WWYD speech delay.

[Crawling]

DD is 2yrs 3months she can say about 10 to 20 words but does not say them often. She is waiting for speech therapy but her audio test said she has slight fluid in her ear. That the amount is small and they normally would not do anything as it is doubtful it effects her hearing but because she doesnt speak if in 3 months she is not caught up they will give her gromits. The speech therapy list is 6 months.

Now if they said loads of fluid she cant hear I would be happy for them to do it but as they think it unlikely to be causing a problem I dont want them to do it unless they have tried speech therapy. WWYD let them do them on the off chance it is causing the problem (which if it is and she doesnt have a problem she may get nothing out of therapy) or say no until speech therapy is attempted?

I'd buy a copy of Baby Talk by Sally Ward as it's fab - use the exercises in it every day - talk to your child as much as possible and encourage her to talk to you.

My ds was the same as yours and even tho he just had slight fluid in his ear, it was the same over 4 visits to the audiologist so he's on the list for grommets too. If she can't hear properly then it would be much better for her to have the op rather than fall further and further behind!! WRT speech therapy a lot of SALTs will not even take children under 3. I think your dd would be much too young. I think reconsidering grommets woudl be a good idea. You don;t know how much the fluid is affecting her hearing/speech.

SALT input varies from area to area. Here they do accept referrals from 2 years plus so it is worth exploring. If it's a 6mth wait anyway stay on the list. The last thing you want is to come off the SALT list and in 6 months time find things haven't changed (not that I am saying that is what would happen) and then have another 6 mth wait. Worst case scenario is that by the time the appt comes around you don't need it and cancel it. Better that than still needing an appt and not even being on the list.

Usually at such a young age they focus on developing listening & attention skills and developing vocabulary. A small amount of fluid may impair listening and attention skills - because it's harder work - and reduce access to some speech sounds (depending on frequencies and this may have a bit of an impact), but it should not necessarily delay speech significantly.

At times reduce the amount of language you use with dd to focus on developing vocabulary - use just one or two words together to name the objects around and that she's playing with and to name the actions that she or others are doing. Look at simple books together and name what you can see but keep it simple.

Depending on how quickly and easily you meet her needs you might want to make it a bit more difficult for her to get what she wants. e.g. if she reaches for something and you give it to her without any communication or just with her making sounds she has little need to be any more competent at speech. Model the name of the item she wants and give her time to attempt it before giving it to her.

Offer commentary to her play - talking about what she's doing - rather than asking her lots of questions. Start phrases for her so that she can just fit in the missing word e.g. when looking at things in books point to them and say 'it's a ' then pause to see if she will name it (it needs to be something she knows the name of or that you can tell her the name of first then offer the comment starter).

When you sings songs and read familiar stories leave pauses for her to fill in missing words e.g twinkle, twinkle little ...... You will have to add the word in if she doesn't but give her several seconds before you do.

crawling, i second what justabout said. fluid in the ear can be a red herring. DD had delayed speech and glue ear and her speech delay was explained by her ear problems. we had grommets and in our case (i know a lot of people whose children's speech came on really well after the op), DDs' speech did not come on. only this got the ball rolling for further investigation (DD has now a diagnosis of autism). if they offer the grommets, i would go for it. if the glue ear is holding her back, then it will help. if not, it will give you the ammunition to push for further investigation.
oh, the op itself is really quick. DD had grommets in both ears and the op took less then 15 mins. we were out of the hospital the same day. the only downside is the general anesthetic (and I admit, this was the bit that worried me most).
speech therapy is not a quick fix and it depends very much on the cause of the problem as to how effective it is. how is your DD's understanding? any concerns?

Thank you I guess I am just nervous about everything right now I am having a rough time at the moment and everything is getting on top of me . This will sound silly but DD understands more words than DS did even though he had no speech delay. She has no problem communicating her needs at all, is not frustrated it seems like she just doesnt want to talk. I have wondered if I am so worried over this that I am burying my head in the sand I will let her have the grommets though I am just worried over how painful it will be for her it is good to hear from others in the same boat .

DS had fluid in ears but it cleared up after a few weeks. He has a speech delay but it was diagnosed later on to be Development Verbal Dyspraxia.

I have a good friend whose little girl had a speech delay, and had grommets, and her DS started speaking very well after the operation. It made a big and almost immediate difference. I would also go for the grommets as some of the others on this board. Glue ear does make a difference to how much they hear, the little sounds and more quiet sounds like the 'd and 't'.

Justabout can I hijack a bit? What does it sound like when the mouth muscles aren't working correctly? DS is 2.4 and talks all the time but has a very limited range of sounds (mainly d and vowel sounds, although there are some m and b sounds coming in now). I know he has language and has the vocabulary but no-one else can understand him

Does that sound familiar? What did you do with your DS, if you don't mind me asking?

Sorry OP

Hello I am a SALT working with pre-school children with speech & language delay/disorder. Much of the above advice is correct. In my service we have to see children for an initial appt in 18 weeks so I would suggest you phone your local dept, you may be able to get a cancellation. Also if you have a Children's Center locally you may be able to get some advice there as they often run early language groups. Therapists will work with children your child's age but much of this is done through the parent in the form of Parent Child Interaction therapy - ask if your dept offers this. Just remember to keep your language simple, when your child uses a word repeat it in a positive way and add another to extend the phrase. Follow the child's lead, offering a simple commentary and try not to ask too many questions, also label for them. Most children will improve, the most important thing is that she has the understanding, listening skills are also vital so try to encourage your child to attend to short activities, look at the speaker and follow simple instructions.

by the way Verbal Dyspraxia is relatively rare most children who have difficulty with speech clarity have phonolgical difficulties. That means they struggle to discriminate or hear the difference between sounds. When asked these children can articulate the sounds and the mouth muscles work they just use the incorrect sounds when talking eg. 'cat' is 'dat' or 'sock' is 'dock', dyspraxic children have a motor programming difficulty and can be very inconsistent.

There are some good websites out there such as 'Talk to your baby' and the Hello website which can give more info.

Thanks for that just about and 89. I'm pretty sure he can do those things but I'll do a little check in the morning! He can make more sounds by themselves than he uses in actual words, which is frustrating. DH just got him saying 'b' but it took weeks of trying and I can't help but feel it shouldn't have been that hard. Everyone keeps telling me there's nothing to worry about but his progress with sounds is so slow I do worry.

SALT saw ds2 for the first time when he was 12 months old as there had been feeding issues. They got us some excellent referrals and started working with him properly at 18 months.

He's 2.10 now and very limited in speech/sounds but is learning to sign which has helped matters enormously.

In our case tongue tie was suspected as possibly hampering his ability to speak, although paeds, ENT and SALT all felt it was highly unlikely to be causing a complete lack of speech and sounds, they all said it might be making matters worse and we decided to go ahead with the op to have it released. It hasn't made any phenomenal difference but he does have more movement now which is no bad thing.

The current working diagnosis is verbal dyspraxia.

He's improving slowly (current level of speech is on par with what my other two could do at 12 months) and I don't regret the surgery despite the lack of momentous outcome.

DS was 2 when he first saw salt for initial assessment and didn't get offered (although I did fight for it) any form of therapy before he was 3.5, when he was accepted in a school-based nursery that has a special language facility. He received speech therapy every day all the way through nursery, and now in reception he receives half an hour of therapy every single day. He is 4.5 and still very difficult to understand. Verbal Dyspraxia is rare and difficult to get over and the therapy needs to be very intensive for it to work.

So if you can eliminate other causes for speech delay, such as glue ear, I think you should go for it.