Referral to a speech therapist

[beccaboo]

Can anyone help or reassure me? My DS had his two year check today (he's 25 months). HV has referred him to a speech therapist, and also wants him to go to a special creche for two hours every day for help with language development. He isn't talking much, but can say a few words 'mummy' 'daddy' 'Balamory' (!) 'bye bye' 'one two three four' and a few other things. He babbles constantly, she has noted this as "speaks nonsense in sentence structure of sounds". In another part of the test she laid out four fairly uninteresting toys, and when DS failed to pounce on them, she wrote 'fail' on her form. Naturally this has made me feel pretty worried and insecure, should I be concerned or take her comments with a pinch of salt? All advice gratefully received! Thanks in advance.

IMO all Health Visitors and their stupid tests are better ignored. My children are billingual and have both developed speech fairly late. DS who is 28 months still don't say that many words, but he does communicate. Also, many of the words he says are in Swedish or English and Swedish combined. Far too complicated for our poor HV. He would fail all tests and probably bite her too, so better not invite her around.......

Baccaboo, my dd never had a 2 yr check, as they have stopped them here. However, I was concerned about her speech and mentioned it to HV, their response to wait and see. Now dd is 2.8 and 2 mnths ago I was still worried and HV finally agreed that her speech was not clear as it should be. We have been referred but it could take 6 mnths. Getting a referral earlier is better than waiting to see. DD has improved, but still has problems with a lot od consonents. DH and I make a huge effort to get her to repeat noises and sounds which I'm sure helps. I did start a thread about it some time ago, and Jimjams gave me some helpful websites to look at.
I believe that most children catch up so don't worry about that. XXX

We too have seen a speech therapist, twice infact and she wants to see us again just befor DS (27 months) starts pre-school. She also said that he is well within the range for his age, even though sometimes it's really hard to understand him, but it is getting better. We were referred at the 2 year check, I looked at it in a positive light and thought, If it helps us both, what harm can it do? He's also come on in leaps and bounds since leaving him at a playgroup for a few hours, where he HAS to make himself understood, otherwise he won't get whatever it is he wants.

Try not to worry too much over this, as you can see here that there are loads of us in the same sort or boat, which just shows, what is normal?

Thanks so much everyone. Felt quite devastated after HV's visit but now feel loads better after reading all your messages. Jimjams, will order that book now, cheers.

yw, hope you find the book useful.

Best it of advice I was ever given for ds1 (and it has worked well for ds2 as well) is to reduce lanaguage. So rather than saying "Joe Bloggs come and get your coat becuase we're going out now" say "Joe coat" Rather than saying "come on Joe Bloggs its tike for tea you need to sit at the table" Say "Joe sit on seat". Really helps children to tune in.

Let us know how you get on- I'm always interested in hearing how other areas do SALT assements (gives me something to berate the SALTS about -lol)