Tip for language delayed children

[cyberseraphim]

We learned a really useful approach at our therapy last week. DS1 is fairly good at puzzles. The therapist told us to not let him put the pieces in himself but to hold up one piece at a time and to ask him to show her where to put it - he can point but lacks understanding as to why he should point beyond his own needs. He learned to do this kind of showing/pointing quite quickly and it might just be imagination but he is responding with showing/pointing in general social situations much more readily and is responding verbally more often too. Obviously this approach is intended to tackle mind blindness in an ASD child but it could help others too maybe...

Also - I asked him to give me one of his crisps a few days ago, he took a yellow plastic disc from the toybox, pressed it into my hand and ran off laughing First real joke !

[bubblagirl]

oh bless him we had to do this alot when ds was first dx hold puzzle peices get him to ask or show where other one goes

we had to do this with nearly evrything we had to really verbalise everything we were doing etc he is coming along really well now still not at peer level but rather than a yr behind we are about 4-6 mths now

although still not receiving SALT as they said his understanding wasnt enough rubbish been a yr and half with no SALT now

[lingle]

cyber, funnily enough I was just thinking it might be good to have a general support thread for late talkers - purely for tips and exhanging ideas on what works. Perhaps in "development" rather than SN. What do you think? Must go to work now. Please flame me if you see any posts from me before 12pm as I will be on a conference call which my client is paying good money for!!!

[misscutandstick]

yes, that sounds good cyber - DS5 isnt quite at that level of understanding yet (2.5y autistic) so cant actually point or understand what is being asked, but will bear it in mind.

On that note it always puzzles me why i hear so many times that "SALT wont help as he doesnt have enough understanding"??? DS5 has very little understanding, if any at all. We get SALT fortnightly, and have done for about 4mths, along with portage. In that time he has learned how to say one word 'go' and sign about 4/5 signs (just to mimic)... so to say he has very little understanding is an understatement and yet he receives regular SALT, I assume that other counties are using it as an excuse to cut the waiting lists!!! I feel so so for people who desperately need the help, but dont get it because of resources. It really is a postcode lottery.

[Peachy]

misscutadstick it does depend on local policy.

Here when ds3 was a pre-schooler they were focissing on schoolkids; when he went to school there was a backlo of preschoolers to clear (no kidding Sherlock? How'sd that happen then? )- we got him properly seen about 10 months ago or so (remembering he ahd virtually no language then and was in Reception) and he was dx'd as first centile for everything. Now he gets weekly SALT but is assessed every six weeks and they will withdraw if he fails to make progress in every assessment.

[BriocheDoree]

This is madness. I mean, I pay for private salt but I have the means and I know many don't. My DD began to understand when she started having SALT. That's such a pathetic excuse not to help the kids who really need it!

We had a good one recently with DD where she kept being told "don't touch" so she went around wanting to touch things, so instead of asking her to point, I asked her to touch, and that worked really well for her as she could touch what was interesting her and we could talk about it, and we could use it to demonstrate that she had understood, but then she's a lot more verbal than some.

[bubblagirl]

brioche how much do you pay private if you dont mind me asking

i know ive been fobbed off i was also told as he's 3 his understanding was at 2 yr old level we cant make a 2 yr old speak like a 3 yr old so i said no but you can get a 2 yr old to speak like a 2 yr old start from basics she has just left us from age of 2 till nopw his nearly 3 half

she did say beginning of sept she'd review end of sept never heard a thing im glad his come along on his own but very annoyed he could be so much further than he is with help

i guess time and fuding is huge factor to this my poor boy his speech is also atypical in sounds etc this has been known since 2 so could also be more than speech delay he has been dx with HFA as soon as we got that no one has seen or spoke to us since that was 6 mths ago

[Peachy]

Bubbla have you done the NAS Help course?

[bubblagirl]

no havent heard of it to be honest all imformation i have got is from people on here ds was dx and then that was it i had to find out and help best i could

[Peachy]

Ok

go on the national autistic website and look up help!

they are for familliesd hwo have received a dx of asd (AS, ASd, HFA, pdd-nos) in the last year or so. They are GREAT

Go n- get your name down, so much in the way of basics and therapies is on there.

[cyberseraphim]

We don't get any SALT at the moment though there is supposed to be one starting work with DS1 at the nursery on 18th Oct - still it's only been 3 years since he was first referred to SALT . His level of understanding has never been assessed so I'm assuming it's not a factor in getting SALT. It would be nice if she (SALT) turned out to be wonderful and very committed but I'm not holding my breath and I think we will probably still be in Kansas at Christmas time. We are starting the Hanen program this month which I'm looking forward to but it has been a long time coming and most of the work is done by the parents - which I don't mind and we've got used to doing it ourselves anyway.

I would love to exchange tips on speech development but I don't think my insights so far would be applicable outside of SN as DS1's speech is not following a typical developmental path - unlike DS2 whose speech is racing ahead of DS1's at great speed. DS1 probably still knows more words but the fluency and ease with which DS2 tags sentences together at 22 months does make me wonder if DS1 will ever catch up to that level.

[sphil]

DS2's school (mainstream) has two speech therapists and a speech and language teacher but DS2 can't access them because he is funded for ASD and not for ' profound language difficulties'. Never mind that that's what he's got (and it's his primary disability imo). Because he's funded for ASD he gets a 1:1 - if he was funded for language difficulties he wouldn't get 1:1 but would access the SALTs.

I'd obviously prefer him to have the 1:1 - he couldn't manage with out it - but it seems MAD that there are these people on site who aren't allowed to help him while everyone else is scrabbling around trying to think how to improve his expressive language at school.

[Peachy]

Sounds about normal though Sphil (did you see my post on the other thread? we'll be in glasto in november carnival day if you're about, oldest 3 performing).

I worry that if there was a thread in behaviour- well it would be a great idea but if all us SN mums then popped on it would worry mums that their kids who are bang on NT are actually not iyswim. maybe separate ones in sn and behaviour would be better if faffier?

[sphil]

Peachy - hijack - when is Glasto carnival this year? Want to go, but DH in Paris from 11-14 November and don't think I'd want to take both Dses on my own.

[bubblagirl]

thanks peachy

[Peachy]

It's the 17th i think

We're in it so if you don't want tot ake them you could still always bring them alone and we'll show them the float (i shall fetch yopu a link to our site)

IIRC they sometimes have seating for disabled famillies; will see if I can get ou a link to the committee site who would run that too

[Peachy]

committee

our site

[cyberseraphim]

I would be honoured to be cited in your (pre) eminent blog !

[cyberseraphim]

Mumsnet say they own copyright in our postings but without express consent, that probably isn't enforceable (IMO)
so I've assigned it to you instead!

[lingle]

Yes, I expect mumsnet didn't realise they'd be so full of legal eagles!

[moondog]

May I (as a salt and mother of child with comm. impairmnet) remind you to complain, complain and complain.

Also make your local Special Needs Advisory Project (every Education Authority has one) your first port of call. They will gen. you up on rights and help you through the maze.

Cyber, the crisp thing is great!

[BriocheDoree]

Bubbla, I pay 50 euros for a half hour session but then I'm in France...

[cyberseraphim]

I thought it was great too but he has always been good at object substitution - saying or acting out that one object is similar to another - I 'm sure the 'experts' would say it's not 'real' imagination but then unlike us they really do know how many angels there are dancing on a pinhead I suppose...