Thread by @dharford79

Thread start...

At 2.5 years old we noticed our son George had communication problems. There was nothing. The health visitor checked him over and confirmed she was also concerned about his speech development as no words were present - just nosies and animation...

She told us she would refer him for assessment with a speech and language therapist to see what the next course of action would be.

Obviously, as a parent this was difficult and somewhat daunting news to hear. So many thoughts and what ifs going around...

Days of doubt and worry went by. Nights were sleepless wondering how or what we could do to help our son. After all, he was still young and hopefully it could be changed - we hoped. There was so many negative thoughts at this stage...

In February 2016 George was in invited to a drop in session to see how severe it was and to initially give some clues what we could to to help as parents. It was here we met @sar_smith and @MegD121

George didn’t really take to it well as his confidence was non existent..

We worked with George & the ladies from @SLT_Worcs gave us ideas, resources & methods or what to work on with George. It was a start and we were instantly put at rest by those ladies who couldn’t do enough to help us. Not just for George, but for us...

In May 2016 George was assessed again and deemed that more intense therapy was needed due to the lack of development still.

Between May 2016 & September 2017 George was seen at various locations many times. Home. Health centre. Drop in sessions. Resources are given to us..

And we were in close contact with @SLT_Worcs many times to discuss our concerns and worries.

In September 2017 George began Worcester Early Years & Language Centre. This was intense therapy based in a school almost one on one. Twice a week for 3 hours. This was immense..

With loads of effort and teamwork between us as parents, @SLT_Worcs nursery & WEYLC progress was being made.

In July 2018 George was due to leave WEYLC to begin school. A daunting idea as a child who couldn’t talk and was class as special needs. Something I struggled with..

George began at school. Speech therapy continued as did the joint working, setting of targets, observations and chatting did. It was non stop and a massive relief. During the next 2-3 years, George had regular assessments but SLT and continued work and targets given..

This morning, at 11 am George had an online assessment with @sar_smith

He chatted. Laughed. Played. Didn’t shut up! The assessment took all this into thoughts. He took it all in his stride.

Following that, George went to play and Sarah chatted with us..

She confirmed the unbelievable difference she could see in our little boy. Happiness. Cheekiness. Speech. Language & generally being a typical boy. Something I’d never thought I’d here.

Then, like they are now my eyes were watering. So much emotion and so many lovely words..

So. After 4 years & 8 months of huge ups and massive downs and hard work our son has been fully discharged from speech therapy.

He is no longer classed as special needs. He can talk. He doesn’t shut up but I really don’t care! My eyes won’t stop watering either. 😍😍😍

I’d like to say a monument thank you to EVERYONE at @SLT_Worcs

Ladies, you know who you are and just what you’ve done for our little boy. You’ve given him so much more than a voice you’ll never fully understand how grateful we are.

Speech therapy and the staff who work in the field are unbelievably amazing. I intend to do even more work alongside them to give something back to the profession.

I also know we’ve been lucky. This isn’t the case for so many around the UK.

Every child has a right to talk.

But they do. So please, fight for speech therapy. Don’t give up. Be firm.

There should NOT be a postcode lottery!

#Bercow10 #YourVoice4Theirs #SpeechTherapy

@RCSLT @SLTatBCU @GivingVoiceUK @NAPLIC @ICANcharity

Also, following yesterday’s news, I’ll be promoting & doing everything I can even more to share the immense profession that is Speech & Language Therapy.

Not all heroes wear capes! 😍

#SpeechTherapy

Ermmmm wow. Woke up to literally hundreds of notifications and comments. You guys are amazing but do me a favour, please keep sharing. Why? Because people need to see how speech therapy changes lives. Not everyone is so lucky!

#Bercow10 #PostcodeLottery #SpeechTherapy

One last tweet for this thread:

This is snippets from George’s final report by @sar_smith

The words “confident communicator”

“Excellent conversational skills”

“Confident character”

Something I’d never thought I’d ever see!

Mind is blown & eyes teary again!