Children: More speech and language help needed, therapists say

Justine Cooper, mother to an eight-year-old daugher who has a Developmental Language Disorder, says "it can be isolating"

A mother says raising an eight-year-old daughter who has speech and language problems without expert support can be an "isolating" experience.

Justine Cooper said she was forced to do her own research to help her daughter, who has Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).

Therapists working in Wales want more support to help children with speech and language difficulties.

The Welsh government said it had already developed significant training.

DLD is a condition that can affect two children in every classroom but is not very well known.

Ms Cooper's daughter was diagnosed with it nearly three years ago and is now receiving weekly help from a speech and language therapist.

"I think in lots of ways, she is a typical eight-year-old girl, she enjoys all the things that her friends enjoy," said Ms Cooper, from Cardiff.

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She said the little girl has problems understanding language, made harder when people speak at speed and use more complex vocabulary.

"She also finds it quite difficult at times to articulate things... ideas, feelings," Ms Cooper added.

Ms Cooper said more support is needed for parents like her who have a child diagnosed with the condition, saying a lack of help can be a lonely experience."It can be quite isolating at times, you perhaps don't know where to go," she said.

"All of the things that we discovered were through our own research really, so felt like it took a long time.

"And the school - while they were supportive - didn't actually say we know all about DLD and we know what to do. 

"Equally they didn't say we don't know what to do, they were very keen to learn and to do the best that they could."

Philippa Cotterill, from Wales' Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists said she wants to be able to train more students to be therapists.

Philippa Cotterill, head of the Wales office for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, said she and her colleagues were calling on Welsh government to create guidance to help schools to support learners with DLD.

"We're not identifying DLD to the levels that the research suggests that is present in our population," she said.

She said she also wants to be able to train more students to be therapists.

"At the moment we train enough speech and language therapists in a year in Wales to fit into two classrooms. But if there's two children in every classroom in Wales who have DLD, that's not enough," she added.

The Welsh government said it was continuing to invest in education and training for health practitioners, including speech and language therapists.

It added: "In addition, we have invested £9.1m to local authorities to provide additional resources to support learners with ALN [additional learning needs], which could include speech and language therapy."