Hi Everyone,
Very long story (sorry) My son, aged 8 is diagnosed with Aspergers and has had alot of health professionals involved from the age of 2.5. He has attended the Centre for Autism, Yorkhill Hospital. Josh has been fortunate enough to have been seen by many experts in this area through the Yorkhill and as such I have no doubts that he has had every available help that he could have.
He had Speech and Language therapy from the age of 3 and whilst undiagnosed at the time, it was clear his speech difficulties or rather lack of speech and his tendancy to echo, were a clear sign of his disability. He subsequently was diagnosed with Autism. By the age of 4, his speech remained limited and it was looking like he might never improve.
Fortunately just before his 5th Birthday, Josh started to speak and I mean full sentances. Josh really went from zero to hero. It was a staggering transformation. This resulted in his diagnosis being changed to Aspergers and whilst wonderful for us it was somewhat unusual for this to happen (or so we were told)
By the age of 6 he was moved from a supported base into mainstream schooling and has continued to thrive. At this point all health professionals agreed that no further involvement or therapy was required.
We moved to Australia last year and he has completed 16 months of schooling here, Whilst both teachers he has/had feel they understand him. Other teachers feel he needs speech therapy. We have given the school Josh's full history and reports but they continue to mention this. My feeling is this, Josh has a very broad Scottish accent and I feel that whilst his last and current teacher had to try to understand this on a daily basis. Those teachers who may have a brief conversation with him, may not try so hard. If I thought he had degressed in this area, I would be the first one to take him wherever appropriate.
Ultimately though if the school continue to mention this as a concern, we would not choose to ignore this.
Whilst I appreciate that Speech and Language Therapists are qualified regardless of where they are in the world, if the problem is purely as I believe his accent there is no gaurantee that an Australian Therapist would be able to differentiate between his accent and if there is a real need for therapy.
If anyone can recomend a British Speech Therapist in The Hills area or close by, I would be extremely grateful.
Cheers
Claire