Speech and Language

Information for Parents

Insight is an independent multi-disciplinary clinic which provides clinical and educational psychology, occupational therapy, child and adolescent psychiatry and speech and language assessments and intervention.

If any of the situations listed below are familiar, parents would be well advised to consider an assessment and diagnosis as early intervention is very important. Research shows that early intervention is vital to ensure each child reaches their potential.

Many children present with speech and language difficulties, including;

Articulation difficulties (Minor difficulty in producing speech sounds accurately)

John aged 6, cannot pronounce “s” sound and says it with a lisp.

Phonology (Substitutes incorrect sounds)

Mary aged 5, says “tat” instead of “cat” and “tea” instead of “key”.

Dyspraxia (Difficulty with the motor planning needed for speech)

Pat aged 6, has difficulty saying words which contain many syllables, e.g. caterpillar, and he has lots of error patterns in his speech. He also has difficulty putting sentences together.

Language Comprehension

Mark aged 10, has difficulty following directions at school and often looks at other children to see what he needs to do.

Expressive Language

Aine aged 7, gets frustrated when she cannot find the vocabulary even though she knows the name of the word. She often describes the word or gives the name of a similar word.

Sean aged 5, speaks in very short sentences and does not use past or future tense and often gets his pronouns confused.

Pragmatics (Social use of language)

Jack aged 8, finds it hard to make friends. He often speaks out of turn in class and interprets everything the teacher says literally.

Stuttering 

Jane aged 13, repeats parts of words and sometimes words get “stuck”.

At Insight we provide comprehensive detailed assessments and diagnosis of speech and language difficulties and individualise intervention programmes based on each child’s needs. The practice is committed to ensuring excellence in our services using current evidence based practice principles. We have the most recent assessment tools and therapy programmes and our therapists are highly experienced in their field of expertise. The speech and language team is led by Catherine Sheahan who is also a lecturer at University of Limerick in a variety of modules in child communication difficulties.

Referrals can be made by parents or teachers by contacting 01 2452140 or email at reception@insightcentre.ie Private health insurance may cover part of the assessment/intervention cost – please check with your provider. Tax relief is also available at standard rate.  Further information is available on our website, www.insightcentre.ie