OK so ds has been given a different dx - NOT verbal dyspraxia......

[farming4]

Hi for the last 12 months we have been under the impression from the SALT that ds (4.3) has verbal dyspraxia, have been putting things in place for starting school in Sept and gathering all the info for referral to Nuffield.

Just seen SALT today and quite literally she tore up her session plan in front of us cos ds has improved so much in the last 6 wks that the dx of vd no longer applies, instead she has said he is more likely to have something called a phonological disorder (sp?)

Well I have been googling and am completely confused - has anyone any experience of this and whats the best way forward - its great cos hes now saying a load of different words and is even trying to put 2 and 3 words together and I thought I'd never say it but hes driving me up the walls with his "why?" So pleased with him - just wondering what the future is now that the dx has changed?

[beautifulgirls]

The Nuffield is not just there for dyspraxia so don't feel put off going if there are concerns you feel need to be addressed. We went on the basis of suspected verbal dyspraxia but also in our case to address the question with DD of the impact of her speech issues on other issues that she has. It concluded as we expected that she has other issues but for us it means other people now can't blame everything on speech anymore and it has opened other doors for diagnosis now. You can go on a basis of unclear underlying reasons for speech problems and wanting further assessment to help determine the best way forwards. Even if you have good faith in the therapist you have seen it sounds like there is still some ? over the diagnosis here. Your GP should be able to refer you if you are not comfortable asking the therapist to send you.

[working9while5]

It's a related diagnosis - it often presents in a similar way to dyspraxia in terms of the types of speech sound errors a child is making, but the key difference in treatment is that more listening work is required in order to get a good result from therapy. Dyspraxia therapy often involves very little listening work, and heavy drilling of speech sounds in different patterns.

The best site you can possibly go on for further information is Caroline Bowen's. It's huge but very authoritative and absolutely the best info available on the net with reference to speech sound disorders.

Here's her page on developmental phonological disorders:
speech-language-therapy.com/parentinfo.html

[bubble2bubble]

DD has this diagnosis along with verbal & oral dyspraxia.

FWIW a child in her class had the diagnosis of a severe phonological disorder and went into school ( according to his mother ) with no intelligible speech at all. After two years in the language unit his speech difficulty was barely detectable - he made phenomenal progress, with the right therapy

[dolfrog]

farming4

I have a link to Caroline's web site on My Favorite APD Links web page (Look for the Koala) and her ACQ and WEBWORDS provides a useful index for some of her very useful information pages.