dd2 had her first speech therepy session.

[misdee]

she has to go back next week for a full assessment to find her age appropiate speech. she is missing the end of words of (eg house = hou ) and she didnt understand a couple of the cards they were working with (a picture of a dog tied up and a horse jumping over a fence) so the SALT wants to see her again.

i honestly thought they'd tell me her speech was fine, as she has come on so much lately, but deep down i knew it wasnt right.

so once again, i am not imagining things.

[misdee]

i am already 'modelling' her speech, what else can i do? i dont want to be correcting her. something so simple as speech is flummoxing me.

[mogwai]

aw Misdee

You're only halfway through the assessment. I'll tell you what, that test with the dog tied to the post is called "RAPT" and I used it three times today. None of the children gave me the desired response because it's a rubbish picture and a rubbish question

Q what has been done to the dog?
A he's been tied to a post with a lead

usual answers

A he's stuck (0 points)
A he's lost his daddy (0 points)
A the man going to leave him there and go into the shop (0 points)

wait till she's fully assessed and I'm sure you'll get some useful pointers, try not to worry about it till then

How old is she?

[misdee]

i thought the pic was rubbish as well.

she is 3 and a half yrs old.

next week is the age assessment of speech. can you forewarn me of what to expect?

[mogwai]

tell me what tests they did today (describe them, apart from the RAPT)

[misdee]

dd2 just shrugged at that picture btw. wouldnt even respond, she must have thought it was rubbish as well. lol.

[moondog]

9Blimey,you back at work already Mogwai?? How time flies!)

[mogwai]

(been back since january, Moondog)

[misdee]

she played with a puzzle (one of those wooden peg ones, way too easy,) and named all the pieces, did the cards, looked through a little book with loads of pictures, paired up some cards and said when they were. was there about an hour.

[Bink]

my ds (he was four and a bit then) said "tied to the neck all the way there" for that picture. Which was quite a neat example of how muddled & information-deficient his speech was (and still is, really). I guess it must used as a particularly difficult one?

[mogwai]

ok, well sounds like the therapist was broadly assessing her understanding (asking her to point to the right picture to match what she was saying?) and her expressive language (RAPT).

So next week, I would expect she will want to look at her speech sounds. She will probably use a test called STAP which is in a yellow cover. Your little girl will have to name some things. The therapist will be listening out for all the sounds she can make to see if any of them are difficult for her.

At three and a half, she will still find some sounds difficult, but the therapist will be able to tell if her speech is ok for her age. The pictures are a bit nicer than the ones on the RAPT and they should all be fairly familiar to her (the first page has a house, flower, sky etc, but please don't try to teach her to say those words between now and then!!)

[misdee]

oh no, she did that one today. she was missing off the ends of words eg flowe, hou, gra, gree etc.

we touched on the fact it could be a hearing problem, she asked about how many colds she has and if her ears are particually waxy. CDC will ask for a hearing test anyway.

[mogwai]

Bink, you're spot on. The RAPT gives a score for information and grammar. One of the children I saw today scored well for information but badly for grammar, and vice versa.

That picture is looking for the child to give an answer in the future tense. I find they don't actually take notice of the fact that you present the question as "what is going to be done" so they don't bother to use the future tense in their reply.

It's a horrible test, totally out of date, horrible pictures. I believe the author has passed away (that's how old it is!!)

[mogwai]

oh yeah, sorry Misdee, you did say that.

So next week perhaps she'll look at her vocabulary using a series of cards (the first one is a cup, the second one a key and so on) and might look at her understanding in more depth, like understanding of concepts like first/last and full/empty

[moondog]

She was a lush too I believe.
Disciplined for being pissed at work.

[mogwai]

do you think her hearing is ok?

[mogwai]

(really? blimey....good on her...I have days like that )

[mogwai]

not pissed......just wish I was!

[misdee]

tbh, she is a typical 3yr old with selective hearing. lol.

i'm not sure anymore, maybe it could be her hearing, i really dont know. I have spent all of her life knowing something wasnt right but being told repeatadly she was fine, now i know it isnt al lfine and she is having all these assessments, my own judgment in parenting is a bit shot. feel like i have let her down by not pushing for help earlier.

[mogwai]

don't be so hard on yourself, I'm sure you've done a great job, and I know you have a lot on your plate.

The experts can assess your child with all these tests but you remain the expert in your own child, don't feel like you've let her down and keep your chin up

[mogwai]

(does she respond to sounds in the environment?)Sounds have different frequencies, if she had waxy ears and middle ear problems, the speech sounds she wouldn't easily hear would be high frequency ones like "s" and "f", and yes, she may also miss the final sound off.

I'm always saying "s" behind my baby's back when she has a cold, just to see if she turns around! Typical SLT!

[misdee]

lol at you going sssss behind your baby. i'll try that tomorrow. lol.

[mogwai]

oh god, don't worry if she doesn't respond!!! My baby is far too young to have developed selective hearing - she's a breeze to assess!

[misdee]

i'll leave it to the professionals.

tbh its a bit of a relief to know that i havent been paranoid about dd2. roll on CDC

[mogwai]

well let me know how she gets on.

[misdee]

will do.