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theplayroom
20-03-2010, 09:54 AM
Hi all i'm not sure if im being overly nosey or not but ive just started to care for a 1 1/2 year old who i very quickly noticed is 'behind' most of his expected stage areas such as eating and speaking, well mum mentioned in passing that shes been asked to take him for speach therepy straight away i said let me know how it goes and if theres anything i can do while he is with me. No response. I then sent an email a few days later saying again was there anything the therapist said which i can help with and that i had experience with working along side a speech thepapist adn have done courses in phonology. no response.

The question is should i just leave it? she obviously doesnt want me to be involved. But i fel it would be 'unprofessional' not to provide continuity of care?......help!

Sally

JJAY
20-03-2010, 10:19 AM
If the child needs help with speech and language, then I would say you can't just leave it. Not sure how to approach this. Do you know who the child's speech therapist is? If so perhaps you could say to the parent. "I was thinking of contacting the the speech therapist to find out what I can do to help improve his speech".
If you get no response I would ask the parent for a meeting with you. During the meeting say you are concerned about his speech development and you only want to help. Let the parent know that it is your responsibility whilst caring for this child to monitor their development and to refer to a specialist when needed. Explain that child protection laws also require you to do this and it would be neglect to ignore it.
If you still get no response I would contact your Early Years Team for advice, without disclosing who the child is. They may direct you to your Local Safeguarding Children Departmnet.
I definetly wouldn't ignore it though. It's not fair on the child.
Good Luck with this. I know it's not easy approaching parents sometimes.
Would be good to know how you get on.
xx

youarewhatyoueat
20-03-2010, 11:13 AM
Give her a chance to get all the info together and all the relevant departments working together. Considering speech is often not developing at this age in many children which is perfectly normal, I think you may be jumping the gun a bit.
You do say you have only just started caring for the child, give everyone the chance to settle in and get to know one another.
You can continue to monitor as you would be anyway.
How do you know that she has even seen the speech therapist yet??

green puppy
20-03-2010, 11:22 AM
I too would just give it some time, in the meantime just carry on doing what you would usually do to help speech along. Lots of talking, reading stories, singing and rhymes. I think offering to help is enough for now, let mum get sorted and see what happens from there.

theplayroom
20-03-2010, 12:04 PM
Thanks all i have been caring for him for 2 months and he went to see the STh last week so ill leave it a few weeks then tackle again thanks x