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Hi, I am new to this. I know that Sppech therapy is hard to come by, BUT. We have an SLT who has written a report on my daughter that is incorrect, being polite. The LEA are trying to remove SLT from her statement and are using the SLT to do it. How can I fight the "professionals"(who know best ha,ha), Does anyone have any suggestion?

Hi,

She does 2days in special and 2 in a mainstream primary. The primary are going to write a report to say it is rubbish and she has a therpist, who will hopefully do the same thing. They are saying (in political terms) that she is too stupid and not capable of speech therapy. We have been waiting for OT input, since she started the special school in October. She can talk but needs to slow down. the therapist has said that if hse does not understand concepts e.g. God and death, she can't have SLT.

Hi Kathryn , I hope you don't mind me butting in but I have a few questions. 1) Can you clarify whether you have one or two SLTs as it sounds like you have one at the special school and one at the mainstream school? 2) With the report that you are 'questionning' were there any formal language assessments used? Formal language assessments (such as the TROG, CELF-4, BPVS etc) allow us to view your daughter in comparison with her typically developing peers by providing us with a Percentile Rank (how she compares with a group of 100 peers of the same age range) and an Age Equivalent (what the equivalent age is for the score she obtains). 3) Has your daughter been recently assessed by a Cognitive or Educational Psychologist and if so does she have a cognitive profile? A cognitive profile (IQ scores etc) plus a communication profile allow us to see whether a child's language is inline with their learning; based on the understanding that thought powers language (the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - sorry I'm a geek!). 4) What is your duaghter's current SLT provision on Part 3 of her statement? 5) How does your daughter's communication impairment impact on her ability to i) access the national curriculum and ii) build and maintain quality social relationships (i.e. what is her Quality of Life like?). Apologies for so many questions. Chris W, London Speech Therapy

Hi, all Her staement says: I hour direct SLT per week and a programme to be used in class. This was put in, in July. She has had no SLT before or since. We are fighting with local gov ombudsman to get back what she has missed so far. What the lea are trying to do, is to remove it from her statement. She does two days in special and two days in mainstream. The SLT from special and a Lea slt did an assessment of her at mainstream. The special SLT did a report stateing she can't do anything. the report from the mainstream assessment has dissapered/never exsisted. I have given lots of examples of what she can say, do, understand but the Special SLt has refused to chage her report. We were no even informed that she was going to do an assessment until it was done, without inoput from other professionals. P is 12years old and possibly about 5 in her abilities. She can talk but has difficulty saying what she wants to say. It always comes out too quickly. i hope this answers some questions Kathryn

Who can understand god and death concepts anyway as an adult let alone when you're a child. What a numpty. A call or a look at IPSEA website may be the way to go. Have the LEA given you Statutory Notice to remove the SLT element from the Statement? If so, then def contact IPSEA. FWIW the SLT is a complete numpty for saying that, but I don't have to tell you that. I wish I could say i'm surprised but I'm not..... I took my LEA to SENDIST re: SLT but they backed down, we now have an excellent SLT who is employed by the LEA and not the NHS. Until authorities start to realise this is the way to go this problem will continue...

Chris not being funny but your'e talking to lay parents here and your message is a bit confusing even with the explanations.......!