The list: Only three municipalities in Östergötland have a speech therapist at school

Many children would have the help of a speech therapist - but often neither parents nor educators know what a language disorder means - or what help the children could get from a speech therapist.

In the video, you get to know which signs to look for to know if the child has a language disorder.

- If, for example, it is difficult to tell stories, difficult to keep a common thread, then it could be a language disorder, says Ann-Sofie Taleman who is a coordinating speech therapist in Norrköping.

Then the speech therapist can help find strategies, arrange image support and aids.

But that presupposes that there is a speech therapist at the school - or at least someone who can supervise the staff.

And there the differences between the municipalities are great.

This is shown by the survey that SVT Nyheter has done.

Only three municipalities have speech therapists

Less than half of the municipalities that have responded to the survey in Sweden have speech therapists employed in compulsory school.

And only three of the municipalities in Östergötland have answered that they have employed speech therapists who work with primary school children with language disorders.

These are Norrköping, Linköping and Kinda.

Linköping has 16 speech therapists in primary school.

Norrköping has 12 in primary school who work actively with children and a speech therapist who supervises educators.

There are also two speech therapists at private independent schools.

Kinda has a speech therapist who supervises educators.

- It will not be equal.

It is different depending on which school or municipality it is, says Ann-Sofie Taleman.

Many municipalities do not have cooperation agreements

It is also very different how the municipalities cooperate with the region (healthcare).

Ödeshög, Kinda has no cooperation agreement.

Valdemarsvik and Åtvidaberg are investigating the issue.

Valdemarsvik states bluntly that "one problem, however, is that we do not have the budget to meet this need".

The municipality of Linköping has answered "do not know" in the survey and Norrköping has no collaboration agreements but "regular meetings" with the speech therapist clinic.

"Does not receive regular speech therapy training"

Vadstena buys a speech therapist via the region.

Söderköping has a collaboration agreement with the region on the division of responsibilities.

Finspång collaborates with local health care in Finspång around children with language disorders.

Boxholm states that the students who are investigated in the region have a contact there and the staff can receive guidance from the hearing care, but "they do not receive regular speech therapy training".

The video above: What are the signs of a language disorder?