I am a speech and language therapist. AMA

[KeepSmiling89]

I like to have a browse on here during my lunch break at work and whenever I get a spare minute so please feel free to ask me any questions. Will get back to you when I can!

Funnily enough my training today included info on inconsistent phonological disorder. It's when children don't say words/sounds the same way each time. For example, they might say umbrella as unbewa, umewewa and umbela. To support this we use an approach called core vocabulary where we try to achieve the child's best possible realisation of words on a consistent basis instead of getting every single sound correct. So, we would aim for the child to say umbewa 3x exactly the same way as that's the clearest they can say it consistently instead of only achieving the perfect production only once or twice. There's a bit more to it but that's the gist of it.
There is a link between speech sound difficulties and dyslexia so it is definitely a possibility. I'd speak to his school about this for info though. SLT support with speech and education support more with literacy.

KELF!! The "C" is for Clinical (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals) so it's a /k/ in my books
LOVE this question! 🤣

Selective mutism is considered an anxiety disorder so not something PECS or makaton would necessarily "fix" but makaton is always good for children any age so definitely wouldn't go amiss.
https://www.rcslt.org/speech-and-language-therapy/clinical-information/selective-mutism/#section-5
There's some advice for parents on this page if you scroll down a bit. Is he open to SLT/CAMHS/educational psychology?

@KeepSmiling89 gentle bump on my question if you have time but no worries if not!

Hope your packing goes ok!

No worries at all! I'm getting caught up on here anyway!
L and R going to W is called gliding and totally age appropriate at 4 y/o so no need to worry there.
As for the er going to or, I might be inclined to seek a bit if support as it's a vowel distortion which can be a bit trickier to work on. Can she correct it if you model it for her? Is it impacting her intelligibility (ability to be undersood) overall or can people generally understand her?

My dd is 4 years old. Each time I went for a scan when I was pregnant with her they told me she was sucking her thumb.
She sucks her thumb all the time. She now struggles with "m" and "f" sounds. I spoke to the health nurse who said she had referred other children but were always refused speech therapy because of the thumb sucking. Ive also spoke to her dentist but wasn't much help either.I've tried lots of things to discourage the thumb sucking but she always finds ways around it. Any advice? How can I help her with her speech?

Thanks @KeepSmiling89 !

She can kind of say it by itself if I model it but not as part of a word. She gets upset about it quite fast.

School have mentioned that she needs to work on speaking so people can understand her (her language is otherwise great so she babbles away in complex grammatical sentences).

Though I think some words are ok actually (I don't think 'her' becomes 'hor').

Can't believe her referrals were refused for thumb sucking!
I'd persist and emphasise the sounds she's needing support with. Can you do a self referral?
In the meantime, do a bit of sound play with her. Encourage her to take her thumb out her mouth for this. For "m", encourage her to put her lips together and rub her tummy like she's had a yummy dinner. For "f", encourage her to pretend to be a bunny and call it the "bunny sound" as her top teeth are over her bottom lip. Then get her to blow air out in this mouth position. Use a mirror to help with her visualise this. Even if she doesn't let the air come out, getting the mouth placement is a good starting point.
Thumb sucking can be tricky as, where a dummy can be taken away, she's always got access to her hands. Just gently encourage her to take her hand away from her mouth and try the sound play activities as mentioned above.

Hope that helps!

Thanks so much for this AMA. It's great.

My son loves to explain very complicated topics to people, but tends to miss out the basics and go straight to the deep detail. It's hard to convince him that people don't understand what he's saying, and he is often totally at a loss to know why they wander off while he is still talking.

I wondered if SLT people work to help children like this, or if it some other speciality that I need to look for?

Possibly I just need to sign him up for a teaching qualfication. LOL.

My DS12 had slightly delayed speech then spoke beautifully until yr7 when started saying fings (things) enuff (enough) bofe (both) togever (together) - you get the idea. I'm pretty sure it's a pre teen thing (ie he's putting it on) but unfortunately DH also finds it very difficult to pronounce th's - possibly connected with hearing problems as a child- so I'm worried DS has this for life and it drives me insane! Do you have any suggestions of how I can get my DS to pronounce his words properly - and do you think it's too late for DH to be helped???

This sounds like a dialectical variation so not sonething that would necessarily require input, particularly if that's how his dad speaks. Olly Murs does this as well - I noticed it on one of his live Xmas singles and he said "fank you". I've got very successful friends who said (and maybe still do) say "Fursday" for Thursday.

Sorry if that's a frustrating response!

Thank you! Yes we have been doing the core vocabulary approach for the last 6 months or so. It was really working and he’d come on so well, then in the last week or 2 he’s just gone back to square one again. We have no idea why this has happened. Is core vocabulary the only approach for this?
Thank you, I think I will speak with the school re dyslexia as currently he’s really struggling with reading and writing, and now the regression with his speech too

Do you find it frustrating working for the NHS, in terms of what you are able to provide being very limited? Ds was discharged at 5 still non verbal as they couldn't offer him anything further. To me that's insane but I imagine it's hard to an extent for the therapists also.

Happy to help!
Sometimes we do. It's a part of social communication and teaching him conversational skills. Encourage him to introduce the topic first by saying something like "I learned about topic today. Did you know..."
I've not done a lot on this and it's a very subtle thing to work on but encouraging him to give a heads up about what he's going to discuss might be a good starting point.

VERY frustrating.
We're having to "ration" our therapy just now as well but we're offering a block of therapy then return children to the waiting list if they need more input so they will get more but it's so we can see other children as well. Children I saw this time last year for a block will be coming back to me again soon though.
We also have an advice line and "chat it through" option where parents can call for a bit of interim support until their child comes to the top of the waiting list.
Bloody funding cuts!

@KeepSmiling89 Just realised my reply didn't post. Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. Really interesting thread!

The plan for next year is for him to use a core board I think they said a 8 core board I've no idea what this is and will be speaking with SLT at my son's review next week.

Sounds like a core board with 8 core words. That is 8 specific words that he can use functionally and effectively across lots of different situations to get his message across. Here's a video on using core boards...

Thank you for your advice. I'll give it a go.

Not at all! It must be quite stressful.
Thanks!

My nearly 5 year old still has a lisp. When should we look into getting some help with this? Willing to go private if necessary? The health visitor wasn’t much help and directed me to a website with some timelines and nothing else!

My 15 year old is keen to look into this career - she definitely wants to work with children/education but not particularly as a teacher. Any advice for what sort of post-16 qualifications she should consider? Also any other similar career paths in child related therapy?

Not a MAJOR concern as this usually resolves at your child's age. They might gradually grow out of it in their own time but, if you want a bit of support for it, I'd make a self referral to SLT if you can. Doesn't necessarily have to be private but you can do if you want to.
Try a bit of visualisation in front of a mirror in the meantime. Pretend your child's tongue is a snake or lion and it has to stay behind the cage door (their teeth) when doing the 's' sound. Make sure their teeth are together as well. If they have missing teeth, that might impact a bit so something to bear on mind.
Hope that helps!

To be a speech and language therapist, she'll need an undergraduate degree in SLT. To get onto these courses the subjects they look for are English, languages, psychology and sciences. Some experience of the role of SLTs is good as well.
I did philosophy as my undergraduate degree then did the postgraduate SLT course option. Took a year out after my undergraduate and got some experience shadowing an SLT and volunteering in a school part time. Also did a course in British sign language - not essential but sonething I wanted to do and thought would help. Good things for her personal statement.

thank you. Hes had his SLT assesment, just waiting for some space for a block booking. Is there any other help he should be getting?