Delayed speech in 3.7 old DD

[samandsophsmam]

I have a DD3 that was diagnosed with moderate speech delay and needs speech therapy. It's usually trouble with beginning of words swapping f for b so she will say bish instead of fish and dying instead of crying etc. can't say s as in snake and Sophie (dd2)
Just wondered if anyone had experienced this too and how quickly speech therapy helped... Is there anything I can do to help?

[Jaynebxl]

Have you had her hearing tested? If so have it done again! Wd had this with our dd and the first hearing test was normal so we just battled on for a while. A second hearing test a few months later was ridiculously bad... she had glue ear which fluctuates and it just happened that her hearing was good on the day of the first test. Grommets then transformed her.

But on the subject of speech therapy our experience was very positive. Great opportunity to alert the child to and help them change some of the ruts they have got into in producing certain sounds. However it went much faster once she could hear!

[samandsophsmam]

How do I go about getting a random hearing test? Can I just call and book myself? Will try and sort tomorrow.. She only had her newborn hearing test nothing since.
Is there anything we can do with her while she is on a waiting list.... I tried private help research and most is £70 for 40 min which can't afford :-(

[Jaynebxl]

Go to the GP and ask for a referral. It's really important. In the meantime just keep chatting to your dd and giving space for her to chat back, and just build her confidence.

[Jaynebxl]

Just tried to pm you but can't. Pm me if you want to.

[kelda]

Yes get her hearing tested to rule that out as a problem.

Your GP can refer her. From what you say, she does need speech therapy.

In the meantime, there are things you can do to help.

We use loads of signs to help my son say sounds.

eg. Get her looking in the mirror and practise being a goofy rabbit for the 'f' sound.

Try and get her to play a 'hissing' snake for the s sound, using her finger to pretend to be a snake.

For the 'k/c' sound, what works for my son is pretending he is hitting an imaginary hammer at the same time as shouting the 'k' sound from the back of the throat.

Put jam behind her top front teeth to help her put her tongue in the right place to say the 'l' sound.

Also, get her blowing bubbles, licking her lips, touching her nose with her tongue, talking, singing, making animal sounds.

[Jaynebxl]

How old is she? Not sure if dd3 means she is your 3rd or she is 3.

[kelda]

In the title it says she is 3.7.

[RueDeWakening]

Our SLT gave me www.talkingpoint.org.uk/ to look at, which is quite useful. DS1 was assessed as having a speech delay, but not enough of one to actually be offered any help as he's "only" 6-12 months behind (he was 3.8 when assessed) so we've just been doing stuff at home with him.

[Jaynebxl]

D'oh! I had 3.7 in my head but couldn't see where I got that from in the body of the post!

[Jaynebxl]

I thino Talking point is really helpful. It has one bit which looks at what is expected at each age. For example not being able to produce f yet is within the normal range. Aged 3 to 4 many children: "Have difficulties with a small number of sounds – for example r, w, l, f, th, sh, ch and dz."

[samandsophsmam]

Sorry she is 3 years 7 months. Some really useful advice thank you all. any suggestions welcome. For a year I have been raising concern and was always just told it was normal for her age. Now she is starting school I am feeling sad.... Hoping it won't affect school? I am a natural worrier about everything anyway!

[kelda]

samandsophsmam - we had exactly the same - people trying to reassure us did not do us any favours. My ds needed professional speech therapy. I did as a child too - for four years - and I was still quite happy at school and did well.

My ds has a very serious speech problem and he is happy in school as well. The other children don't always understand him, they assume he is speaking a foreign language, but that doesn't stop them all playing together.

[mrshunkermunker]

My ds1 didn't start talking until 3.5 yo. He had about 10 words from 3ish and made up lots of signs to communicate ( which he did very well). My SaLT have drop in sessions where children can be reviewed. I took him several times but until he reached 3 was told he was 'within normal limits', more because they were mostly concerned with his comprehension and whether be was trying to communicate, than what sounds he could make. But once he got intothe speech therapy system, he's had regular one to one sessions and now gets it at school too. Id say his speech problems made it more difficult for him to make friends at preschool, but he was always happy to go, and he's now at school and doing well. Its been a long process but is definitely a problem his overcoming.

[SimLondon]

Are you in England OP? I know that in our area we have drop-in classes for s&l which are free of charge and you GP or HV can refer you for hearing checks again free of charge.

But i wouldn't worry to much - a huge amount of speech delays will resolve themselves without intervention, mine did.