To find speech therapy useless?

[Tulipgold898]

My 2 year old is speech delayed. We are seeing a private speech therapist regularly and honestly don’t find it very useful. It’s all common sense stuff that I’m already doing having researched it quite a lot myself. Unfortunately all speech therapists have long waiting lists so can’t even change to another and see if it’s any different. Wondering if it’s just me or did people feel that there is really some value add with speech therapy?

Oh and some res flags that would make me look out for ASD would be if a young child:

• Doesn't try other means to get their message across, e.g. by taking you by hand to what they want, pointing and gesturing, using eye contact meaningfully (for instance to see if you're smiling and then reciprocating this)
• Only communicates to request things they want and not to share interest, e.g. directing your attention to a plane or horse or digger etc (only communicating for a "reward" and not to enjoy the interaction)
• Isn't frustrated by their lack of ability to get their message across - so seem not to be bothered at all
• Isn't interested in interacting with you much, e.g. is happy to spend lots of time with a favourite activity without any interaction (screens excepted, lots of children get completely absorbed in these)
• Has unusually strong aversions or attraction to sensory input so loves spinning items or lights or really really hates noise (covering their ears in the supermarket) etc
• Is restricted and/or repetitive in play (with crossover to sensory differences) e.g can spend hours just pouring water again and again, loves squeezing into tight spaces and sitting there, plays in an unusual way with toys e.g just spinning the wheels on a toy car or looking extremely closely at items rather than using them for play
• Is extremely extremely fussy, e.g. will only eat smooth baby food or crunchy bland things or has five things that they will eat and no more
• Is extremely good at some things but can't do the basics in others, e.g. can put together a 100 piece jigsaw but aren't able to feed themselves with a spoon, can recite the alphabet or numbers to 100 but doesn't use words meaningfully to get a message across
• Is extremely averse to new experiences or changes in routine, e.g. has a meltdown if you go to a different tesco than normal, or if you don't get an apple each time you go (beyond normal nagging)
• Not paying attention to what you say (at all, not just ignoring at times, it's as if they can't figure out that your words contain meaning that they should pay attention to.
• Classic signs like flapping hands, humming to self and rocking, not responding to name (barring hearing concerns)

Sorry, non-exhaustive list and I need to add that none on their own means a child is definitely autistic but I'd want to look into it a bit further!

I agree to an extent, DS has been having SLT for a year under 2 different therapists and he’s getting much more from it now he’s 4. However I did feel patronised by some of the initial advice because it’s stuff that I had been doing consistently, and I had the same with the physio and OTs. I try to remember that they don’t know me and have to cover the basics.

Our latest SLT is amazing and has got so much out of DS even on zoom sessions, we are lucky to have her.

So just found out that the company has just let the speech therapist go (I’ve not said anything so I imagine other parents must have). The private speech therapists in my area were totally booked up when I enquired before so not sure what to do now.

@EchidnaKidney thanks for detailed advice. I understand that it’s about training the parents but I just expected for specifics eg this week let’s do x activity every day and try to teach x word, not just generic advice like “avoid questions”. We did the video thing but I didn’t really find the feedback helpful.

As for ASD there aren’t any red flags apart from the speech delay. The reason I was interested in the previous poster was because they mentioned a receptive language issue. My son does understand some stuff (can point to all body parts, will do animal sounds when requested but in terms of following instructions I don’t know how much they are supposed to understand at this stage. He can follow some instructions in relation to words he’s familiar with eg get your “shoes”, where’s your “car”, where’s your “dad” but often he won’t do what I say and I don’t know if he’s just ignoring me and what’s to do his own thing or if he doesn’t understand

My middle DS had speech therapy weekly from age 4-7. Previous to that I’d done the usual things, repeating, pointing out etc (I do it with the puppy at the moment!)
It was mainly iPad based. She was amazing, he came on massively over that time and when he developed a stammer she managed to overcome that too.

Maybe 2 is too young?

Yeah I’m not sure whether he’s just too young for it to be valuable or whether we might find a different speech therapist more helpful. I’m on the waiting list with another one but she said it might be 3-4 months before she can see him.

I remember feeling you like at my children's age (they are both speech delayed). I found it more beneficial as they got a little older to be honest. When they were ready to do some more intensive speech therapy.

Also for me it was good to get a speech therapist to come and assess every so often as they often notice things parents would not from the last visit. To see where they are etc. Quite often for mine the speech therapy wasn't really bringing their speech on but as I say an assessment and guidance from the speech therapists.

Also the children's speech therapists was a starting point for referrals for other services. Even for Dd who needed a referral to physiotherapy the speech therapist helped greatly.

I am talking about nhs salt though.

Language/communication was the big issue I first noticed but one thing the therapist clued me into was that he couldn't point. Instead of pointing at what he wanted he would take my hand and bring me to what he wanted.

OP, if the SLT was let go it might well be that your intervention hasn't been as useful as it could have been. I'd probably wait for the next SLT, talk through your experiences with the recent one, discuss what they could offer and what you might want. And THEN decide if you want to go ahead.
(If you want super basic advice for now, I'd say to continue joining your child's interest, on their physical level, watch what they're doing and comment on what you see using single words (spoon! or Uh-oh! or Aw, hug! etc). Once you have commented, leave that "expectant pause" where you count to ten in your head and look excitedly for a response. If none is forthcoming, you comment with the next single word. So you'll be modelling lots of nice single word vocabulary in a situation that your child finds really fun - be careful just to follow their lead and not start dominating the play - and if nothing else your child's understanding of vocabulary will be growing and forming the basis for future chat!)
Please ignore that bit in brackets if you've had enough of advice
Hope your next experience with SLT is better!