Integrated Treatment Services

Harry was four when his parents referred him to ITS. He appeared to have some speech sound difficulties and some unusual sentence construction. Harry had often had difficulties being understood by less familiar adults and some of his friends. His parents began to notice that this led to built up frustration resulting in episodes of difficult behaviour as well as affecting his attitude to learn.

As Harry reached school age. It became clear that these difficulties were going to interfere with his learning and his ability to keep up with the rest of the class. Harry benefited from the therapist combining both home and school visits enabling both his parents and teaching staff to support his speech intelligibility and respond consistently to his frustrated behaviour.

Through this consistent approach, Harry soon began to make changes to his speech sounds recognising that it was his sounds that needed to change, not the ears of his parents and teaching staff. Like many children Harry had previously relied upon familiar adults understanding him and therefore had no real incentive to change. Both his parents and teachers soon recognised that Harry was rarely frustrated anymore leading to positive behaviour and a desire to learn from new experiences.

His teachers reported that the strategies and support that the ITS therapists delivered directly into his curriculum and home, was felt to contribute to his rapid success. They preferred this to traditional methods experienced previously where speech sound programmes were carried out in isolation.

His parents agreed that by incorporating the therapy into their daily routines such as unpacking the shopping and playing speech games with his preferred toys, Harry was not made to feel different, which had been a concern of theirs particularly at school.

Harry is now able to access the curriculum at the level expected of his age. His literacy skills are developing well due to resolving his speech sound errors more quickly.

We genuinely believe that by working with the child holistically and considering all the environments for which they live and learn in, we can effect change quickly and reduce the difficulties which might otherwise might have impacted the child’s learning.

Since about the age of three we had started to worry about Owen's speech as he seemed to struggle with pronouncing certain letters and when watching him play with other children and even when taking to adults we noticed that they were struggling to understand him. We decided to make an appointment with our health visitor and discussed our concerns about Owen's speech and she advised us that she would recommend Owen was referred for Speech therapy but there was about a 6 - 9 month waiting list.
 
As parents we wanted to help our little boy and try and get his speech problems sorted before he started school, so we went on the internet to look for private speech therapists of which ITS was at the top of the list, but also a friend who’s son had also had some speech problems had recommended ITS to us. We then contacted Sarah who then sent all the relevant literature through for us to read. We decided to go ahead with a private therapist and booked Owen in for his first assessment.
 
On the first assessment Sandra, Owens speech therapist made a very thorough assessment of Owen's speech by obtaining some history from us and then by observing and listening to Owen's speech sounds through play and by using lots of picture cards, which took over an hour. I have to say that it opened our eyes, as there were sounds that Owen was struggling to pronounce that we hadn’t even realised as we had got so use to understanding the way he talked. Once the initial assessment had been done Sandra then discussed the speech problems she had identified with us, and then recommended a plan of action if we felt comfortable with it.
 
Owen then received his initial assessment with the NHS, which lasted only 15minutes. So after his consultation with the NHS we realised that the best route for us to take was with ITS as they seemed more professional and definitely more thorough in their initial assessment in identifying Owens speech problems and action to be taken. ITS have however always supported and encouraged us accessing the NHS speech and language therapy provision and would also put us in contact with other health and education agenices should we need them.
 
From the word go Owen felt very comfortable around Sandra and made a connection with her. After a few visits from Sandra you could start to hear the difference in Owen's speech, which was really encouraging and reassuring. We feel that part of Owens quick improvement is because he enjoys the lessons, as it isn’t just sitting down doing homework; Sandra makes the lessons varied through using different games and toys as well as pictures and books. Sandra is also very good at structuring the lessons to Owen's personal needs and as soon as she recognises that Owen is starting to get bored she will change the task and her approach and will also not drag out a task once she feels that he has accomplished it. Sandra is also very willing to give advice on how to encourage Owens speech along in an everyday situation and watching the lessons also gives us ideas on different ways of playing to assist in the development of Owens speech at home. Throughout Owens short time with Sandra his speech had vastly improved, with friends and family even commenting on the improvement, which makes it all worthwhile.
 
I would fully recommend ITS as firstly we have found that Sarah is always there for you at the other end of the phone, no matter how big or small the problem is she always makes you feel very reassured. We have found that Sarah has always been very understanding and obliging to our own personal needs. Secondly I feel that the therapist coming to the home has made Owen feel more at ease and has hence made a more relaxed teaching / learning environment. Thirdly Sandra is also understanding to both our and Owen's needs and is very good at structuring Owens lessons to get the most from him. All in all we are very pleased with Owens progress and feel that ITS offers a very professional service but at a very personal level.
 
Richard Wardle (February 2008)

Jenny was a mainstream teacher working within a community primary school with many years of experience in working with children and supporting the social needs of her pupils and their families.

With the increased preference for including more children with additional learning needs within the mainstream setting, Jenny found herself requiring more specialised skills to support the specific learning needs of some of her pupils.

ITS was contracted to work across some of the classrooms within the school. Jenny and the ITS therapist jointly delivered some teaching sessions together. At first Jenny was surprised that the therapist did not want to focus on literacy alone, but quickly experienced the benefit of working together across all curriculum areas, building upon strategies and techniques to include all pupils and sustain their attention.

They developed visual systems within the classroom together to help support pupils attention and keep pupils on task. This also gave Jenny time to develop the skills of her more able pupils.

At times, Jenny and the therapist exchanged roles so that she had opportunities to watch and observe her pupils during activities and plan on how to amend activities to access all pupils more easily. This was a rare opportunity previously but one that proved essential to the success of her teaching.

Jenny was provided with background information about speech sound development which had a great impact upon the way she delivered future lessons. They discussed the importance of play and brought more role play and play based activities into the classroom.

Both Jenny and the therapist recognised the mood of the classroom had changed. Jenny felt more in control of her classroom, reducing the ongoing demands from her pupils. The pupils developed better independent learning skills and interacted more so with their peer group.

We generally believe that by working within the classroom alongside teaching staff and pupils, that we can progress pupils language and learning at a greater rate than more traditional therapy methods.
 

Lee was a 19-year-old man who presented with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and associated challenging behaviour. Lee had no apparent way of communicating his needs other than taking staff by the hand or attempting to get things for himself.

On many occasions Lee was observed to become particularly frustrated when he was not able to indicate his wishes. This frustration was evident through physical damage to property within his house as well as to himself. Lee was highly motivated by watching videos and would attempt to dismantle the video cupboard in frustration to find what he wanted.

When ITS became involved with Lee, it quickly became apparent that he had some excellent communication strengths and was motivated to get his needs met.

Lee demonstrated ability to recognise photos, symbols and written words. After spending time identifying with staff, if Lee could read with real understanding, we confirmed that written words were Lee’s preferred communication method.

Very quickly a drink and snack choice board was set up and Lee learnt to communicate his choice by taking the written word off the choice board to give to staff.

Lee still became very frustrated in waiting for staff to find his preferred video choice. We therefore introduced a WAIT card. Lee identified his preferred video which staff then placed on his wait card. Holding the wait card gave Lee a positive focus whilst staff located the video. Very few escalations in behaviour occurred from that point and Lee now is able to make his needs known across a range of settings.

It is incredible to think that Lee has gone through a quarter of his life without others recognising his skills. Success stories such as Lee’s are not in isolation - every day young people with learning disabilities are often having choices made for them, because they are perceived to be unable to communicate effectively themselves.

By working with staff and family that know the clients well, ITS therapists believe that doors can be opened by staff to reveal new abilities in all clients.