Roman is ready for school thanks to streamlined speech and language service

When three-year-old Roman’s mum, Sadie Salih, 32, from Polegate, heard his nursery playmates talking in sentences, she became concerned about her son’s speech.

Roman and his mum, Sadie Salih

Sadie said: “Roman was, and is, a very happy child, with a warm and sunny nature, but had never put words together and people outside of our tri-lingual family struggled to understand what he was saying.

“Friends said not to worry as all children progress at different rates; he was content and engaged at home and loved to play with his dad and baby brother, Lucas, so communication didn’t seem like a problem.”

Roman’s health visitor referred him to the East Sussex Children’s Integrated Therapy and Equipment Service for speech and language therapy. Sadie had continued to be supported by Roman’s health visitor since he didn’t quite hit his communication skills milestones at his one-year check. He already attended Toddler Talk sessions, where children are encouraged to talk through play, and had a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) at nursery.

Roman met Speech and Language Therapist Emily Poots a little more than one month later. The quick turnaround was thanks to an improvement project carried out by the service, which is provided by Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, and has transformed waiting times.

Following concerns about lengthy waiting lists, a specialist team of therapists, therapy assistants, service leads and administrators worked together to reduce waiting times by streamlining the pathway for children needing speech and language therapy.

The initial assessment process has been streamlined and parts are now delivered by a therapy assistant practitioner, which is freeing up time for our specialist therapists to provide care. We have standardised the care package, so all children who are accepted on to the pathway, are offered four therapy sessions.

These sessions are booked in straight after their initial assessment, by the administrator, so parents know when they will be receiving our support. This has freed up therapists’ appointment time so they can focus on the child’s needs, rather than completing paperwork at the initial assessment and ongoing sessions.

With Roman due to start pre-school, the family was relieved to be seen so quickly.

Three-year-old Roman Sadie, 32, outside their home in Polegate

“They just clicked; they really were each other’s biggest cheerleaders. Emily was calm and kind and Roman really looked forward to seeing her at each session,” explained Sadie.

“Most importantly, Emily answered all my questions about the future; I was so relieved to learn that we would continue to work together to make sure Roman wouldn’t struggle at pre-school and school. He really has come on leaps and bounds in just six months and Emily is going to schedule more sessions soon.

“Now I’m confident my little boy won’t be left behind; Emily reassured me we would tackle issues together and will receive support for as long as he needs it.

“We learned lots of fun and easy interactive activities to try at home, in between our regular sessions, as well as some simple gestures from the Makaton sign language programme.

“Everything fitted in so well with our everyday routine and knowing the time and date of our sessions in advance really helped us plan family life.”

Emily said: “Being able to dedicate my time to working with the children is what my job is all about.

“To be able to help Roman so soon after Sadie was referred is a privilege. Children develop and change so quickly so it’s so important to be able to act as soon as an issue is picked up.”

Members of the East Sussex Children’s Integrated Therapy and Equipment Service for speech and language therapy team

East Sussex Children’s Integrated Therapy and Equipment Service is part of Therapy One Point (TOP), which helps children and young people with physical, occupational or speech and language needs in East Sussex. The specialist team provides an integrated therapy service for children and young people from birth to school-leaving age (16 or 19) with physical, occupational or speech and language difficulties.