"My son's experience"

My son is an amazing 9-year-old boy. So funny, so kind and so smart. We always knew he was a bit different from the average child of his age, but to us he was just our son. During his nursery school years, his lovely nursery teacher referred him for a Speech and Language assessment and Neurodevelopment assessment for Autism and ADHD. He struggled to be understood with his speech sometimes, as his ability to pronounce S, Sh, J and Ch sounds were impaired. He sounded like he was talking through his nose and although those close to him could understand him, others sometimes struggled, which caused him some frustration. It was unclear at the time whether the issues with his speech were physical or not. 

Due to COVID hitting, he somehow dropped off the waiting list for Speech and Language Services (unknown to us) but remained on the waiting list for Neurodevelopment Services. Due to Covid delays and long NHS waiting times, he was 8 years old before he was diagnosed with both Autism and ADHD. By this time, we as a family, had already implemented many of the coping strategies to assist him with his day to day challenges associated with both conditions, but his speech was still an issue and we were concerned that the longer this went unchecked, the more difficult it would be to change and the more problems he would have at school with teasing from other children as he got older.

His Neurodevelopment Service assessment team were great, especially Rachel (Speech and Language Therapist). Following his diagnosis, we were told that he would need to be newly added to the Speech and Language Services waiting list since he had been removed during Covid and that it could take up to another couple of years to be seen for therapy. The issues he had with his speech were now known to be undoubtedly related to his neurodevelopment conditions, therefore not having this joined up with his diagnosis seemed nonsensical, but the system couldn't sensibly link these and therefore the delay in him receiving a speech therapy assessment and therapy from Speech and Language Services was still way in the distance after the five year wait we'd already experienced. Being in Primary 5, the time for my son needing professional assistance with his speech was now, rather than two years away (around the time he would be starting High School). 

Rachel personally provided my son with a set of speech therapy sessions through Neurodevelopment Services and pushed for a continuation of these to maximise the benefits and continue the progress he  had made through these sessions. To have a long break and stop the therapy Rachel had already given, whilst waiting on another list for Speech and Language Services, would have been seriously detrimental to my son's progress. His speech was getting much better but it was clear he needed the therapy to continue to make what he'd learned stick, as he often reverted back to previous pronunciations.

In the absence of timely support from Speech and Language Services, Rachel pushed for my son to receive more speech therapy through the Neurodevelopment Service, which thankfully he received. These additional sessions (with Rachel and her colleague Kirsty) have been critical for his speech and the improvements he's made since receiving them have been amazing. He is more confident in the way he communicates, the frustration from not being understood in the past is gone, and the teasing from other children on the way he speaks has stopped.

Being Autistic and having ADHD means my son will be presented with many unavoidable challenges throughout his life, but his speech isn't now going to be one of those. Receiving timely support is vital for children to achieve their full potential and remove avoidable problems for them. The positive psychological impact of receiving the help he needed at the right point in his life cannot be underestimated, and although we appreciate that resources are finite and demand is high, a more joined up approach between services is needed to maximise the benefits for individual children rather than having inflexible processes, which can undo much of the hard work already carried out by the dedicated NHS staff working so hard to help children like my son.

He is so proud and happy that he's manage to overcome the challenges with his speech and none of that would have been possible without Rachel and her team. My son has really enjoyed every session with both Rachel and Kirsty, who have made his therapy fun and engaging. We are so thankful for the life-changing skills they've given to my son as his life has been made happier and easier as a result of the help he's received.