speech and language therapy - school or private

[ladymacbethsdaughtr]

After talking to the class teacher, I think the school SENCO is going to ask if DC can see a speech and language therapist. I have an appointment with the SENCO later this week to find out more and ? sign some forms.

If your DC has been given help with speech / language in school or with a private therapist, can I be nosey and ask how it worked?

From what the class teacher said, a speech and language therapist will visit in school, assess DC, and will either give general advice to the teacher & SENCO on what they could do to help or might tell them how to work on specific issues.

When our older DC was at nursery there was a long waiting list for NHS help, and we were fortunate enough that we could pay for a few 1-1 sessions that turned out to be great. The therapist came to the house, and I watched so that I knew how to practice during the week.

I'm not sure whether to get back in contact with the therapist again, or if what the school is offering is basically the same but free of charge and during school time. (I always cleaned the loo before the therapist came to the house and she never used it )

This is very different in different schools.
The NHS waiting list is soooooo long in some areas, it's become more and more common around here for schools to 'buy in' a therapist for a day or two days a week, or to get together with other schools in the area to employ a therapist between them. If it's one of those, then you are on to a winner (and won't have to clean the loo ). If it's a referral to NHS waiting list, then round here it would be an assessment appointment and then can give the school (and yourselves) advice and that's it, so, if you are able to afford it, then a private therapist might be better.
Oh, and some schools have trained staff as Sp&L Therapy Assistants, so they can actually deliver a really good programme from the initial advice, so that's another question to ask.... If a SaLT gives advice, who will then do the daily work with him/her.

Regardless of whether you use NHS or private, I would say it's important to make sure any skills learned are transferred to all settings. So if in school, let you know what they doing so you can continue at home and vice versa. Most therapies are just teaching staff and parents what to do.

Private therapist would be available immediately, NHS waiting lists vary. However school probably already have a therapist who sees other children and might be able to fit you in on her next visit.

backforgood those are good questions to ask, thank you. What the class teacher said made it sound as though they would be asking for advice from an NHS therapist who works with the school and who might give instructions about things that could be done in class by a TA.
claw12 that matches what we did last time. We paid for private therapy but always passed on information to nursery about what we were working on at home and they did bits and pieces in nursery too. I'll ask if the school therapist gives advice to parents and staff.
zzzzz I do clean my loo sometimes! It isn't quite the same this time around. First time we were working on speech and making sounds correctly. This time it is more to do with language and stringing words together. I can see the advice for the teachers might help there but we might have more time at home to build the skills and confidence.

I think I just need to ask the SENCO what the school offers and then decide. I have no idea how long the waiting list is. If it really is months then we could go back to the private therapist for the summer.

My experience is with speech at an earlier age, as zzzz said I didn't find this helped. Others things did, like being able to read a word, instead of hear it.

Ds now has group SALT in school for communication and interaction. Hasn't helped much, as Ds is still quite a loner and doesn't join in outside of the therapy room. But he has made friends with two other children from the group, who he has play dates with (very short play dates) but he doesn't really interact with them at school!

My dd is 4 and we've been waiting since October for a block of NHS speech therapy sessions. In April we decided enough was enough and got a private SLT assessment done - she was diagnosed with a specific language impairment, 18 months delay and up to 2 years in some areas such as understanding. We're now paying for private sessions for her - no improvement yet, the SLT says it could take years for her to "catch up". She is currently number 112 on the local NHS waiting list. My dd also attends her nursery set up SLT group twice a week - has been since last September. Getting a diagnosis has definitely helped - we had a SENco meeting and they arranged some 1 to 1 daily for dd (only 10 minutes at the moment until she goes full time) she also participates in a nursery run social interaction group.

We're also awaiting an ASD assessment - wait, wait, wait is all we seem to do!