If your 3yr old had a speech delay, when did they start talking?

[CuriousDuck]

Hi all,

I know, I know, before you say it "every kid is different!" But I'm just looking for hope I guess that it will happen..soon? At some point.

Bit of history: Been under SLT since 17months, pandemic meant we didn't actually get any help.
When assessed at 2.5yrs we were told she has a '12 month delay' which is moderate but not severe enough to warrant help with SLT community, and that we could self refer again in 6 months. We were given some targets and advised on some children's groups we could take her to.

My daughter understands everything, follows instructions, great eye contact etc. She is also being assessed for SCD/ASD but I'm not even sure if that's the case at the moment.

She goes to preschool 4 mornings a week, gets some help there, and I'm with her at home so I do my bit too.

We had a private SLT assessment a couple of months ago and they said she had a 10 month delay, keep doing what we are doing etc.

Planning on sending her to mainstream school but I am panicking about how she will be if she's still behind in her speech. I know a lot can change in 18 months though. Well I hope!

Stories please of your late talkers and how I shouldn't panic just yet?

Bump...

I'm dont think I can reassure you totally.

Dd had a severe delay at 3.5 but fine a year later
Ds10 was non verbal until 7
Ds14 didnt talk properly until he started school

Both boys have a language disorder so they will never catch up. You wouldnt know the 14 year old has a language disorder because he has had about 7 years plus of constant speech therapy.

I dont think you can guess too much while they are so young. A delay at 6 plus is more likely to be a disorder

My little boy barely spoke at 3, was diagnosed for autism at 4 (started the process early) now he's 7 and speaks beautifully. Very good vocabulary and you wouldn't know his Speach used fo be delayed.

My son has mixed expressive and receptive language disorder. He literally stopped speaking when he was 2 and could only babble, make noises and say just the odd word by 3. NHS speech therapy was awful, as were the paediatricians we were referred to. All anybody professional could talk about was that he was probably autistic despite their being no other red flags at all. He never actually had any speech therapy.

He started a mainstream school at 4.5 years and the progress was immense. We went to a private speech therapist who gave him a diagnosis and 6 months intervention. DS will always be behind with his language skills but can speak just fine.

A good school with supportive staff will work wonders. Lots of word games and reading stories. Flashcards are great too.

If you afford a private speech therapist I would advise it. Even if just for an assessment xx

What is her speech and language like now? There's quite a lot of variation between children still at this age

My advice from having child w speech difficulties.

1. Your local education authority is not necessarily on your “team”. Many are only focused on spending so will delay your child forever if they can. They will do everything possibly to not have to pay for anything regardless of need. Will tell your child is “in the range” and you there are no SLT etc. They look at your child and see £££.
2. Assume if there is speech delay, it’s likely other Needs too.
3. Request EHCP assessment now. It’s not too early. I am serious about this. Your child’s most serious brain development and learning happens now, and for next 5-8 years. Don’t waste a moment.

You are your child’s voice. Be firm, persistent. Don’t let them tell you there is no problem. There is a problem. Your child will speak, but you need expert input and for child’s school to also be working with experts. Listen to your heart, you know your child needs expert support which is why u are asking bunch of strangers. Ask GP for referral to Developmental Paed.

Have you had a hearing test?

My little girl was barely speaking at three. Waited more than a year for a SLT assessment but they said she had good understanding and was a reluctant talker, and gave us targets and exercises to do at home.
She's at preschool full time now and is really coming on. Her speech has grown rapidly over the last six months and she can say full sentences and has started to speak about what she's thinking and observing, which this time last year she absolutely couldn't do.
She's almost through the ASD assessment (preschool referred her because it's quite obvious now she's developing differently to her peers)
Best you can do is advocate for your child best you can. I have two ASD children and I've had to fight for every bit of support

DS had no speech at 3 or when he started school at 4 (went to speech & language unit attached to mainstream primary). But school was fine, the unit was able to teach and involve him without spoken language. With intensive SLT he spoke his first word at 5. Very slow progress to start with, a few words a month for first 18 months then accelerated and now at 8 he is fluent and largely comprehensible.

We too were screened for SCD and ASD. He too had great receptive language - age appropriate- but no expressive language. SLTs would not believe me he had great receptive language till he started school and did intensive SLT with one therapist.

Turned out his main issue was severe verbal dyspraxia. His brain could think the words but the part that was meant to translate this into motor movements for his mouth didn’t work. Specifically a problem with speech - chewing/eating etc fine. Had to be taught painstakingly how consciously to make each and every sound in the English language and then how to combine it with every other sound. But once those building blocks in place his speech exploded. Worth considering verbal dyspraxia if she has good understanding. For us there were some ASD type issues mixed in (he was incapable of copying a person’s expressions or actions till age 4) and we were not able to work on speech until he could copy.

Are you doing any alternative communication methods to support her till she can speak? Eg makaton, PECS. The school SLT was great at this and said it is an SLT’s role to support the ability to communicate not just speak. If PECS is too simple you can get laminated plastic sheets or whole booklets with pictures in that the child can point to (eg for bathtime it could show hot, cold, more, toys, wash, like, don’t like, want, help, stop, finished).

Dd had severe speech delay. Private speech therapy and starting school (she was in full time nursery before) made all the difference. By the end of reception people could understand her.

