"My daughter who gets SLT"

My daughter who is 11 years old now and has Down Sydrome has always had speech and language therapy. Her speech is limited and unclear but she is so social and has so much that she willingly wants to communicate with people.

 From seeing Roisin the past year, her SLT therapist, some of my daughter’s speech is becoming clearer. Roisin provided us with techniques to use to try and improve her speech which were really helpful. Roisin really believes in my daughter and can see that she has so much she wants to say but just can’t get it out. Therefore Roisin referred her for a communication programme. 

She provided my daughter with an individual hand made communication book appropriate to her needs. She has one for home and one for school also. The staff in SLT have been amazing in how they make the book so individual to her by putting family photos in, taking photos of local places my daughter likes to go to etc. We can also add to this book all the time as she progresses in using it. This book enables my daughter to point out what she is saying to enable people who don’t understand her realise what she is saying and be able to communicate with her. It has also helped my daughter to extend what she is saying from one word to a sentence as she has the support of pictures in the book. Again Roisin give me more hints and tips about how to extend her usage of this book. We are hoping she will be provided with a communication programme through a device soon to support her speech and language even more as my daughter thrives using technology and I feel this will benefit her greatly and provide a great support when she transfers from primary school to her next setting in September. 

The SLT team who have worked with my daughter over the years have always been so caring, helpful and supportive and especially the past year Roisin has been so attentive to her needs. I cannot thank them enough. Roisin always responds to my emails, phone calls etc so quickly and is always there if I have any questions. She also has good communication with my daughters teacher. My daughter really enjoys going to SLT therapy to see Roisin as Roisin makes her sessions fun. 

I feel the introduction of this book and a communication programme is ideal for my daughter as she is moving schools in September and she will be interacting with so many more people who don’t know her and they will struggle to understand what my daughter is saying. With the help of this book and a communication programme on a device she will be able to communicate and her voice will be heard.