Hi, I posted a couple of months ago about my worry about my little boy who is now nearly 3 and not speaking properly. He is under nhs speech therapy but appointments so far have been sporadic and the first therapist left so there was a gap and we have only seen the new one once so far. I am finding it frustrating that so far no-one has been able to give any clear answers or a prognosis, although I guess they are still undertaking an assessment and it may be difficult at this stage as he is so young. The one we saw most recently thought he seemed to have a speech disorder rather than a delay, as there are a number of sounds he does not seem to use much, mainly consonants. I got the impression this was more severe and was really upset as I had actually gone to the appointment thinking his speech was improving!
Currently he has very little clear speech but he does vocalise a lot and a lot more than he used to, and in context I know what he is trying to say so the number of words he uses is increasing. He also now puts some words together such as 'look mummy' (more like 'ook' though) and 'blue car' ('oo' 'ar') and police car ('eece' 'arr'). His longest phrase is 'more milk please' ('ore ilk ease') and he will now put the end 'k' on milk which he wasn't doing before. He understands absolutely everything people say, including when I have mentioned to people I am worried about him, when recently he has gone very huffy and clingy so think I should stop doing so in his presence. Otherwise he seems bright enough. i was a bit worried about ASD as there is a tendency to geekiness and eccentricity in my partner's family but I don't think he would meet criteria for this - he loves pretend play and is very focused on what he is doing for long periods, so his attention is good. He is very expressive facially and can also modulate his tone to convey different emotions. He is reasonably sociable and will play with other children though also plays well on his own.
I have googled various things and read about verbal dyspraxia as a possibility though in one source I read this is actually very rare. His motor skills are good so he does not have dyspraxia in this area. He also had a lot of ear infections as a baby - we have had his hearing tested twice, once at about 10 months and at just over 2 and they said it was ok but the test did not seem very rigorous to me - they play sounds and when the child turns a scary tigger thing does a dance. My mother in law recently commented that when he does speak he doesn't seem to modulate the volume very well and wondered if he might have a problem hearing consonants. He does still seem to get quite a lot of wax in his ears. I also read one post somewhere about a child who had eventually had a problem with palate muscles diagnosed which required surgery so am wondering whether to ask for a referral back to ENT.
I would be really grateful if anyone could offer some advice/expertise as I just don't know what the future will bring, whether he will be able to talk by reception and the impact on his social abilities - it is really worrying me a lot! Thanks for anyone who has taken time to read this.
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44 replies
grizzabellia · 11/01/2014 18:52
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