Promptness
Now – without delay
The child who cannot be understood by other children is isolated and not learning what can only be learnt from peers. This can have lifelong consequences. If the situation persists, it needs to be dealt with promptly.
Keeping waiting lists down as much as possible
Ever since I started work in the NHS, I have sought to keep waiting times down to the minimum. So rather than treating all children once a week indefinitely until their problems were resolved, I developed a practice of fixed terms of therapy, allowing me to see new referrals as soon as possible, within three months at the most, and then treat according to the degree of need and the severity of the disorder.
The need for more Speech and Language Therapists
That practice has now become more general, although there are still long waits for assessment and treatment in many areas. There is a great need for more Speech and Language Therapists.
Now working privately, I follow the same general approach as I did in the NHS.
As fast as possible
I aim to achieve results as fast as possible. This, I believe, is the main benefit of Possible Words Therapy. But speech and language therapy is not like an injection, an operation, or a pill. It is a process which takes as long as it takes. In any particular case it may be possible to give a very rough estimate in advance. But such estimates may be out by a factor of two or more in either direction. But nor is speech and language therapy like psycho-analyis. It does not go on forever. There are clear, definable goals.
FAQ: Are there any quick fixes?
Hardly ever. In my personal experience only one. A seven year old was hoarse because of non-stop shouting. With his mother’s permission, I gave him a rather exaggerated idea of the careeer path to becoming an astronaut. The shouting stopped immediately. And the hoarseness resolved. Much more typically, there is a combination of cognitive defect and habit which have the effect of some error. The balance between the cognitive defect and the habit varies from case to case. But neither can be resolved without some hard work. My predecessor, John Thelwall, who 200 years ago had his clinic only half an hour on foot from my own, boasted that he could sometimes fix issues in a single session. I believe that he exaggerated on the grand scale in the hope of attracting custom. When I read that I lost my respect for him, despite his considerable achievements in linguistic theory and, before that, in politics. Marketing should not trump scientific honesty and accuracy.