"It helped me a lot"

Ever since I could talk, I struggled with it. When I was in primary school they thought I could have hearing issues because of how I spoke. As I grew older my speech got worse and I began to feel many feelings when thinking about or actually speaking - frustration, anger, sadness, fear, scared and anxious.

My father used to get mad at me whenever I spoke and would say speak normally, or stop mumbling, or stop talking so fast I can't hear you, if you can't speak normally don't speak at all. This would make me feel lonely in my mind because no one would understand me. My amazing mum and my step-mum were one of the only people who understood me and knew what I was wanting to say.

Last year my mum decided it was enough of me struggling not only with speaking but in my mind when it comes to speaking and self-referred me to speech and language therapy.

When I was sitting in the waiting room I was so scared and nervous, I didn't know what was going to happen or if the speech therapist would be nice. My speech therapist eventually came and got me and I felt more at ease.

She treated me with so much respect and calmness, it helped me a lot. I am 18 now and I still struggle a lot, but I remember the techniques I was shown and it helps. I still feel some of those feeling when speaking but not as much. I owe all thanks to the wonderful speech and language therapist.

If there was one thing I would of been better I'd maybe adding more fun activities as because I take things in better if its fun because of my dyslexia and ADHD.  Another thing might be to go outside on sunny days because sitting in a small room for an hour makes me feel some pressure and a change of scenery would make me feel at ease. 

Overall I am completely thankful to my speech therapist and how much she helped me, they were amazing.