Collecting on the streets for child’s speech, language services not easy By Maura Adshead

I’VE been out shaking the bucket again.

It is a simple but necessary obligation in order to access speech and language services for my daughter. The deal is that we can get the services on the condition that we help to fund raise for them, in order to continue to provide the service. It’s reasonable enough. There are no other services available and so, if you want speech and language therapy, you have to help pay for it. Personally, I’d find a tax deduction at source much easier, but such is the system: families that require the therapeutic services offered by charities in the vacuum left by the State system have to take their turn rattling the bucket.

It’s not easy asking people for money. Even my 9-year-old has recognised this early lesson in life. His requests are generally phrased something like; “I’d really like it if I had…” because he knows that a direct request is a little, well, indelicate I suppose. I toy with the idea of walking up to people with my bucket and saying in a roundabout way; “you know, I’d really like it if there were speech and language therapy services available for children who need them”. But I’m not sure that this approach would be any better.