It’s been a while since I posted anything on the Afasic helpline blog, but it gets very quiet when everyone’s on holiday and there hasn’t been much in the way of  phone calls or news items raising any burning issues I felt compelled to comment on.

I’ve spent much of the summer wading through research into speech and language impairments. To be honest, I didn’t learn much I didn’t already know, but it’s interesting to see it confirmed elsewhere. What really hits home is how complex the disability is. While most ‘pure’ speech disorders can be successfully tackled with speech and language therapy and some early language delays resolve with no apparent  ill-effects, impairments that last into the school years can impact on so many aspects of life and learning. It isn’t just about ‘learning to talk’, as many people still suppose.

No posts on the helpline blog for a while, mainly because I’ve been busy working on Afasic’s response to the Green Paper, which is posted in the Policy section. So do I think the proposed changes will improve things for children and young people with speech and language impairments (SLI) and their families?

Well, I sincerely hope so, and if the government is genuinely as committed to SEN and disability issues as it claims to be, then yes, we should be looking forward with some optimism. BUT, long experience of other initiatives that have failed to deliver do not inspire confidence and I am concerned that, once again, all the good intentions will be derailed by competing priorities and trends, in particular:

• The economic situation, obviously, and the consequent ongoing risk of inadequate funding being available
• Within education, the ‘downgrading’ of  local education authorities and trend towards more independence for schools. While there are potentially opportunities here, there are also risks, with the ongoing availability of access to educational psychologists, specialist teaching teams and even provision of language units/resources under threat.
• The proposed changes to the NHS and the ever-increasing demands it faces. Speech and language therapy has always been treated as a rather ‘peripheral’ service and there have already been cuts in many parts of the country.
• The increasing numbers of children with SEN and disabilities of various forms, including the most severe and complex conditions. This has, perhaps, contributed to a change in attitude which has seen a move from SLI being classed as a ’low-incidence, high-severity’ disorder, to the use of the label SLCN (speech, language and communication needs), which is applied much more widely and has led to speech and language difficulties being seen in many quarters as a common and not very serious problem.

A recent query to the Afasic helpline led to a discussion about whether it is a good idea to seek a diagnosis. This is a question that many parents of children with a speech and language impairment will face at some point, and may have strong opinions on.

On the plus side, a diagnosis can tell you, and anyone else who works with your child, precisely where his/her difficulties lie, making it much easier to understand him or her and to know how best to help. On a slightly more cynical note, many parents have found that obtaining a diagnosis of a specific disorder has been the key to obtaining a statement, a place in a language unit, or even to having their child’s difficulties taken seriously at last, after being fobbed off for, sometimes, years with well-meaning assurances that their child will ‘grow out of it’.

Having said that, there are arguments against being too quick to give a diagnosis. Speech and language impairments, like other developmental disorders, do not stay the same, and what was an accurate diagnosis at one time may not accurately reflect the situation two or three years later. Of course, this can be addressed through what should be a regular cycle of assessment and review. After all, a diagnosis of a speech and language impairment is essentially just a  clear description of the child’s difficulties. Perhaps a greater concern is that a clear-cut diagnosis might affect parents’ and others’ expectations of that child. This might be why some parents are reluctant to have their child labelled as ‘special needs’ or given a statement, in case people think it’s not worthwhile putting any effort into making sure they learn to read and write, for example. Regrettably, our experience indicates that such concerns can sometimes be justified, though this is not the way the special needs system is supposed to work. And, after all, if your child won’t get the help he or she needs without the diagnosis…..

What do you think? Post your comments below, letting us know about your experiences.

We’re really excited to be starting this new blog. Over time, we hope to take as our starting point issues that come up in the news, queries to the helpline or comments on this blog or website generally, and add our perspective. We look forward to reading your thoughts in return.

If there are any issues you’d like to raise immediately, please leave a comment. In the meantime, now that the children are back at school, the helpline is looking forward to receiving all your queries after a quiet couple of weeks!