Speech and Language Therapy for Alfie

I will start with a brief introduction to Alfie and our family:

Let me start by introducing myself- I'm Demi, I'm a 25 year old Mum to Alfie, who was born in August 2020. We live with my husband in Crawley, West Sussex.

When Alfie was born, we were shocked to find that he failed his newborn hearing screening, and later on after more testing, we found out he has mild-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Alfie has worn hearing aids since he was around 3 months old, and he will continue to wear them for the rest of his life as unfortunately, his deafness can't be "cured". We have undergone and are still undergoing various genetic testing including blood genetics and scans to see if there is any underlying cause and if it may possibly effect future children.

As most parents can agree, we all want our children to have the best start in life possible. Unfortunately, Alfie was born during the pandemic and like a lot of children, he didn't have the best access to baby and toddler groups, socialising, etc. We believe this along with his hearing loss and global development delay (diagnosed by his consultant paediatrician at the CDC), has contributed to Alfie struggling with his communication. He is currently pre-verbal, and he has two words. We have never heard him say Mum or Dad, and we want to hear those words more than anything in the world!

Alfie really struggles with frustration down to not being able to communicate with us, as we know he is such a smart boy as he shows us in many other ways! He struggles with his peers and at his preschool since he cannot voice his wants and needs.

We are under many different teams as I believe in being my sons biggest advocate and his voice, so to speak.

We are currently on the NHS waiting list for an assessment for speech and language therapy, we were referred back in November 2022 and have recently been told its likely he won't be seen until around 1 year after his refereal, and then will be put on another wait list for around 6 months plus for the actual therapy.

Unfortunately as many of us know, the NHS is stretched to their limit and I completely understand why, but I cannot just sit here and watch him struggle anymore.

Since he is an August baby, he will be due to start school in September next year. I don't want to have to hold him back a year, but I'm so worried that his lack of communication will mean I have to, especially with the current wait times.

Unfortunately we are not currently in a situation where we can afford to pay ourselves for private speech and language therapy.

As a guide- most therapists locally will need an assessment at the cost of £240-£280 and then the subsequent therapy sessions are around £75-£100 per session.

So we are looking to aim to raise around £500 in order to give Alfie a head start and give him the best chance of communicating and gaining confidence with speech.

As a Mum, it breaks my heart to see him struggle and I would do anything for him, but unfortunately money is tight.

Any donation towards his speech and language therapy would mean the world to us, especially when times are so tough for everyone.

Thank you so much!x