What Parents Have Said About Say and Play

'We were thrilled by Robin's progress with Say and Play in such a short space of time.  He went from a shy boy who found it difficult to express more complicated concepts to being one of the more confident ones in his class.  He is now always asking us questions and delighting in discovering new words and ideas.  Now, we look forward to the same thing happening for our younger son, Jonathan who is starting with you in the New Year'.

''We brought our son to Say and Play because his speech was considerably delayed and he was easily distracted due to poor understanding. Having had him assessed we were told that he was approximately one year behind the average. After four months of weekly therapy and doing the games set for us at home, our son has caught up to where he should be for his age. He is doing incredibly well and loves coming to see Alison, even asking for her on his days off! We are hugely grateful an would recommend Say and Play wholeheartedly'. 

'Our GP gave us 'Say and Play's details when our two year old's speech was causing some concern. Initially I looked at Say and Play's website and found some very useful ideas for me to use at home.

Subsequently I got in touch with Say and Play again. They were able to use the assessment we already had and our child then began small group sessions once a week. I was very impressed with the content and how the children are managed and he loves going. He also receives NHS therapy and the communication between the two is excellent. He benefits from both and we are extremely happy.  He is now 5 years old and at last I can understand him most of the time. We are very glad to have found Say and Play. The other benefit is that I feel as a parent I have been greatly supported and it has given me the chance to meet other parents facing similar issues. All in all, a great find!'

'Our child has been coming to Edenside Clinic for 2 terms now. He has greatly benefited from his 2 ¼ hours a week of speech and language therapy.

He is seen in a small group with one speech and language therapist and one assistant. He is very happy to go to the sessions which are very well planned and the feedback is very useful. The homework is a great way of extending what he has been learning. The staff are always available and helpful with any queries.

We can see how much our son's speech and language has improved'.

'We attended Say and Play with our four-year-old boy who was unable to speak clearly, although his knowledge of language was found by Say and Play assessments to be at the level of a child of nearly eight years old.  However he was unable to express his thoughts and feelings adequately which led to a lot of tantrums and frustration for him. His rudimentary speech held him back in imaginary play and even from communicating effectively with his own parents.

We are delighted with his progress in just four months. It is as though his brain has been 'turned on' to speech. He is now five and at last beginning to really enjoy language. The world seems to be opening up to him and we feel very grateful to have received the right help. We would fully recommend Say and Play's assessment and therapy to anyone with concerns about their child's speech and language development'.

'Patrick is now 6 years old and has been coming to Edenside Clinic for 3 years. The improvement in his speech and language is marvellous - most people now do not realise he has difficulties, whereas when he first came he couldn't string 3 words together. A year later his teacher could only understand about half of what he said to her. Nowadays he is generally very understandable.

We felt incredibly frustrated by the lack of facilities, support and help provided by the NHS and were relieved that Say and Play were able to provide the help that Patrick needed.

When we first started I couldn't go anywhere with Patrick unless I had a very tight grip on his hand. Therapists at Say and Play have experience of dealing with children's behaviour and they were extremely helpful to us.

They were also able to visit Patrick's schools to provide assistance and tips to teachers in how to help him with his communication.

Patrick loves coming to Say and Play - the therapists go out of their way to make the sessions fun whilst getting the learning points across. One of the most important things they do is to educate us the parents to help our children - after all we have to deal with them the rest of the week!'