So if the school says your child would benefit from speech therapy - should you take them up on it?

[Enid]

not for me, for a friend. her four year old (he is young for his year- august birthday) has been recommended to have speech therapy. After discussing it with her husband they have decided not to do it as they think he is too young and like the way he speaks.

I am of the school of thought that they should have it. Obviously its up to her in the end, I have no experience of it and I am not going to push it, but I wondered what others thought.

I would if it was offered. If it was someone I knew I would actually feel quite . Ds badly needs speech therapy and hasn't been able to get it. It can't do any harm and it's likely the boy would benefit from it.

I would take them up on it. If the speech therapist thinks there is no need then they will tell the parents so. If they turn down the chance now they may end up facing a long wait to get back on the list at a later date.

I would take it. Liking the way he speaks is all very well, but if the way he speaks is going to hold him back, mean he's not understood, or be something that marks him out as different, then I think it's something that needs addressing before it becomes a bigger problem.

The longer it's left, the more difficult these things can be to fix.

yes definitley having speech problems can really affect your confidence - i should know - i had speech therapy for years and still have difficulty saying some sounds

yes definitley having speech problems can really affect your confidence - i should know - i had speech therapy for years and still have difficulty saying some sounds

I did. DS2's teacher asked me if I'd mind him being referred (with a few others in his class) to a SALT. After reading threads on here about how difficult it is to get referrals yourself, I jumped at the chance, even though I was pretty sure at the time it would sort itself out. This was when he was in Nursery, so he was still 3. He's now in Yr1 and still has one-on-one SALT in his classroom every fortnight (he has a developmental delay with his speech, it's slowly getting better) I don't believe he would have had this much consistant help if I'd had to go through my GP.

Enid, your friends are barmy, sorry. It's going to be much harder to correct when he's older, and it won't be so cute when he's getting picked on for not talking properly.

Oh, and it's very hard for a child to learn to read when half the letters they are sounding out sound the same when they vocalise them. DS2 has real problems matching phonics to actual letters. It's more than just their speech that can be affected.

yes I think they are barmy

I think they cannot accept that it is a 'criticism' - she said it makes her feel like a bad parent - I dont understand that.

I think I will 'gently encourage' her to go for it.

Her dh is really anti

btw he is swwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeet little boy but it is really hard to understand what he says

shes a freak
ds2 had it nad it sorted him in a couple of months

am fired up now

will tell them to have it. poor thing. dd1 was going to have it for her stammer but it seems to have righted itself now.

Do you think they might be worried about what's actually involved? Do they know what the SALT will do? It's all very gentle and fun, lots of games and pulling faces, and at that age there's no stigma attached.

I love the way DS2 says "W is for Wino" but I'd love him to get the pronunciation of his Rs right. I'm not worried enough to get him referred myself but if he was offered SALT by the school, I'd snap it up.

yes have told them that (dd1s friend has it and loves it!)

i think is dh that is against

Difficult one - we also turned it down when ds was 3/4 as, in consultation with his teacher, we felt it was a developmental issue not a specific learning issue. He had also recently experienced a lot of change and we felt the timing wasn't ideal to pursue it. In retrospect perhaps we should have taken it more seriously but he was reviewed a year later and passed the assessment. Since then he has been identified as having motor issues, sensory issues but not specifically speech difficulties, although I wonder ,as he seems to have problems with spelling phonetically, whether there is some confusion there too.

At the time ds was first tested for speech he was still very much in a play orientated preschool environment and learnt to read with few problems 2 years later. Had he been in a more formal school environment we may well have acted differently.

yes they feel he is developmentally delayed by his age and that he will grow out of it.

I don't see how it is going to hurt though.

No, I agree it woudldn't hurt and I'm sure his mum could go along to the first session to see what is involved and allay some fears. Usually it is lots of specific play and learning activities which even if she doesn't believe he has a real problem would probably be of benefit to his confidence generally. Are they suggesting one-to-one or a group session, perhaps they'd be more comfortable with the latter ?

The other thing to consider, and resident SALTs please correct me if I'm wrong, is that the referral time for speech therapy for under 5s is much faster, but once they are over five it can take months and months, if not years. I'd take up the offer - they may regret it next year and then have real problems getting him seen.

might as well get an opinion!

And.....having thought a bit more, when (as a Reception teacher) I've discussed referrals to speech therapy and the parents agree, the child simply goes for an assessment session. Sometimes the SALT then recommends further group work, and sometimes assesses that many of the 'problems' are 'age-appropriate' and gives the parents a few tips to help progress, but doesn't see them again. I would imagine that it's just the assessment session that is being offered, and having the oppinion of a professional SALT certainly can't hurt (and they may say leave well alone at the moment).

friend's dh is barking - spurning an opportunity othes are desperate to have

oi enid prime up dd2 to say" mummy id ont knwo what algernon is on about" hen mum can hear

lol

god they hardly dish out speech therapy in this country. Up until the age of 5 when ds1 transferred to his new school he had had no actual hands on speech therapy at all (except for the sessions we paid for)- for a non-verbal child.

Sounds like a case of head sticking in sand really.

I did remove ds2 from the SALT list (after one appointment- the SALT rang to ask if I wanted to go again- because I couldn't be bothered to go to an appointment for the SALT to tell me she was removing him- I have quite enough appointments as it is cheers, and I had spoken to nursery etc about his speech) but I told her his pronounciation problems and asked her to send me the stuff she would have given if we had been to see her, which she did. If in a year's time someone suggests he needs to be seen again then fine- the problem hasn't sorted itself.

I hadn't realised it was so difficult to get. that puts an interesting spin on it. Think I will have a quiet word.