Speech delay

[Millersgirl21]

Hi i am after some help/advice/reasurance
Sorry this is a rather long post
My dd is coming upto 3 in November. She was developing normally with her speech early last year then she wasn't saying anything new. We later discovered she had glue ear and finally had grommet inserted in December. She has finally been given the all clear and had two sessions of nhs speech therapy until they told me I should prepare for the worst and my dd could be autistic,have a global development delay or a genetic condition. My dd has great understanding, her pyschial development is perfect, she understands feelings and will play well. She currently only says 9 words. I'm really struggling to know what to do to help her. She goes to nursery two mornings a week and they aren't concerned with her. I have researched everything from autism to fragile x and apart from speech she dosent fit any catorgry. I feel like the nhs just want to stick her a label on and put her in the clinical bin.Any advice is welcome. Sorry for the long post

@Millersgirl21 my DD is having private speech therapy and I think its very good - I'm copying each session myself daily and shes made progress already in 2 weeks. Shes nearly 2 and I was worried about ASD myself as she seemed to use a word for a while then drop it, but the HV and SLTs have both said definitely not. Babies change so quickly, I would push ahead with whatever support you can get her but try not to worry yourself sick over it, she will get there

@hireandsqueak that's great thank you. She will either point to what she wants, takes our hand or bring us like her juice cup and say more when it's empty.
I'm sure she has just adapted and thought hey people do as i ask and play ect with me why should I talk.
@shinygreenelephant
That's brilliant im really happy you are seeing progress already that fills me with confidence.

My husband's uncle didn't talk until he was 4. My niece had limited speech and needed grommits also adenoidectomy which my dd is needing due to sleep apnea and she is always getting colds even in summer.

Very useful comments by @The3Ls and @hiredandsqueak - I think your dd definitely should have another hearing test because grommets only stay in 9 months on average and can drop out much much quicker if you are unlucky

Please do buy more than words op - it is an amazing book and really really helped both my dds - x 2 hour ear here, one potentially high functioning asd and one typically developing

We’ve got a private SALT and it’s been v helpful. The nursery have also referred him to the LEA. It’s good to get the ball rolling as soon as you can.

It is really good to get an echp in place for start of primary, even though I know it seems miles off.

Our dd was going to have one then she improved so much we let them persuade us not to apply. In hindsight I feel like that was a huge mistake! She caught up speech wise anyway but would have benefited from support

You see children talk because it's quicker than any other method to get their wants and needs met. Think about it, she wants a particular item that has fallen down the side of the bed a yell of Mum, help and then stuck when you appear is really quick. Your dd would need to find you, fetch you and then try and work out how to get you to know what she wants with gestures, pulling you over etc. Children don't tend to not speak because they don't see the need because the need is there because it's always quicker and easier. Dgs is fifteen months and he tells me "fix it, read it, get it, spin it, again" because as young as he is he knows that his words are the key to getting me to do his bidding.

I'm a student SLT and we would be fucking slaughtered if we spoke to a parent like that! (Indeed a similar scenario was presented to us at interview to check that we bloody well wouldn't!)

From a parent of a child who had really minimal intelligible speech (she had a lot to say and it was clearly really really interesting and important to her - just no one else could understand it!) until after 4 years old (in our case it IS verbal dyspraxia that someone mentioned earlier) - well worth getting another hearing check done as a starting point because round here they'll use any excuse to bump you back off the waiting list and "have you had a hearing check recently" is the first thing they ask! Now, while her speech still sounds "different" and I do lightly nag her for certain sounds she has a habit of slipping back out of using - she can chatter away like nothing else, wind up and grass up her sister no end and loves singing very loudly (unfortunately she's absolutely tone deaf and tries to compensate with volume and enthusiasm worthy of the X Factor!)

DS2 was late to talk coherently. Our SALT was great, he paid for weekly lessons.
He does/did have a mild auditory processing disorder and has mild Anxiety around certain things. No issues at school now - he’s in year 8 - except he is dreadful at languages and come across as being quite shy.
At three he only had 3 words...

@underneaththeash dd has autism and learned to speak like you learn to speak a foreign language so gathered loads of vocab and then learned the rules how to use it. She now finds languages so easy is fluent in French and has taught herself to speak Japanese.

@ hiredandsqueak that’s great! Unfortunately DS2s auditory processing disorder makes it difficult for him.

I would consider private hearing test to ensure it really is ok now. I found there is a huge difference between private and nhs ones.

Couldn’t agree more @vacc

There's even bigger disparity between NHS SALT and private SALT as well IME. I don't regret a penny we paid for SALT input.

Recommend here OP if you are local.

Hi @Millersgirl21 how is your child now? Is she talking? Your reply will really help ease a worried mums mind .. tia