From hearing again, to recovering his speech, Fraser began to regain the power to communicate

Fraser Carmichael

Fraser Carmichael has a profound hearing loss and received cochlear implants at the age of 7. At the time he had no meaningful speech and found it difficult to communicate and get his needs met. The implants however gave him access to good quality hearing and he started to make progress with his language development. His family realised at this stage that they really needed to support him with his language development and part of that was finding a Speech Therapist who could understand his needs and provide support and help to allow Fraser make his way in the world.

From the very beginning Lorna tailored each session to suit Fraser and what he was interested in, to spark a real bond and ensure engagement. She asked me to give her all the things that would keep him engaged during the sessions. Fraser’s speech was at first very disordered and his sentences were lacking structure. He also had big gaps in his vocabulary that we worked on. Fraser then started using Lorna’s teaching methods straight away and his family could see a huge difference in his development from the very start. The great things about the methods, where that they were strategies which could easily incorporate into every day life. Fraser started working really hard on building his sentences in the right order. He used to use the wrong tense and he started using the correct tense pretty quickly. Lorna built a folder for Fraser for any new vocabulary he was missing and that really helped him to remember what the new word was. Simple but really effective.

The changes which have occurred in the time that Fraser and Lorna have worked together have been really positive and have made a huge difference to Fraser and his family. He was really frustrated when at the starting line of this journey. However as he started out he instantly began to communicate in a better way. Using the new tools, Lorna equipped him with, he became less frustrated. He is also much more confident when talking to people he doesn’t know and has started going out more by himself into shops and ordering in restaurants.

Fraser always worked really hard in his missions with Lorna. They were tiring for him but she kept them fun and interesting for him. She would always have a great laugh with him which really helped keep him engaged. No matter how big or small your concerns are with your child’s speech development, Frasers family tells others that Lorna will work closely with you to put you at ease and provide a plan to support everyone.