Yellowknife (May 05/06) - Yellowknife parents looking for speech therapy for their children now have a private option.

Speech therapist Wendy MacDonald has started her own private therapy practice called Communication Care.

MacDonald said her practice is a good alternative for children who can't access speech therapy in school or at Stanton Medical Centre.

She has worked as a speech therapist for more than 20 years, 15 of them spent in Yellowknife.

MacDonald used to be the school speech therapist at Stanton Medical Centre. She visited schools and helped classroom assistants create programs for students having trouble with vocabulary or pronunciation.

Wanting to interact more with the students themselves, MacDonald decided to start her own practice last September.

"I really enjoy working with children who have communication disorders," she said. "I feel good about helping a child pronounce sounds better."

MacDonald works primarily with pre-school and school-aged children. She sees 12-13 kids every week.

She charges $110 per hour and works in the client's home with the children. She said some people have employee insurance benefits that will cover speech and language therapy.

Speech disorders can range from mild pronunciation problems to being unable to make certain noises, or having difficulty understanding language itself.

There is a definite need for MacDonald's services, said Kim Kameemalik. Her nephew, seven-year-old Devon Drybones, is struggling to express himself.

"He's frustrated that he doesn't understand," she said.

Devon was held back a year-and-a-half in school, but without help this year, his situation may get worse because he's not improving.

Kameemalik said she would like to see the government support parents who have children with speech problems.

About 160 students in Yellowknife schools need some form of speech or language therapy. Students in need are having difficulty getting in to see a publicly-funded therapist because the wait list is months long.

Though schools have been able to continue programs already in place, pronunciation and assessing children who have trouble with speech is beyond their expertise. The only students getting care in school are in kindergarten.

MacDonald said another reason she decided to offer private lessons is because she was feeling overwhelmed with her caseload of 140 students.

"I was seeing about 20-30 students in a week, and I wasn't getting to all of them," she said.

She has also been hired by Yk District No. 1 to work with students at Mildred Hall and Range Lake schools.