Speech Therapy done by Teaching Assistants - Does it work?

[artichaut27]

Hello mums,

My son has a lateral lisp (slushy sound for s, z, j and sh).

We finally are having an appointment with an NHS speech therapist after waiting for 5 months.

She said that she will see him for 45 minutes and then he will be given exercises to do with a Teacher Assistant regularly. His lisp is rare and tricky to correct. To my knowledge he needs 1 or 2 sessions a week with speech therapist, not a TA.

Does anyone have experience with Speech Therapy done by TAs? Is it helping your child? Do you notice an improvement?

Many thanks!

Yes, it worked for my two. They had poor articulation (missing sounds like "C" and word endings). and had TA help in nursery and reception with advice from SALT. They co-operated with her much more than me doing the exercises and made good progress. I think we had three six-week blocks with the SALT and then the TA did daily 5-10 minute sessions with them (was about ten years ago).

I'm in the profession and I'd say that it can work if the TA really knows what they are doing and it is completely prescriptive BUT would the TA know how to tweak the input if your child can't do something, or struggles with a certain task - they don't have SLT training so they would probably just persevere and hope for the best. It might be worth asking if the SLT department has SLT assistants going into the school. As a parent who has a child with difficulties, the TAs are run off their feet and I highly doubt they would do as much SLT input as you are hoping for. You might actually be better placed doing time every day yourself rather than relying on school.

Thanks OneInEight it's interesting to have first hand positive experience. I'm feeling a bit negative about my experience with the NHS so far.

Springiscomingagain: thanks for your reply; it kind of underlines my doubts. I have been told by several speech and language professional friends (some retired and some foreign) that a lateral lisp requires special attention and one-to-one with a speech therapist. Now, it feels that in the eye of the NHS a lisp is cosmetic, no special treatment. I even struggled to get a referral in the first place. My son's speech is really affected by the lisp. He can't say loads of sounds properly and can't translate them into phonics, so spelling is an issue. I'm considering going private. He's 6 and a half now and I'm worried he will start getting teased soon.

MiaowTheCat: Thanks for your reply, this sounds really frustrating. My son is possibly dyslexic on top of his speech issues. My experience so far is not very positive. I have to do lots of research and ask for feedback at school. I've become the pushy parent I didn't think I would be. Good luck with your appointment.

Yes, for us. DD (hemiplegic CP) is currently on a 20-week NHS SaLT block of treatment for 30mins once per week. Then her 1:1 TA in mainstream school continues the exercises for 2 x 10 min sessions each school day. Our 1:1 TA is blooming fantastic and also covers NHS physio & OT exercises in the same vein (specialist comes in periodically and TA then follows a course of prescribed exercises). I don't think we'd get the same results with a classroom TA given all the other tasks they have, and all the other children who need classroom support.