DS was about 5 his delay was noticeable throughout primary school but by secondary school he was pretty much within “normal” range. He was diagnosed with ASD at 4. Had weekly SALT from age 3 to 7.

My two youngest could say a handful of words at three and a half. They both had private speech therapy, nine months later they could talk. The youngest used PECS for a while.

About 3.5/4 and once he started he didn't stop. Diagnosed with ASD at about 8 and then ADHD 14.

Thanks everyone for the replies. It does seem to be the case that they all talk eventually, which is reassuring.

I should have said in my OP that I reckon she has about 150 words at the moment- the most recent is "no preschool!" She picks up new words often. My son was speaking in sentences by now and so the difference is quite worrying.

She is already under a Developmental Paediatrician, which is why SCD has been suggested but they need more 'proof' from SLT, OT, the setting etc

There is so much that's happened in her little lifetime I forget who we've seen! She does also have glue ear in both ears but we are due for a revisit tomorrow to check if it is still present. I'm kinda hoping that is it and that might be the reason for her delay, although I'm aware it can come and go.

I'm not sure if she would get support from an ECHP with just the speech delay diagnosis? And we are waiting to be called to a multidisciplinary hearing as there wasn't enough evidence to support ASD/SCD - but that was because they didn't have it! (Long story)

She has started to babble a lot more, and come up to me saying things. I think she is convinced she's saying it right but it doesn't make sense to us sometimes :( We do have PECS but she stopped using them since she learnt a few more words "food" "water" things like that.

My DS only had a few words when he started school and used PECs to communicate. We started speech therapy when he was two and carried on until the pandemic hit. He's now 11 years old. He started talking in sentences when we was five and while he can talk very well now, his sentences can still get a bit "muddled up".

I started the assessment for ASD when he was two and he was diagnosed with ASD when he was three. This meant I could get all the support in place for him in preschool as well as before he started primary school. He had a full time 1:1 TA, an iPad and a detailed EHCP. He's made a huge amount of progress since and is pretty independent now (hasn't had a 1:1 TA since Y4).

I would definitely recommend getting a private speech therapist if you can. The NHS speech therapist only saw my DS every few months and carried out assessments rather than therapy really. I can't remember the name of the organisation (council run, so it was free), but someone would come out to us once a fortnight and do activities very similar to speech therapy with my DS. They always brought lots of different toys to engage DS with and would let us keep them for the fortnight.

My DS2 had speech delay till about 3.5 years - although he did speak his own language. I remember giving his pre-school teachers a list of his words and what they meant. He went through a few stages of stuttering when he had a sudden influx of vocabulary (according to the S&LT) which ended when he was 6. He is now 14 and totally fine.

Sorry…I meant stammering

Dd got first words at 3 and wasn't fully verbal until 4, asd. Mainstream educated at university now.

Ps by 6,7 her vocabulary far exceeded her peers, she has an excellent vocabulary as an adult. A walking thesaurus

I've not got personal experience with a speech delay but SIL who I'd now 29 didn't star talking until 3.5. She had total comprehension and would point to ask for things. One day she just started talking in full sentences. She is now a scientist and probably the mosh intelligent person I know.

Is she just turned 3?
Sounds like she's making good progress learning new words regularly and combining two words together?

Is she making appropriate eye contact, nonverbal gestures and does she pretend play/ link ideas in play?

My boy didn't speak on his HV review at 2.5. She said let's just wait as I wasn't overly concerned, but after that I realised he had actually created his own language, which I understood as I was with him everyday, but no one else did, SO realisation kicked in. So I contacted them and they put his forward for an ICAN nursery. You only got one term and had to be 3, so timed out really well. It was a 1-1 nursery within a normal (probably not the right word, but hay) nursery setting. But the kids with speech problems had a separate room where they would go. They had a one to one, who would talk, say Rogers is playing with the cars, Roger is playing in the sand, is Roger playing with the sand, kind of things. They also taught them makaton along with the parents. Pictorials on the wall, so kids could see what was happening that day and removed when completed. They then played games and thing. By the end of the first day, he was saying some words, by the end of the term, he did not shut up, it was like a valve had been turned. He then went to a nursery full time and had 1-1 speech and language and still has lessons to date ad some things he can't get his mouth around it, but now classed as a disorder rather than a delay, he is 9 now. He was at 7 diagnosed with ADHD.

My twins were both speech delayed at about the same; they were assessed and went to a mainstream school with a full time SLT class that they were in for all of infants.

They went to mainstream for juniors (different school entirely) and have always been at the lower end of ‘normal’ for achievements - but they are both also dyslexic so that doesn’t help! Now I’m secondary, they’re again at the bottom of the expected range as they’re slow and had atrocious spelling. They’re fine with maths and actual understanding.

When they were due to move to secondary, we spoke to the SENCO who told us that if we think of it like they’d jumped from nursery to Y3 in terms of workload, then they were actually doing really well. She said they’d need the extra support because of the dyslexia but that the speech part was resolved with no issues.

So, that long spiel basically is saying if it’s just speech then the issue should resolve 100%, but if she has other learning difficulties then that might cause further delays. Mine have no other SEN or anything else.

@CuriousDuck hello, I’m in the same boat with my 2.5 yr old. How did your DC come along in the last year if you don’t mind me asking?