Sophies Health

As Sophie grew it became apparent that she had a serious speech problem, eventually this was diagnosed as Verbal Dyspraxia, after sending letters of complaint to the press and Norfolk Primary Care she eventually, when she was 7 got weekly speech therapy, this was 2 years after she was promised it, her speech therapist was Amanda Lofts and after 3 years of speech therapy Amanda left as Sophies School Churchill Park had there own speech therapy department.

Sophie and Amanda
Sophie has had additional problems her inability to make herself understood has led to temper tantrums, anger and frustration which has caused distinct behavioural problems.
Copy of Letter sent to Head of Speech and Therapy Dept and Press, after the letter Sophie started getting regular speech therapy the letter was sent 19th March 2005.
My Granddaughter, Sophie, is a pupil at Hunstanton Infant School and will be celebrating her 6^th Birthday in June.
 Unfortunately, she has a problem, in that she is still not speaking. Her understanding and hearing are perfect, there are no problems there and never have been. However, she has been diagnosed as having Verbal Dyspraxia.
 We are most concerned in that she doesn’t seem to be getting the support she needs. The last time she saw her speech therapist was in June 2005. In November, the Head teacher at her school, Mrs Webb, got in touch with the Speech Therapy Department to find out what progress was being made, and was informed that they couldn’t find Sophie’s records.
 When Sophie saw a speech therapist her appointments were irregular and far apart. The emphasis seemed to be placed on her understanding of words. However, there is no problem whatsoever in this area, she is bright and understands most things. It is her ability to communicate that is the problem.
 The school has been very good, and Sophie has a one to one session daily for half an hour, teaching her sign language, but this is just another way of her being different she should be learning how to formulate sounds.  Sign Language is helpful but not necessarily the answer.
 The family has not been given any advice on how they can help Sophie in 2 areas:-

1. Helping Sophie to Speak
2. Helping Sophie to communicate using sign language, advising of any courses or publications that could help.

 I would like to point out that Sophie has never missed any Speech Therapy Appointments.
 What do I hope to achieve with this letter?  I don’t really know. Perhaps some advice on how to proceed in the future, as a family we are most concerned and feel there is more we could/should be doing. She has just had a baby brother, and she gets so cross and frustrated because she cannot make people understand, it is heartbreaking to see.

What is dyspraxia?

Developmental dyspraxia is an impairment or immaturity of the organisation of movement. It is an immaturity in the way that the brain processes information, which results in messages not being properly or fully transmitted. The term dyspraxia comes from the word praxis, which means 'doing, acting'. Dyspraxia affects the planning of what to do and how to do it. It is associated with problems of perception, language and thought.
Speech and Language
Speech may be immature or unintelligible in early years. Language may be impaired or late to develop.
For some children, the primary difficulty is in making and co-ordinating the precise movements, which are used in the production of spoken language, which results in severe and persisting speech production difficulties. The condition is termed developmental verbal dyspraxia: it may occur in isolation or in conjunction with general motor difficulties.