Speech Delay

[woodentop]

my dd is coming up to 3 in Feb next year and has yet to utter her first word. Babbling and cooing started normally as a baby but then abruptly stopped at about 6 months old. She understands everything that is said to her, but has no ability to copy or try to make any sound other than "mmm". Is there anybody out there whose child has gone through this and now is talking? She is having speech therapy and her hearing is normal. She has has obsessive tendencies, and a reluctance to eat or try any other foods than snacks which usually consist of cracker biscuits and soft cheese. How can you make a child eat "normal" food?

woodentop my dd has a speech delay (well global development delay really). She will be 4 next month and is still practically non verbal. She says single words, uses makaton sign language and most recently she has started using pecs. How long has your dd been having SALT for? Has she had a full assessment off a development paed?

Jimjams is always much better at answering these kind of questions, I just get in a muddle!

my dd hearing is normal too

just quickly as I'm off to meet an MP. How is the rest of her communication? Does she point? Do they know why she isn't talking? Have they assessed verbal/oral dyspraxia? Can she copy things like gestures if not sounds?

Sorry lots of questions. Are you seeing a community SALT? Sometimes you need to see someone more specialised. If for examply your dd had verbal dyspraxia it needs to be treated in a very sepcific way. "normal" speech therapy won't help at all.

yes our salt was a special one too but she was still rubbish!

Poxy MP didn't turn up! He cancelled 20 minutes before with "flu". Bearing in mind he was due to meet a carers gourp you would think he could have given more notice. Stupid councillor who was meant to be accompanying him also failed to show- must need someone to hold his hand. Grrrr.

lol Fio Our NHS specialist one we have now is quite good- she just can't get to see anyone as she has so many people on her books. The first specialist we had was useless and coudn't diagnose correctly if the children came in labelled.

woodentop - My ds1's development was almost identical to your dd's. He gave up babbling after only a few weeks of starting it and made no noises at all. He was assessed by the SALT at 2.5yrs and was found to have no physical or mental difficulties. Did your SALT say why they thought your dd wasn't talking? Mine said ds1 was probably just stubborn. His speech therapy started at 3yrs 1 month, by which time he had started to mimic people perfectly (including accents & foreign languages!). He has started to link words, although these are either stilted or in someone else's voice. He has since been diagnosed with sensory problems and is about to be assessed. He too has compulsions, rituals and routines. A huge amount depends upon the reason for the lack of speech but, in answer to your question, yes ds1 has been in a similar position and learned how to talk.

I should add that the lack of speech was at least partly due to sensory problems and nothing at all to do with stubborness!

Oh jesus I've had that stubborness thing as well, and that "ooh you must be making it too easy for him, and talking for him". Where on earth are these people trained?

funny isnt it because my gp was convinced my dd couldnt walk because I carried her around too much!!!!!

My friend has a child with a stammer and was told by the SALT that it was her fault for talking too fast. Made her feel soooo much better!

And what about "Hide his favourite things so he has to ask for them."?? Either they forget all about the stuff or MELTDOWN!!!!

The evil nursery (from another thread in SN) told me that I must be stopping ds1 from talking by talking over him all the time. They also rather helpfully said "he must talk he must talk he has to- what if he gets locked in a cupboard accidentally?" (??? god knows what they were doing in there). It 's now 3 years later and he still isn't talking (I must still be talking over him, or for him, or not enough to him or something!)

ha ha ha coppertop - yeah we had that one as well-

I hope they werent locking him in the cupboard jimjams!

wouldn't have put it past them fio2!