Private speech and language therapy

[CleverQuacks]

Hello,
My son is 2 and is delayed in his development. Physically he is behind and also his speech is non existent. The GP has referred us to a paediatrician but it's a minimum 6 month wait and then I assume we will be referred to speech and language and have to wait again. So I can't see him getting speech and language input til he is atleast 3.

I have looked into private speech and language support and found a company near by. It is expensive so money would be tight but potentially worth it if it helps my son catch up. Has anyone had any experience of going private? Did it help? Or is it better to wait on the NHS?

I haven't got any experience of private SALT, but you should be able to self-refer to NHS speech therapy. Some areas have drop-in clinics, others you contact the SALT dept by email/phone.

You can ask your health visitor to refer for speech therepy they will do it faster then the pediatrician but if there are other issues than speech it could be he needs a specific salt tailored to what they think the issue is so personally I would wait till he has seen the pediatrician

We've had private SLT for a year now, my DD has come on so much since seeing the private therapist. We also have NHS therapy (once every 6 weeks) but the private therapist has been the one who has got us to the stage we are now. DD is still over a year delayed and will probably have SLT issues for many years to come. We began with an assessment and then we saw the therapist every 2 weeks, then every 4 weeks now we're every 4-6 weeks. The therapist leaves me a programme to do at home with DD. DD also has one to one speech therapy at school 3 times a week.

The reason we went private was because we were on the NHS list for 6 months before we went private and then another 3 after we wenr private. SLT in my area is seriously understaffed and they will only keep the most severe cases on their caseloads. DD is now on the specialist team so they can see her more regularly (once a half term), prior to that we only saw them 3 times in a year. Private SLT has been worth every penny.

I would go ahead with private while you are waiting. In my experience the NHS salt is just not enough to make a difference.
Why don't you have a one off session with a private therapist to go through ideas of what you can do at home to help.
Some things off the top of my head that help are; blowing bubbles or candles (breath work/mouth rounding), getting rid of bottles/dummy's/too much tv, getting down on their level and positioning yourself so your son can see your face and narrate what he's doing e.g. "driving the green car!" Etc

I hope that helps

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I am going to make contact with some private organisations and see what they offer.