We really dislike ds's language and speech therapist!!

[sleepyhorse]

Had 4th session today with her and hoping that once we finish this block, it will be the last we see of her! Hoping we can request different therapist for next block. She spends most of the half an hour session looking at her watch so you almost feel like she doesn't want to be doing her job hence you feel like she is doing you a massive favour! Also she doesn't seem to listen to anything we tell her. For example when we were asked how ds progress had been going over the last week, we said really well that as well as bringing us objects and saying the words that he had also spent the weekend round lots if children playing pretty well. Then when highlighting all his issues at the end of the session aside from his lack of talking she went on to say how he doesn't play well with his peers. Both dh and I agreed that she is on a different planet! Please tell me that there are some really nice therapists out there that make you feel positive after every session?

what a shame, sleepyhorse. Good professionals can make all the difference. My DS2's SALT is a facebook friend now! He stopped seeing her 6 years ago, but she was the first one to recognise his problems and really helped us get him into a special preschool. There are excellent SALTs out there. Mine used the Hanan method, which worked really well for my DS.

Oh really, do you mind telling me a bit about the hanan method and it's benefits?

Until I had been through the complaints procedure several times I didn't get a half-decent SALT.

Got one now, but the decent thing about her is that she admits she hasn't got a clue how to help ds, rather than patronising and glossing over his issues.

Hanan method. Very basically, it's based on getting your child to communicate by commenting on what they are focussing on/are interested in, rather than what you want them to do. So, if your child is banging two blocks together, you get down to their level and say, "Bang the blocks," or something like that. What I used to do was say, "Look at the car, DS, brum, brum," while he continued to ignore me and play with the blocks.

You give them the words for what they are interested in, what they are looking at, rather than trying to get them to do something else. You don't just leave it there, you expand on what they are doing, giving them more words. You take some blocks, red and blue and you bang them, copying what they are doing, and give them the colour names, etc. When I copied what my DS was doing I always seemed to get his attention.

It's not very ABA, but it did work very well with my DS. There is an (expensive) book called More than Words which is aimed at DC on the spectrum which goes into more detail. This book takes you through your child's sensory needs and helps you to understand what makes them tick.

There is also the standard book, not ASD specific, called It Takes Two to Talk. Either can be purchased through the Winslow Press.

My DS2 did turn out to be HF, with an average to high IQ. Whether this approach is the best one for all children, I wouldn't know, probably not. It just resonated with me and worked really well with my DS.

Sounds like a nightmare!

Good speech therapists are worth their weight in gold.
We used to have a wonderfull one who came to the house and really seemed to enjoy her job and little one made so much progress with her.

Now the one we have see's him in school for a measely 20 minutes a week, isn't fully qualified and thinks that 'will use the letter s at the end of words' is an appropriate target FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR!

If were doing one letter a year than he should have normal speech by the time he's 60 years old.

Do you think it's worth asking if you can change therapists?

Thanks ellenjane, I have ordered a copy of it takes two to talk - have heard it's very good. Have you read it? If so what did you think? What is HF by the way? (sorry, I'm new to all this!)

sleepyhorse - I have just posted a whole article (the second one called "How SALT failed my autistic boy")about how useless my first SALT was - it's on the mumsnet blog bit (button at top of this page) and under sickofsocalledexperts. My SALT sounds like she was even worse than yours, and I have had a succession of ever-more-useless ones visit my DS at various schools. Am thinking of changing my nickname here to "dontgetmestartedonsalts"

HF is short for high functioning, so HF ASD is just autistic spectrum disorder with a normal IQ. It doesn't stop you being quite autistic!

I had 'More than Words' which has most of the stuff in 'It Takes Two to Talk' but extra sensory explanations and all from an ASD perspective. I don't have my copy anymore, my DS is 11 but I passed it on to a friend, who loved it!

It's one or the other, not both, as there will be a lot of crossover. It takes you through children's different stages of language development without giving ages, which is very positive if your child is delayed. Good luck with it all.

sleepyhorse:She spends most of the half an hour session looking at her watch
Sleepyhorse, when I do music therapy I also look at my watch frequently. This is because when writing up the notes for the session later I need to know at what point (i.e. how many minutes into the session) and for how long a child did something. It may look as if I couldn't wait for the session to end but it is just a question of documenting things properly, which is one of the bases for any professional/scientific work. Just a thought but is it not possible that your SALT keeps looking at her watch for te same reason? (I usually explain this to the parent(s) though...)