speech therapy

[jobekal]

i have heard somewhere you can self refer your child for speech therapy. Is this the case and how do you go about it?

I did it by going to the GP. I took the ed. psych. report where it showed that J's verbal comprehension was low, but the GP didn't seem that bothered. The assessment came quite quickly.

In our area (Northamptonshire) the local SALTs have a series of 'drop in' clinics once a month where you can turn up and have a short consultation and they will recommend further action as necessary. It's a handy way to get some initial concerns addressed though I have no idea how long you would need to wait for further sessions if they thought it appropriate to offer some as the service is so badly funded by the PCT.
Before this turns into a rant about woeful SALT provisin......suppose what I am saying is that it may be worth contacting the local hospital SALT team to see whether they offer such a service. Think it was our portage wrker that told us about it but I expect the health visitor also had the info if i'd wanted to ask her!

Ds1's SALT told me that parents are able to make the referral themselves by phoning the SALT office. She mentioned it because ds1 was being discharged from the list but she wanted to make sure that I knew that I could get him back on the list if needed in the future without having to go via the HV etc. She said that most parents didn't know that this was possible.

It's worth giving it a try IMHO.

Most areas let you, but not all. Just phone up your local children's speech therapy department and ask them.

That drop in thing soungs great Joggeroo. Would take away a lot of the pressure cause by massive waiting lists (often caused because many of the referrals from HVs and GPs are highly inappropriate.)

In my dept. (SALT) parents can ring up and self refer too.