Preschool have told me they think ds 2.10 has delayed speech can anyone please advise me of any good books so I can research and help him

[greyriver]

Ds has always been a little delayed with his talking and often doesn't pronounce words with their first letter, but over the past month he has started saying loads more, people have also constantly told me boys are often a little later developing their speech so this has come as quite a shock...

Please can anyone advise me of books or literature so I can start helping him at home. Preschool want to fill in some forms to get the ball rolling should he need speech therapy. Have been googling but would really appreciate any tried and tested methods or books so i know I am giving him the best possible help at home.

Tia x

is he out of nappies in daytime?

Gosh, i am no expert but sounds very early to thinking of speech therapy. I have a son who is 2.4 and he talks aload of mumbled up nonsense at times! guess he knows what he means.

nowadays speach therapy covers a lot - Ithink applied early can reduce stress that child experiences

greyriver haven't read other comments just yours - very short of time.

My son didn't really speak at all till he was 3yrs. Now he's 5 and is fine - good vocab, teachers have told me he is very bright, you'd never know.

Any siblings? Only asked because having DC2 really helped my DS. For my DS it was as if he wasn't confident enough because when he initially tried to talk it was so mumbled (obviously). He was very sensitive and think he was embarased when we couldn't understand him so eventually he just gave up, even though we tried to encourage him & were patient. Also he wasn't that arsed, he got by & communicated really well without words - he just fould his own way.

What made all the difference was, when his sister was about 6months we were sitting in the car at traffic lights and she was babbling. I started copying her sounds and so did he. I flet like crying, infact did cry!

After that we used to make baby sounds all the time to ea ch other & it really helped. Gave him free reign to make mistaes & try it out without any pressure to get it right and be understood. As a resut he became more confident and learnt those early sound making skills along the way that come naturally to most babies without parents even having to try.

I realised in the car that he'd missed out that early babyhood stage of babbling which is so crucial to development. I don't know how it had got missed out ...it just did.

In school assembly few months ago, his was the loudest and most confident voice of all - headteacher commented. NObody would ever guess his speech was so delayed so please don't worry. Make babynoises till the cows come home and enjoy!

My ds was diagnosed with oral dyspraxia at 2.4 or so. He needed weekly speech therapy, but by starting so young, he was 'cured' by the time he started school. (and never stops talking....)

So if you can get a health visitor to refer you to to a speech therapist for an early diagnosis, it might be the best thing. Or a speech therapist might say that he's exactly on track, and give you some hints how to help him further.

Thanks for everyones quick replies,

Kayah yep he is out of nappies and has been in pants since last October and dry with no accidents. He still wears nappies at bedtime though

Good idea about his hearing I hadn't thought of that, just wondered really if there was more I could be doing with him that's specifically related to delayed speech, I will wait and see what happens after preschool have assessed him I think.

Mistfitless he has an older sister 6 yr old, interesting you mention embarrassment and being sensitive etc my son is all of these I wonder if being in the preschool environment makes him talk worse and more into himself if that makes sense?

Preschool said that any help is normally a one year waiting list so if they start the ball rolling now he would have time to get help before he starts school...

If your preschool have suggested that you think about speech therapy and are going to set the ball rolling, then I think you should go along with it.

Take some comfort in the fact that they are recognising his need (albeit a minor one hopefully) and helping guide him in the right direction.

IMO Speech therapy is not the be all and end all. It wont make everything OK overnight. A lot of it is to do with maturity, confidence and practice, and he will get that from you over time.

It is upsetting to realise that something is not quite right, and that your little boy is struggling and its out of your control, but I would be pleased with the playgroup that they are wanting to offer help.

What does being out of nappies have to do with speech? DS2 was out of nappies a month after his 2nd birthday, but still had speech delay (not acknowledged until he was past 4yo, though I fully knew).

I agree a book won't help, OP, but sitting in your son's SALT sessions will. In meantime, try to face him full on and speak.very.slowly.like.this, clearly enunciating all the sounds in each word. He needs to see how your lips and mouth are shaped to make the sounds. Work on comprehension, too; he can't learn to say the sounds if he doesn't hear the difference when you say similar sounds (t vs. c, or d vs. g, for instance).

Typically with SALT you and he will get lots of homework, too.

DS3 is 2y11months, last month I asked for a SALT assessment.

Just in last few weeks he tries hard to say 2 word phrases, like "dump truck" or "oh...pen". He can't produce 3+ word phrases (however hard we try to encourage him). He makes the sounds in the middle of his mouth but not in the front or back (I realise that because of the experience of sitting in on SALT sessions with DS2). He is hard for us to understand much of the time. Meanwhile, most of his male peers (including those with their own older siblings) speak in clear 3+ word phrases.

I would take the advice of your preschool and get things started towards getting as assessment/speech therapy. DS1 was getting stuck on the beginning of words about 6 months ago and our hv referred us for an assessment. It was very relaxed and didn't phase DS at all. As it happens the issue has resolved itself, but she was able to give me some advice about how keep an eye on it and help him through.

IMO it's best to get these things looked at and tackled asap. I was surprised about how many things I could do, which in hindsight were common sense but I just didn't think of.

