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Hi I'm Chris and I'm a Speech & Language Therapist who specialises in working with children over 5 with autism, aspergers and learning disabilities. I work for the NHS, Scope in Cardiff, and I run a private clinic, so I understand how speech & language therapy needs can be met from a range of perspectives.

I can answer your questions on typical speech and language development – such as 'should my 5 year old be able to say the 'r' sound?' or 'my child only uses 2-word sentences, how do I help her to use longer sentences?'; understanding specific assessments, such as the CELF or the TROG; the process of assessment & diagnosis of children with autism & aspergers; and finally the complex process of gaining additional help at school (statementing).

I am currently London-based, but I do work across the UK during the week, so please don't be upset if I take a couple of days to reply to your question.

Hi Chris I have a 3 year old daughter, Daisy who is having 2 1/2 hours a week speech therapy in a group with 2 others but the improvement is so slow. Her understanding as far as we are concerned is great. She understand eveything we say to her and she follows instructions fine. She was toilet trained at 2, she feeds herself dresses herself rides a scooter. She plays very well with other children and is very social with adults and children. She also concentrates on games puzzels and drawing and watched tv. As far as we are concerened she does not speak much. It is getting better every week but still prob at the stage of 2 year old. She goes to a nursery 2 full days a week and a playschool 2 mornings a week and one of those is at another setting which is the speech therapy so a lot of interaction. The speech therapy setting is talking about statements as they think she has a learning diffiuclty so I am very worried that this may be the case. She was diagnosed with very bad glue ear when she was just over 2 and her grommets out in in March 2010 when she was 2 1/2 and we thought she would then suddenly take off but that was March and she is still not speaking much and does not seem to be able to copy words. She still falls over a bit which she did a lot as her balance was not good with the glue ear so we were wondering if maybe there is still something wrong with her ears? Do you have any advice for me please? She will start school in Sep 2013. Thanks Liz

Hi Chris,

I am an Occupational Therapist in Gibraltar working with babies, children, and young adults with additional needs. I worked for the local health Authority for 20 years and I now have my own independent practice.

Pleased to meet you

Hi Chris we are having problems with my sons eating and we think its sensory related have you got any ideas for us we find he isnt good with hard foods like meat but he tends to eat foods that are soft.

Wow lots of questions :)

Dear ASAP,

With regards to adults with learning disabilities and/or Autism there should be a local Community Learning Disability service who may be able to offer some general strategies. The difficulty with adult provisions is that they are often geared towards risk and therefore Dysphagia (eating & drinking difficulties) are often prioritised over communication.

First try speaking to your GP and see if he knows of local services, often ALD services do not have websites.

Also try The National Autistic Society for strategies at http://www.autism.org.uk/ .

**If you are considering private SLT input the Association of Speech & Language Therapists in Independent Practise (ASLTIP) website is www.helpwithtalking.com. I am also gathering details of SLTs who I work with at my website www.SpeechTherapyUK.co.uk.

I hope that helps