Initial SALT assessment - what to expect?

[FlossieFrog]

DD (nearly 4, HFA diagnosed abroad at start of year, now back in U.K.) has been referred to all the support services in our area by pre-school.

DD has a very good vocabulary, but is not great at putting sentences together. She's getting better though. She is very good at echoing, but sometimes when speaking freestyle or reading she slurs over words or blends them.

We have her initial SALT assessment this week and I was wondering what to expect. We're in East Sussex if that makes a difference. Thanks!

[2boysnamedR]

I can say from my experience that there was a lot of assessing and going back in six months when they always tried to discharge us. You can refuse discharge if that happens to you. It took years to get therapy.
Ask if they do group therapy sessions as that might be a good fast track if they don't want to offer 1:1 therapy any time soon.
Also they would say to me my son had severe problems but write moderate in his reports.
So sorry my experience has been negative so far with SLT over 7 years with three different kids ( my area possibly)
Oh and look up joint attention and station buckets, they seem to be very into that right now here and it's a simple idea and very helpful. Also ask if your area has online resources for speech. Ours has. Sometimes you can get good ideas there.

[2boysnamedR]

I mean attention bucket - soory

[FlossieFrog]

Thanks 2boys

[2boysnamedR]

I hope your experience is nothing like mine. But if so it was easy to refuse dismissal so maybe small comfort there? Also ask if your are discharged ( say no to that ) how you can get seen again. Ie do you need to start at referral level or can you jump back in higher in the process as you can do that in my county.

[FlossieFrog]

We had the initial assessment yesterday and are waiting to hear whether they want to do further assessment, and/or what the recommendation is. We are concerned that they may try to fob us off as they said DD is a good communicator, she's still young and they won't do anything about social skills gaps (not their area).

DD has a fantastic vocabulary, reads a bit and can communicate to get her needs met. So clearly she is not the most needy child in terms of speech and language intervention. However, she really struggles with expressing herself with more abstract things e.g. Explaining what is happening in a picture, or what she has done today, or answering questions. She doesn't necessarily understand things unless they're broken down a bit, so she will struggle at school unless this improves.

Really hoping we have the wrong idea and they will come up with a reasonable recommendation. I'd be quite happy if they said she needs x, y & z but funding restrictions mean we can only provide x.