Ms Linda Whitmarsh:

I thank the Deputy for her questions. The norm these days seems to be that vulnerable children are waiting for two to three years for therapies. I spoke about therapy assistance. There are family support workers in some of the CDNTs, who seem to help the therapists and do a bit of play with the child and go through a bit of occupational therapy. I feel that if there were therapist assistance, it could be an add-on course for someone from a social work environment or background. We should make these supports available. Even with regard to things such as augmentative and alternative communication, AAC, devices, we could have therapist assistants for speech and language who would deal only with devices. My little boy has a device to help him speak at the moment. It has broken many times. He has resorted to using YouTube, but that is another matter altogether. I have contacted the speech and language therapist a number of times via email and phone call about this device. It is taking time from her that she could be spending with other children.