Can you chase up and nudge along a SALT refferal ??

[nutcracker]

Ds was reffered for a SALT assessment just before xmas. He was also reffered for a hearing test which he failed. They are going to re test him in april and i really wanted him to have had his speech assesed by then but haven't heard a thing from salt.

Can i chase it up and explain or would i be wasting my time ???

[coppertop]

It can't hurt to chase it up. Ask if you can have a cancellation if one comes up.

[nutcracker]

Ooooo good idea hadn't thought of asking for a cancellation.

[Saker]

The technique I sometimes use is to phone up and ask when the appointment is on the pretext that it's helpful for me to get it in the diary. Round here they have a habit of only sending out appts two or three weeks in advance so sometimes I find it has been booked it's just no-one's told me. But if it hasn't then I can quiz the person about waiting times and make sure we've not been forgotten.

[Jimjams]

chase it up- although we waited 11 months for one for ds2, so definitely worth asking for a cancellation.

where is the hearing test being done? If it's in the cdc then they should be talking to each other (some chance)

[nutcracker]

The SALT assesment is done at the health centre (well dd's was), but the hearing test is done at the hearing centre.

I am near enough to both to be able to go to an appointment at short notice so i will ask to be considered for any cancellations.

I wasn't to bothered by him failing the hearing test at first but now he has started handing me the tv remote to turn it up, and if i turn it down he goes nuts. Am hoping a Salt assesment may give may an idea of if there is something wrong or not.
I think his speech is not as it should be for his age but then i seem to be overly paranoid about all of the kids at the mo.

Anyway, sorry for the waffle

[mogwai]

As an SLT myself, I'd say there's not much you can do to hurry up your child's assessment. In my experience, waiting times for initial assessment vary greatly, so it's worth at least checking how long their waiting times are. If you are lucky they might say it's a few weeks, if not you could expect to wait months or even nearer two years. At least you will know and won't be waiting by the letter box, as it were.

The problem with trying to hurry things up is that you are effectively trying to jump the queue. I'm sure that would never be your intention, but from the professional's viewpoint, that's how it sometimes looks, so it pays to handle the issue carefully, I understand how concerned you must be.

As a matter of interest, what is the cause of your son's hearing loss? Does he have a conductive loss or is it sensori-neural? Is it mild, moderate, severe? Most SLTs will not work on your child's speech sounds until his hearing problems are resolved (there would be no point - he may not be able to hear the difference between the sound he is making and the sound you want him to make). It is also worth bearing in mind that an SLT may not work on speech sounds until the age of 4 years, and even then, a child may not have the right attention skills to cope with therapy, so the SLT may try again when he is older. This applies to children without hearing loss too.

Hope that's a help.

[mogwai]

I forgot to add that I don't think your child will be assessed in a CDC (Child Development Centre) unless he is under a paediatrician and/or has significant other difficulties needing multi-professional services. It is true to say that some audiology departments operate from the same premises. The set-up varies enormously from area to area. It is more likely that your son has been referred to see an SLT in a community clinic. You may find that different clinics in your area have different waiting times (some clinics are naturally more busy than others, some have very high rates of failure to attend, which unfortunately doesn't help waiting times). Your local SLT department may allow you to put your son on the waiting list at one or more of their clinics if you are willing to travel. This way you can also ask for cancellations in more than one place, raising your chances of being seen sooner. If you phone the clinic and speak directly to the SLT she should be able to advise you.

You may have an SLT who works exclusively with children diagnosed with a hearing loss (usually sensori-neural hearing loss, ie permanent), in which case your wait may be shorter.

[nutcracker]

Mogwai - First of all, i wasn't trying to queue jump at all was just trying to see if he was going to be seen before his next hearing test.
I don't know the cause of his hearing loss at the mo, it was the first test he had had done since the one he passed at 9mths. They just said that a normal person talks at a level of 60 decibels but for speech to develop properly we he needs to be able to hear at 30 decibels and at that level he failed.

I am hoping it is purley that he was uniterested in the test (the doc was most surprised that he didn't seem to understand the test).

As it happens, as i was looking for the number for the SALt this morning, they rang and gave me his appointment for the 24th march. So we will soon see.
I didn't realise that they may not give treatment (if he needs it) until age 4, althoug i can see what you mean about them maybe not having enough attention for the therapy, that could be the case with Ds.

[Blossomhill]

Nutcracker - but they will probably give you some things to do at home taht can really help. So it can still be useful. Is it the speech or actual understanding you are concerned with?

[Jimjams]

nutcracker- in other coutries they start work on sounds from age 2. When I was desperate for help with ds1 I contacted nancy kaufman in the States {http://www.kidspeech.com/\link here} - she is an expert on verbal dyspraxia and works with children from 2. I later attended a conference that she gave in the UK and she generally started working with children aged 2 or 3 - lots of video showing how well they could do as well. I purchased her kit for working on speech sounds - although it hasn't been that useful for ds1 as he didn't have the ability to attempt to copy- she said there really isn't much you can do until they will. However I used it with ds2 when he had some speech sound problems very successfuly when he was aged 2 and he loved it.