Try not to worry. He might not need ST by the time he gets his turn.

One of my children needed ST. He couldn't be understood by anyone other than me until he was over 3. ST helped him learn how to form certain shapes with his mouth and use his tongue. I think that his fussiness with food led to him having underdeveloped tongue and mouth muscles which affected his speech.

You could encourage activities to work his mouth muscles like blowing bubbles but I can't remember specific ones as it's been 7 years since he was in ST.

In the mean time I would talk, talk, talk. You could try silly voices, sing, whisper... Also I'd ask for a hearing test.

I'm a SLT and I work with children aged 0-5 years. Some very good advice has been given on here already. Try not to worry OP - speech and language delay affects 1 in every 10 children in the UK so it's not particularly unusual and there is lots of support available.

Resist all temptations to start 'teaching' him e.g. buying 'talking' computer toys, special books, flashcards etc. The best advice is to keep talking to him naturally - commenting about things you do during the day together. Try to 'add a word' so your language level isn't too high for him - for example, if you're playing with cars and he says 'car', add another word to this to show him how we join words together, such as 'big car, or 'drive car' - whatever is appropriate to what he's doing at the time.

Use natural gesture as well as words so he can 'see' what you're saying as well as hearing the words.

Avoid asking 'testing' questions like 'what's this?', 'what colour is it?', 'where does that go?'. It's very tempting to ask these sorts of questions, as you feel it will help him to talk because a question demands an answer! The truth is that it will help him MUCH more if you say the word (answer) for him, without any pressure to copy/repeat after you. He is learning most of his language from you at his age so don't underestimate how important time with you is!

Do you have any Children's Centres where you live?

I found role play to be invaluable.

Take something he really really likes,like cars in a garage or a dolls house and play with little characters making them take turns talking.

In my case it was insanely boring, we spend hours just chatting about nothing and going over the same thing over and over but he just loved Noddy going to visit Mrs B from nursey and doing the register etc, all things that were familiar in his day

JustAbout, I think the reason people get told not to do research themselves is that there is a head-spinning amount of information around - some of it is great, some of it is utter dross. It can be very intimidating for parents to wade through all this info and figure out what works.

The Hanen program is excellent, I have done the training myself. Just to be clear for other posters, the book is aimed at parents, not children. Any change to your child's communication skills will be as a direct result of changes you make to YOUR interaction style, rather than the other way around

You are absolutely right about not 'leaving it up to the SLT'. Understaffed or not, that is not how therapy will work (should your son need it OP) - we don't have magic wands Parents are the people who spend most time with children and are naturally the best people to carry out any activities/strategies with the child. 'Therapy' sessions, if required, will likely be based around modelling activities for you to carry out at home.

I hope this is helpful OP. The essence of the advice on here is to spend lots of time with your son, adding language to simple everyday tasks that you do together, without pressure to copy you. Think of yourself as 'modelling' language use to your child - you're showing him how it's done but allowing him to learn at his own pace. Have fun!

can I say - my SALT has been impressed at all my research - and we have helped each other!! I have worked with speech therapy before through my job - though i am NOT a speech therapist myself.

My son also has speech dyspraxia and currently has intense one to one speech therapy every week and will be hopefully attending a speech unit in Septemeber - it is not too early to start! My son's understanding is above his years and he finds it so hard to be able to express himself. The help he has received so far has been invaluable.

I didn't want to jump into conclusion but because my friends son had speach dealy and also difficulty with potty training well into age of 4 and he is now been diagnosed borderline Autistic - hence my question

JustAbout, I didn't say that parents should NOT do their own research, just that I understood why others might warn them to tread carefully. I'm glad you had such a success with your own research. However, I have worked with parents who started researching ASD online and ended up absolutely pulling their hair out in terror with all of the (sometimes contradictory) information they found. A little knowledge can be a very dangerous (and frightening) thing and self-directed research is not for everyone.

MaxyBrown, I bet your SLT is thrilled to bits with you - you're probably his/her favourite parent! It's just so lovely to work with parents who are fully engaged and proactive - sadly it doesn't happen very often. Your son's positive outcomes are down to you as much as your SLT and don't forget that

I am one of those who suffers if I do too much self-directed research.

I think I have mild APD and verbal dyspraxia myself, but those things only made it harder for me to understand DC's speech problems. So for me the routes taken (relying on SALT and not books) were definitely right way to start.

Wow so much helpful information thank u all very much. Trying to find the hanan book online to order its like trying to fairy dust! Can't seem to find anywhere that stocks it but going to keep trying. I am a big believer as my child is with me all day every day I can help him overcome this, I just want to be confident iam helping and not hindering . Preschool are going to start assessing him, so I will start straight away doing all I can to help him. Thanks again and if anyone can send a link to the book that would be fab!

here you go greyriver

OP - you'll see that there is agreement that you should buy It Takes Two to Talk. I had two kids with language delay too - I also think you should buy it. In fact I think they should hand it out in the maternity wards....

It will not encourage you to diagnose anything - it is entirely jargon-free. It is a book that trains you, the adult, to adopt correct communication techniques. A SALT may need to use other techniques if it turns out that his problem is with pronouncing the words (making his mouth move the right way).

Get a hearing test done asap.