British Speech and Language Therapist in The Hills District

[littledoo]

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

[Naomi from Manchester]

Hello,

 

I assume that SLT before Josh turned 6 was for language development and social communication skills and not for speech (i.e not for articulation)? Is the issue now purely speech clarity, or is there a language and / or social element too, (e.g. being aware of when others don't understand him and attempting to repair the communication breakdown himself etc)? Sounds like the school need to clarify to you exactly what their concerns are.

 

SLTs who specialise is Asperger's / Autism are unlikely to be that experienced working with speech / articulation (although there may well be someone who's great at both - I'm speaking for myself, really), so if Asperger's isn't the cause of his current communication issue, it may be worth going with a more speech focused therapist who you'd reasonably expect to know enough about Asperger's to make therapy sessions motivating, fun and meaningful for Josh. This person should be able to tell you whether the problem is articulation, phonology, or just accent.

 

If the issue isn't even so much speech sound processing / production, but rather accent modification, (and I can't help thinking it seems a bit harsh on Josh to have to modify a beautiful Scottish accent to a generic Ozzie one .. but needs must, I suppose!) then it's not necessarily a SLT that you need, rather someone who supports people with heavy foreign accents, although in Australia some SLTs would do this work too (they wouldn't do so in the UK, I don't think).

 

Btw - I keep saying SLT for Speech and Language Therapist, but over here the title is Speech Pathologist.

[littledoo]

Hi,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

You make some very good points and have given me a clearer idea where to go with this. I guess I am just wary of it all, if it is something that cannot be resolved.

 

Thanks again for your advice.

 

Best wishes,

 

Claire

[Naomi from Manchester]

No worries, I don't know any British SLTs in Sydney who specialise in articulation / phonology / accent modification (my area is more intellectual disability / ASD / cerebral palsy), but let me know if you'd like a recommendation for an Australian therapist and I can ask my colleagues. Good luck!