The Nuffield centre in London will also work with children from 2 (they work with verball dyspraxia, hearing loss etc)

The NHS SALT who assessed ds2 fairly recently gave us some work to do at home on ff and ss - he was just short of 3 at the time. She said to leave k and g at the moment, he's pretty good with ss and ff now. Don't expect to get any hands on lomg term help from the NHS. They don't have the resources to give it. Some areas give block sessions (eg 6 weeks) to children who have easily fixable problems. If your child has something complex though they probably won't be able to meet their needs.

Just a warning as I think it pays to look at alternatives from the NHS if your child needs a lot of SALT. This doesn;t have to be expensive- once you have some sort of idea as to their needs there are a lot of free resources out there via the internet, and lots of help from other parents. The problem comes if you end up pitching the SALT at the wrong level (as I did for about 18 months until a private SALT actually assessed ds1 and gave us something more appropriate)

Luckily you have an appointment soon- try to get some concrete answers and some proper assessment. And some ideas of things you can do. Ask for a idea of a follow up as well as I found we'd be given stuff to do, it wouldn't work and then we wouldn't see anyone for 6 months.

[Jimjams]

try that again

[coppertop]

We were given ideas too about ideas, exercises, games etc to try with ds1 and ds2 while we were waiting for actual speech therapy to start. Not all of it turned out to be useful for ds1 (he hadn't been dx'ed then) but a lot of it was very helpful.

[Socci]

Message withdrawn

[nutcracker]

Thanks everyone

It is mainly his speech that I am concerned about although i do sometimes have concerns about his understanding.

It's hard to explain but I would say that the majoirty of words he says can only be understood by me, and sometimes his sisters (i.e those who are used to them). When saying some words, he seems to make completely the wrong word sound or he seems to miss the beginning and end of the word sound off. Trying to think of an example. I mean he can sing the bob the builder theme song, and you would know it was that from the tune but almost all of the words are non recognisable as words, ther same with twinkle twinkle little star.

For the past 2 days he has been telling me something and i hadn't the faintest idea what he was on about, turns out he was saying high 5 (he wanted the dvd on), now it sounded nothing at all like high 5, not even close.

He can say quite a few single words, like mom, dad, car, lorry, asda, walk, etc etc, but again most of them are only understood by me.
He spoke to my dad on the phone the other week and my dad didn't understand a single word he said, i however understood the lot because i know what he means.

I don't know , maybe i am getting worked up about nothing but i'm sure that at 2.3 he should be speaking more clearly than he is.

As far as his hearing goes, I am just not sure. I was surprised that he failed the test, but i was in the room and he really didn't have a clue when the noise sounded some of the time. Also the fact that he keeps making me turn the tv up isn't good.

Thanks for that link Jimjams, am gonna have a look now.

[Jimjams]

are the errors consistent nutty (for example ds1 has - what the SALTS describe as his own idiosyncratic language- mmdan is toilet, bum is Josh, mmm is George, aya een is washing machine, mmba is hoover, nanig mummy, mmm school etc etc- people who know himm (very) well understand him but others wouldn't have a clue). Or are the errors different each time?

PS nancy kaufman is worth emailing- very helpful. She'll analyse videos of your child as well.

[nutcracker]

I would say the errors are the same every time.

He will say cahee for cassie, vahumme for vacuum, bebi for hi 5, hom hom for Tom Tom, and hushcare for pushchair and basically alot like that.

Those are the recognisable ones, by me, some others he says alot that even i don't undertsand.

Oh he says uffy for scruffy and bar for bath, cactor for tractor.

[misdee]

how old is he agaion nutty?

[Socci]

Message withdrawn

[nutcracker]

He is 2.3.

Those are his good words though Socci, there are lots more that i can't remember now that sound nothing like wht the word is.

[misdee]

i have to translate for dd2 when she talks to others. she is abit older than your ds, but her speech isnt very clear, but the last 3/4months she has really picked up. i hope your ds gets the help he needs.

[nutcracker]

Ta misdee, i am gonna try and forget about it until the appointment, as i think i'll drive me self nuts.

[misdee]

you will.

dd2 had her devolopment check today, and passed. even tho she wouldnt talk to the HV, and refused to build towers or draw etc. she did do the puzzle very quickly tho

[nutcracker]

Lol, my dd2 did that too and the hv had to come and check her speech again later when she thought we wern't listening to her. She actually reffered her cos she couldn't say ball properly, i think the salt was a bit miffed.

[Jimjams]

The errors sound as if they're on the right track nutty (not off the wall like ds1's) which is good- it may just be that he has a few sounds missing which is entirely normal at his age (ds2 had loads missing at that age- he didn't really become comprehensible until over 2 and a half when the proper sounds kicked in overnight!)

[ChocolateGirl]

nutcracker, this is meant to encourage you, not discourage you (!): my ds1 was very much like yours at 2.3. He only had single words, less than 50 of them, and none of them were very clear, e.g. bren (for train). He is now 4.7 and he has much more speech and language but is still not terribly intelligible. It is coming though... with lots of work with a good SALT.

You have done the right thing by asking early (ie when your ds is 2) to be seen by a SALT and at least you have a date for assessment now. Best of luck...