Kri Millan starts school in August able to speak only a handful of words.
The four-year-old from Brechin is among more than 1,700 children currently waiting for speech and language therapy under NHS Tayside.
As he was born in lockdown his parents Karli and Christopher believe restricted opportunities for interaction outside the home have affected his development.
Now they fear he will be unable to communicate with his teacher, unable even to ask to go to the toilet.
They are angry at the length of time it took to refer him for speech and language therapy.
One in three children wait more than a year
And now that he has been assessed, they’ve been told it could be between a year and two years before his therapy begins.
Almost one in three of children currently waiting to start SLT with NHS Tayside were referred more than a year ago.
Lockdown has, according to therapists, led to more children requiring SLT with increasingly complex needs.
Karli says she repeatedly raised concerns with her health visitor over three years.
But she says she was assured Kri would ‘catch up’.
She says: “I’m really worried about him starting school in August.
“He can’t talk and if he gets bullied he won’t be able to tell anyone. He can’t even tell the teacher he needs to go to the toilet.”
The couple have six children and another on the way and said some of their other kids have been slow to talk, but nowhere near as slow as Kri.
No normal baby babbling sounds
Their eldest son Flynn, 13, had speech and language therapy which they said was provided as soon as he needed it.
They noticed something was amiss when Kri was only a few months old.
“He wasn’t doing the normal babbling sounds a baby should do. I brought that up with the health visitor.”
The family were living in Dundee at the time and when they moved to Brechin, they raised their concerns with their new health visitor.
“All she would say is ‘he’ll get there, he’ll catch up’. It took me two years to get her to get him an appointment for speech and language therapy.
“That was one session last October, November to see where he was at.”
Speech and language waiting times in Tayside
“Then we were told it could be two years before he is seen.
“He should have been on the waiting list two years ago.”
Karli says her two-year-old daughter has a bigger vocabulary than Kri.
NHS Tayside operates a speech and language therapy advice line but Karli says Kri needs specialised, one-to-one support.
“We don’t know what Kri sounds like. It’s heart-breaking.
“It’s very hard to figure out what he wants, he just goes ‘ah, ah, ah’ all the time and points to what he wants.
“He has problems with his behaviour because he gets frustrated because no one understands what he’s saying.”
How long are children waiting for speech and language therapy?
Of the 1,714 children waiting for speech and language therapy under NHS Tayside at the end of February, almost a third had been waiting almost a year.
One had been waiting almost two years (102 weeks).
NHS Tayside says like other health boards it has been experiencing some challenges around waiting times due to increased demand.
A spokesperson says: “To try to respond to longer waiting times, which are not what we would want for our young people and their families, the SLT service is providing an open access advice line.
“This means that all families and professionals supporting children who may have concerns about a child’s communication and development can speak directly to a speech and language therapist.
“In addition, children and their parents/carers may also receive targeted support in the form of a parent information session or stay and play sessions to give families strategies and resources to practice and strengthen their learning whilst they wait.
“In the last year 1,400 targeted support sessions have taken place.
“After this initial session, a written report is shared with nursery or school staff and parents to be able to use some support strategies until the service can see the child again for their substantial individualised therapy.”
‘Sharp rise in demand for SLT’
The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in Scotland is worried about waiting times, stating the importance of communication skills.
Head Glen Carter says: “Long waiting times for speech and language therapy remain a significant issue across Scotland.
“This is driven by a sharp rise in demand, a shortage of therapists, and financial pressures that have led to service cuts.
“Our members report that the lasting effects of the pandemic continue to be felt, with more children requiring support and presenting with increasingly complex difficulties.
“Communication skills are critical to children’s learning, mental health, and future opportunities.
“It is possible to make a big difference in spoken language skills if children receive early intervention from speech and language therapists, parents, and education staff.
“Therapists are working tirelessly to support families, but they need greater resources to meet the growing demand and ensure a brighter future for children who require additional help to communicate.”
Conversation