EXPERIENCED
Your child will be seen by a speech and language therapist with more than 20 years post graduate experience in both clinical and educational settings
FRIENDLY
We are very proud of the friendly manner in which Speech Scotland™ operates. If you don’t know how it all works – just lift the phone and well talk it through with you
FLEXIBLE
We can provide individual speech therapy sessions at your home, school or nursery – or even online if appropriate, and all at a time to suit you
About Us
Speech Scotland™ has been providing speech and language therapy to the private sector in central Scotland since 2005.
When you come to Speech Scotland™ for individual speech therapy, your child will be seen by a highly experienced Speech and Language Therapist, with more than twenty years post-graduate experience in both clinical and educational settings. We are able to treat a wide variety of paediatric speech, language and communication disorders, and have particular experience in speech delay/disorder, language delay/disorder, communication disorders, cleft palate and autism spectrum disorder.
On this site you will find information on how to access our private speech and language therapy services, the type of services available, and costs. If you would like to discuss your child and the services that we offer, please contact us by phone or email with no obligation.
Our Services
Speech and language therapy is a tailor made programme, advice or therapy designed to help your child’s speech and language development and/or their communication. All state registered speech and language therapists have obtained a degree or honours degree incorporating speech and language pathology and therapy. They are specialists in communication disorders, who work to assess and diagnose speech and language disorders.
Many speech and language therapists will continue to train and develop throughout their career, learning new techniques and approaches. Speech Scotland™ can help with all aspects of speech and language therapy, but you can find information about some of our specialist areas below.
SPEECH DELAY
When a child’s words are less clear than you would expect, or they have difficulty with particular sounds, they may need support to improve the clarity of their speech. Please see below for more information on which speech sounds your child should have developed.
LANGUAGE DELAY
Language delay can be expressive or receptive. Expressive language delay is when a child has difficulty structuring single words into sentences, or using grammar correctly. Receptive language delay is difficulty in understanding spoken language, which often results in expressive language delay.
COMMUNICATION DISORDER
Communication disorders affect the childs ability to use speech and language to ineract with effectively with adults, and with other children. Strategies can be implemented to develop the child’s attention, listening, and turn-taking skills and encourage them to participate.
AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER
The Hanen More Than Words programme can be offered as part of a group or individually to assist parents / carers to develop their child’s communication. Support can be offered to introduce signing, visuals and Picture Exchange Communication System in all of the child’s environments.
Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) can be carried out to aid decision making for all age groups.
YOUR CHILD
Is your child saying enough?
Children usually begin saying their first words between 10 and 18 months old, and most have acquired around 50 words by the age of 2 years. It is then normal for them to put start putting two words together between the ages of 2 and 3 years old.
If your child is saying less than this, they may require some help to begin acquiring language. Speech and language therapists call this LANGUAGE DELAY, which means that they are developing language in the normal pattern, but that these skills are delayed. Older children with language delay may present with immature grammar, e.g. “I getted that”, “look at the mouses”, or “him’s going outside”. Speech and language assessment would be beneficial to determine the level of your child’s language delay, and offer help if required.How much does your child understand?
It is normal for children to understand more than what they say, i.e. they will understand many more words than they use themselves (this is the same for adults). Children should be able to follow instructions, e.g. by the age of 2, “find your shoes and your hat”, by the age of 3, “put your shoes and your hat in the bag”. They should be able to follow the instructions out of context, which means that they have no help or clues such as pointing, or watching someone else put on shoes. Children who verbally repeat the instruction often do this as they have not understood what they have been asked to do.
If you have concerns about how much your child can understand in comparison to how much they can say, they may have a LANGUAGE DISORDER. This means that their language is not following the normal developmental pattern. Language disorder can also present in a variety of other ways, for example, using one word when they mean another one (e.g. when meaning “sheep”, saying “dog”, or “sheet”), or putting words in a sentence in the wrong order. Speech and language assessment would be beneficial to determine the level of your child’s language disorder, and offer help if required.
Does your child speak clearly?
Although babies produce the full range of speech sounds in their babble, when they are learning words, children develop speech sounds gradually. Initially they use the simplest sounds, and gradually introduce other sounds to their speech as they mature. The following gives an indication of normal speech sound development:
18 MONTHS
Your child should have the vowel sounds, plus p, b, m and n. They will have some clear words, but many unclear words.
2 YEARS
Your child should also have the t, d, h and w sounds. Parents can understand but many words may still be unclear.
3-4 YEARS
You child should now have the s, f, v, k, g and z sounds. Many new sounds develop at this age and speech becomes clearer.
4-5 YEARS
Your child should develop the sh, y, ch and j sounds. At this age most people should understand the child, most of the time.
5-7 YEARS
The child should have the l, r and th sounds. At this age the last of the sounds develop although this can take a few more years.
If your child has not yet developed the speech sounds expected for their age, they may have SPEECH DELAY. If your child has gaps in their speech sounds (i.e. if they have missed out some of the sounds expected by their age), they may have a SPEECH DISORDER. Speech and language assessment would be beneficial to determine the extent of your child’s speech delay or disorder, and offer help if required.
Although there is often no reason for these speech difficulties, children can experience problems saying specific speech sounds as a direct result of a physical impairment, for example a hearing loss, cleft palate, muscle weakness, or difficulty co-ordinating muscles. In this case, speech and language assessment would be beneficial to determine the extent of your child’s articulation disorder. Your child may need onward referrals for medical assessment before appropriate therapy could be offered.
Other issues
There are many other areas of development which could benefit from speech and language therapy input. These include dysfluency (stammering/stuttering), voice disorders, and communication difficulties (including autistic spectrum disorder).
If your child experiences difficulties not described above, please use the button below to get in touch and discuss your concerns.
Our Prices
We believe in being completely transparent with our pricing, and as such all prices will include taking a detailed case history about your child and his / her development, assessment of speech, language and communication skills and a written report – there are no hidden costs. We are able to provide sessions to most homes in central Scotland, although occasionally it may be necessary to apply a modest additional charge for travel, which will always be discussed with you first.
INITIAL CONSULTATION – FREE
Please contact us to arrange a free initial consultation by telephone. You will not be obliged to commit to assessment or therapy at this stage.
ASSESSMENT – £95
Complete speech and language assessment is likely to take 60-90 minutes. This may need to take place over more than one session, depending on your areas of concern, and on your child’s age and attention span.
SLT SESSIONS – £65
If you prefer to pay for a block of speech and language therapy in advance, we offer a reduced rate of £60 per session.
REVIEW APPOINTMENTS – £65
This will involve reassessment of speech, language and/or communication skills, and our recommendations following this.
Contact us
Please use the form below to contact us and we will get in touch as soon as possible.