Concerns over son's speech

[Tillytoes14]

Hi,
I have an eight, nearly nine year old son, who has language and communication delays.
He had delayed speech when he was younger, he started reception class with pronunciation delays and also speech delay, we saw a speech therapist once, the waiting list was particularly long, who recommended activities at both home and school to improve his pronunciation, but received no help for his actual language delay.
He's nearly nine and struggles to give us clear information when he's explaining something, or string a sentence that is grammatically correct, he gets frustrated over this daily.
I don't think it's a problem that will go away and he will catch up (like family members have suggested to me), he does need support in this area. The problem is, I worry he's too old for any sort of intervention. Does anyone have any advice about who we can talk to?

Thanks!

[fizzycolagurlie]

He's never too old to get help on this. Is there no one at the school who can help or direct you to a speech therapist? How about your GP (I am in the USA and many, many state schools have speech therapists on site to help children with speech delays, stutters, you name it, so I am not 100% sure where to direct you, apols.)

[Ferguson]

Is he in Yr6? What is he good at in school; what does he enjoy; what is he NOT good at? Does he have friends, and mix with other children, or does his language difficulty make that difficult for him?

I don't see why he should be 'too old' for intervention, and is his school not prepared to offer any advice or support? If school won't help, try your doctor for advice.

To maybe help his speech problems, would getting him to read REALLY EASY books, intended for much younger children, slowly and carefully be of any use? And particularly 'tongue twister' type books, like Dr Seuss, or Hairy Maclary. If he reads them really slowly, that might aid his confidence.

I guess it could be a voice and speech problem, or it might be more of a mental problem.

I once knew a 4yr old boy at playgroup who had a stammer, but if he was talking with a puppet the stammer would go away.

If you have a tape recorder, or a phone that records, see if he can talk on that. He can do it in private, in his bedroom, and no one else needs to hear it. If it's no good, he can erase it if he wants to.

I don't know if this might be worth trying:

www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/feb/22/your-time-to-rhyme-a-dr-seuss-challenge

[Hopeful83]

He's not too old at all. He should get a referral now. Your school can refer him, or the GP. A speech and language therapist can write a programme of activities for school and home. At his age, he should get one. In some areas there is no NHS access to speech and language therapy beyond primary school so I would get help now

[TeamEponine]

It is never too late for an intervention! It might be worth reading up on verbal dyspraxia as what you describe sounds a bit like that.

You mention some difficulties in speech production, but is his comprehension and understanding ok? Children with verbal dyspraxia usually have normal/good understanding, but difficulties with production that are similar to what you describe.

If you read up on it and it sounds familiar, you can find lots of exercises online that you could try with him to see if it makes any difference.

Good luck!