think mostly asked questions tbh how pregnancy was etc, then how ds was since birth when did he reach milestones etc. at the time i had been in & out hospital with ds who was constant screaming for no apparent reason which is why i ended up going private because hospital werent getting to bottom of, and i was obviously extremely worried. i would imagine you will be asked history questons of ds since birth and they will check him over. hth.

I have been to Nuffied hearing and speech centre in London with DD#1 (6yrs) last November/December. Expect to be there a very long time! They were wonderful with us. I spent much of the time with the consultant answering many questions about DD, including what my concerns were and what had happened to date, all her developmental milestones and lots of other questions besides. Meanwhile DD was in the same room as me but working with a speech therapist doing an assessment of her speech. After that she had a hearing test done and then a little break before we were called back in for her to have a physical check up by the consultant and a further chat with the consultant after the speech therapist and consultant had liased during our break. All in all it must have taken a good 2 hours from the start of the appointment. For us, on the basis of the original discussions we were then passed onto a psychologist there and went back within the month for another long assessment with her. From both meetings we have some very substantial and useful reports that were sent on a few weeks after the appointments. We are due a review in June back there.

They do have a little tea shop bit downstairs but depending what time of day you go that may or not be open, so worth having a drink in your bag with you just in case. The waiting room has lots of toys so your son will probably be quite happy waiting. They seem to be very well organised for keeping the children happy so hopefully he shouldn't feel too intimidated by it all.

Good luck - hope you are as happy with it all as we were.

Thanks both for your replies

beautifulgirls - It all sounds really through and just what we need . thanks for the tips re drinks etc. Can I ask you - did your dd receive any treatment there after assessment or is it strictly for disagnostic purposes?

We didn't get any treatment there no. I'm not sure exactly what their policy is but I got the impression it was more about diagnostics than therapy. For us it would have been a big problem to get there on any regular basis anyway for therapy so it wasn't something I especially needed to ask.