Child & Family Stories
Every child's communication journey is different. These real stories show how a relationship-based, child-led and play-based speech and language therapy approach can be tailored to each child's strengths, interests, preferences and needs, while focusing on what matters to them and their family.
These stories reflect individual families’ experiences, and outcomes will vary for each child and family. Names and identifying details have been changed to protect children’s privacy.
Finding Her Voice — Hope
When Communication Was Difficult
When Hope was nearly two, she understood a great deal and had lots of ideas to share. She communicated through looking, pointing, gestures and taking adults to what she wanted. She was saying “mama” and making a few unclear animal sounds.
Hope often used screeching, fussing or moaning sounds and could become very upset when adults couldn’t understand her. She stayed very close to her mum and found it difficult to settle into shared play with her.
Hope's parents were looking for support to help her to regulate and communicate more easily. Following an initial telephone consultation, Hope had a communication assessment and five therapy sessions at home.
The assessment showed strong language understanding and play skills, alongside a need for support with regulation and expressive communication.
Building Communication Through Play and Interaction
Through play and VERVE Child Interaction Therapy, Hope's mum and I watched short video clips to look more closely at Hope's developing communication and what her mum was already doing naturally to support her.
Hope chose activities that she enjoyed and led the play, with favourites such as her doll's house, animals and baby doll bath set.
Between sessions, her parents used identified interaction strategies during a daily five-minute quiet play time and over time began using them naturally during everyday activities and routines. Gradually, Hope began playing for longer with her mum, babbling more, making more animal sounds and attempting more words.
Growing Communication and Confidence
By the end of the five therapy sessions, two months later, Hope was initiating communication frequently throughout the day and using 11 different single words. She was sometimes able to share play with her mum and look at books together for 5–10 minutes.
Her mum rated Hope's expressive communication as 6/10, compared with 3–4/10 at the start of therapy. Everyday interactions were becoming easier, and her mum described feeling “a lot less stressed” and more confident in knowing how to support her.
Hope's parents finished the block with practical strategies to continue using in everyday life to support her regulation and communication as she continued to develop.
"Thank you so much for all of your help. It's amazing the progress that she's made in such a small amount of time."
Hope's parent — communication assessment and block of five therapy sessions
Speaking Clearly with Confidence — Lucas
Making Himself Understood
When Lucas was four, his parents wanted support because his speech was difficult for others to understand. They could understand most of what he said, but other family members and friends found it harder, particularly when he was talking quickly or had more to say. He was also finding it difficult to organise his ideas into sentences, making it harder to share experiences such as telling his family about his day at pre-school.
Following an initial telephone consultation, Lucas had a communication assessment and five therapy sessions at home. The assessment identified strengths and needs across regulation, attention, expressive language and speech sounds.
Building Communication Through Play and Interaction
Through play and VERVE Child Interaction Therapy, Lucas's mum and I looked together at what was supporting his communication and ways to build on this in everyday interactions.
Lucas chose activities and led the play, with favourites such as animals, small-world figures, Play-Doh and pretend cooking and shopping.
His parents used identified interaction strategies during daily five-minute quiet play times and over time began using them naturally in everyday situations, including mealtimes and bath time.
Over the five sessions, Lucas’s speech became easier to understand. He also started using longer sentences, giving more information and telling his family stories about his day.
By the end of the block, just over two months later, his parents estimated that they could understand around 90% of his speech, compared with 80% at the start of therapy. His grandmother could understand around 75%, compared with 50% at the start. His mum rated his expressive communication as 8.5–9/10, compared with 5/10 at the start.
Growing in Confidence
The changes went beyond clearer speech. Lucas was sharing more about his experiences, and he and his brother were having conversations together at bath time. He was also beginning to make friends at pre-school, proudly telling his family, “They’re my friends.”
Lucas finished the block better able to make himself understood and more confident in expressing himself and sharing his experiences with others.
"He has grown into a much more confident little boy... Seeing him begin to make friends at pre-school and express himself has been so emotional and special for us as parents. The change this has brought to our home life has been huge — fewer frustrations, fewer tantrums, and so much more happy family time.”
Lucas's parent — communication assessment and block of five therapy sessions
Communication Becoming Easier — Felix
Finding a Way Forward
When Felix was three, his parents were very worried about his communication. He had previously attended speech and language sessions without making the progress his parents had hoped for, and his skills seemed to have stayed at the same level for some time.
Felix often communicated by pointing or taking an adult to what he wanted. Although he used some single words, he found it difficult to ask for what he wanted. This led to frequent meltdowns and affected everyday life, including playing with his sister and preparing for toilet training.
Following an initial telephone consultation, Felix had a communication assessment and five therapy sessions at home. The assessment identified strengths and needs across regulation, attention, play, language understanding and use, and speech sounds.
Building on What Was Already Working
Through play and VERVE Child Interaction Therapy, Felix's parents and I looked closely at his communication and the interaction strategies that were already helping him.
Felix chose activities that he enjoyed from a picture choice board and led the play, with favourites including Play-Doh, magnetic fishing and small-world play with sea creatures, especially sharks.
Between sessions, his parents used identified interaction strategies during daily five-minute quiet play times and gradually built them into everyday life.
His mum noticed that playing together became easier when she followed Felix’s lead.
Over the five sessions, Felix began involving his parents more in his play and communication and focusing for longer. His play became more imaginative, and he started using more words and short phrases, including “help please”, “fix it” and “this one”.
He also began using words to ask for snacks and request favourite games and songs. He communicated more with his older sister and had fewer meltdowns when he wasn’t immediately understood.
By the end of the initial therapy block, Felix had made progress in all the areas that his parents had identified as priorities, including toilet training. They rated his ability to communicate successfully as 9/10, compared with 3/10 at the start of therapy.
A Difference for the Whole Family
Support continued less frequently as Felix progressed to using longer phrases and sentences.
I also visited him at pre-school to provide recommendations and wrote a report to support a referral for a wider assessment of his additional needs. Further specialist assessment later led to an autism diagnosis.
For his parents, one of the biggest changes they described was feeling that they understood Felix and knew how to support him.
"Natalie has kindly, patiently and clearly helped us to understand how we can support our son... This in turn has helped us understand him and build our and our daughter's relationship with our son... It’s so much easier in our family unit now that we understand him more and he can communicate more easily. We feel so much better as a family than we did... she has ultimately helped us to understand each other which is invaluable."
Felix's parent — communication assessment, block of five therapy sessions, regular follow-ups including a nursery visit plus report
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