No one willing to help

[Kelly]

My son is 3 years old and was born 10 weeks premature. As he was growing up he seemed to develope at the speed of other children his age apart from his speech when he was 2 the heatlh visitor finally decided he was not as far on with his speech as he should of been and she had someone come to my house to assess him when the lady came out she assessed him showed him a couple of pictures of cars and because he could just about say the words she said she would see him again when he had been at playschool for 3 months. Which at the time seemed a reasonable response he started playschool in september last year and since then the teachers have become concerned with his speech and behaviour as he still speeks the same as he did when he was 2 and has started to get angry with him self and people around him when he cant get his point across. I try to sit with him everyday for at least an hour and help him learn new words but he just ignores me of gets mad with me and he is the same at playschool. I tried to contact my health visitor before christmas only to be told she was sacked in october due to lack of money so i no longer have one. I feel like my son is been let down by the service we are been given he is due to start school in september this year and i was told yesterday if he fals any further behind at playschool they wil not let him start. I really do not know what to do anymore i am changing my doctors to one that has a health visitor but will this make any difference to the care my son recieves or will we just be pushed from pillar to post again. I am also told it can take upto six months to get an appoitment for him to be assesed at the hospital. If anyonecan give me any advice on what i can door of any services that can help me i would be very greatful.
Many thanks Kelly:

[fliss]

Somebody is misleading you. You do not need to change GP. If a health visitor (HV) leaves all their work is re-allocated. A health centre cannot be left without a health visitor. Your health centre must have a baby clinic, either on site or somewhere else. You can attend this clinic with any child under 5, even without an appt they cannot refuse to see you.

Contact the practice manager and ask for the health visitor HQ number. Outline your concerns and request a visit or appt at the local clinic. Every child under school age is ALWAYS allocated a HV. You and the school have major concerns about your childs speech.

You also need to make sure the GP is clear about your concerns. If the GP agrees that there are concerns, they can also refer to a paediatrician-who then may refer to speech therapist. I am surprised that the prem unit are not still following him up.

You need to be persistent to get the assessment that is required. If you feel you are not getting anywhere then write to your GP and HV HQ, outlining your concerns in one page. Speech therapists are in very short supply and I think he might be better with a paediatrician appt assessment first. If your GP seems unwilling to refer you, keep going back to the GP - every week if you have to, until they refer.

You must not give up on this until he has been properley assessed. Polite persistance, checking people have done what they said they will do is the best way to avoid delays.

[Kelly]

Hi thank for the reply i have tried speaking to the practice manager and was told that at the moment they have members of the community doing the baby clinic and they are only goig to do weight and height checks. I have also been to my doctor so many times about this and he just keeps saying he will do it in his own time. When i picked him up from playschool today they told me someone from the early years assesment team is coming to do an assessment on monday. I am hoping she will be able to help and get something done for him. He was discharged from his peadeatrition at 9 months because he had started to do everything else on time i do wish now i had asked them to keep monitoring him but they felt he was doing fine and didnt see any problems arising with him as i say everything else he seems to do ok in it is just speech and concentration. I am now very nervous about monday i know it is a good thing he is getting seen but i am worried about what they are going to think is wrong with him. But i will take your advice and contact the HV HQ and see if they can help me but i stil think changing surgerys will be a good thing.
Thank you so much for your reply from Kelly

[fliss]

What you have been told is tosh and it sounds like you are well off out of there if things are that bad. I hope that changing GP does not add any further delays.

Your son has a HV. If you e mail me offline, I might be able to help you with this.

[zubzubes]

Hi Kelly,

My family are grown up but just wanted to say that all kids develop at different rates. My son was very slow to read so I assumed he wasn't going to be academic and didn't worry too much about his schooling - he's at uni now doing engineering - so don't assume anything.

Your son should defiitely be assessed but try not to let your worries get over to him- that alone might make him behave awkwardlly when you are trying to teach him stuff.

If he's doing ok in other ways he'll probably be fine!

Anne

[Kelly]

Thanks for the reply i understand what you say and agree that kids develope at different speeds but i worry because he was 10 weeks early and it may have something to do with that. Hopefully i am going to be able to get him fully assessed in the next few weeks and i just hope to god it is just that he is a slow learner and not a serious problem

[Kelly]

Hi thanks to all the help i was given on here i now have a new health visitor and as soon as she met ryan she put in a referal for speech therapy the only problem is i have to wait about 8 weeks before they phone me but at least i am finally getting somewhere and hopefully he will get an appointment soon and we will be able to get it all sorted and i will hopefully one day be able to understand him when he tries to talk to me

thanks once again for all the help i got off this site especially fliss who managed to get me details of a local HV.
Thanks kelly:) :)

[Mike]

Our HV was fantastic. We had to fight for speech therapy though. It ended up with an operation for soft palate repair. Keep fighting I say. The more barriers they put up, the more I am am determined to kick them down.

[Mike]

Have you got a community paediatrician? They should help with this! Contact them direct and get an appointment.

[Mike]

Another thought. The Portage Service. Look them up in the phone book.