From one SM parent to another
When my daughter’s first SALT referral was refused — because we lived in the wrong London borough — I didn’t accept it. I got obsessive.
With my Educational Psychologist sister, a psychotherapist friend and a SALT colleague in my corner, I spent weeks reading everything I could find. Research papers, lived experience accounts, US and UK frameworks, every book going. Staying up until midnight while working full time, because she needed help now.
I reached out to private speech and language therapists too. Nobody local specialised in SM. Starting the referral process again in a different borough felt completely counterproductive.
So I built something instead. An AI tool trained on everything I’d learned, that I could tell all about my daughter — her specific triggers, her context, her version of SM — and get strategies back that were actually relevant to her.
Eighteen months in. Private SALT spend: £0.
More importantly — she’s thriving. We’ve gone from no eye contact and zero non-verbal communication at school, to full voice with me in busy public spaces. From too anxious for friends, to playdates at home. Every milestone, every roadblock, back to the tool.
I’m not a clinician. I’m a mum who did the work. And I couldn’t not share it.
