Children's language therapy

in_dulge

Hi all...I need to urgently find a language therapist for my 5 yr old DD. She goes to a montessori and I was recently requested by her school's additional needs counsellor to get her assessed. It seems she has problems with receptive and expressive language.

She's been on the NHS waitlist for 2 yrs already, and I cant wait any longer as she starts YEAR 1 at school in September.

I would be really grateful if anyone could recommend a private language therapist in London.

Thanks a lot!

clearingout

I can't help with a recommendation but did want to comment on the waiting time.

My middle child - age 3 - has what is described as a moderate to severe language delay. I was aware by 18 months that all wasn't well, my health visitor saw him at 2 and thought he was within the realms of normal but by 2 1/2 acknowleged he wasn't. He was referred then. We waited 3 months for an assessment appointment and then a further 2 months for an additional assessment as the therapist thought he was still quite young. By 3, it was agreed there was a problem. He has had group therapy which has had an impact but he is likely to need on-going one to one support.

We don't live in London but are in the South East in a heavily populated area. Children of almost school age are usually considered a priority, I think, as it's important they can communicate once in school. I would first ask - are you sure you are on a waiting list? 2 years is a long time. If you have gone onto a list, you should have received a letter telling you this with an idea of how long the list is. If you have this, it's time to call and ask what's going on. If you don't have this, it's also time to call and ask what's going on as you might find you can push things forward - it would save you the cost of going private, if nothing else, or at least work alongside a private therapist to give her double the support to get her to where she should be. Your health visitor might be able to recommend someone and if you phone the SALT department, you might even find they'll recommend someone to go private with whilst you wait.

Good luck with it. It's frustrating, I know, but they do catch up. My nephew was statemented at 5 for his speech problems - you would never know there was an issue now he's 10. He has not struggled in any other way in school.