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time for SALT?

10 replies

Booyhoo · 11/01/2013 17:31

ds will be 4 in May. he was late to start talking (2) and now that he is he is still very unclear and hard to make out. i can understand most things he tries to say but there are times when even i struggle and he gets very frustrated. he is due to start primary school in september and i know it will be even harder for him to be heard then with alot more children and less teaching staff in the room than at nursery school.

should i get him seen by SALT and how do i do that? GP referral?

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Ineedmorepatience · 11/01/2013 17:49

Yes booyhoo, I think you should get him on a list to be assessed by a SALT.

In some areas you can self refer or if he is at preschool they should be able to refer.

If not then yes, the GP will refer.

Good luckSmile

Booyhoo · 11/01/2013 17:52

thank you patience. i will speak with the preschool manager on monday and ask if they will refer.

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DreamySleepyNightySnoozySnooze · 11/01/2013 17:55

My Ds1 is the same age, and sounds like he has a similar level of speech. I asked the health visitor to refer him, there was quite a wait before he got seen though.

Booyhoo · 11/01/2013 18:35

how long did he have to wait?

is there anything i can do now to help him? i dont want to try anything incase it's counterproductive and sets him back or confuses him when he eventually gets to see the SALT.

most things starts with 's' or 'f' when he says it.

'see soo fom' is tree fu tom for example.
it's pretty much the same with all words. he often misses out the hard sounds in the middle of words. like 'sticker' is 'fih-uh'

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DreamySleepyNightySnoozySnooze · 11/01/2013 18:59

It was about 3 months.

They recommended repeating whatever he says, so I'm not correcting his mistakes, but he is hearing how the words should sound. So if he says "See Soo Fom" for example, you could say "Yes, Ds, let's watch Tree Fu Tom!"

They also said to narrate everything you do together. So if you're playing with cars and a garage, you talk about everything that's happening. "The blue car is going up in the lift, let's drive it down the ramp really fast. Wee! Now it's the red car's turn."

I just chat to him constantly, all the way to the shops I'm pointing out stuff and asking what he can see. I just have to be careful not to bombard him with too many questions, and try not to answer for him when he struggles, or correct his mistakes.

As he's getting older (he's 4 in May too), he's starting to understand that if I can't understand what he's said, him getting frustrated and shouting and crying at me doesn't help. He sometimes has to go and sit and calm down, then try to tell me again in a minute. We usually get there in the end, but it's so upsetting for him not being able to communicate sometimes. Since he started at the infant school nursery his speech has really come along, but it's hard when he's telling me about something that happened at school and I can't work out what he means as I have no context to work with!

Booyhoo · 11/01/2013 19:05

thank you dreamy that is great help. we do lots of talking/chatting and i have a terrible habit of repeating what the dcs say to me anyway Blush but i will make a conscious effort to do this with him. there was a noticeable inprovement with ds when he started nursery school but it seems to have stayed at that level.

thanks for advice Smile

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mumofoliver · 11/01/2013 21:32

Is his hearing ok? My friend was concerned about her DS2's speech and about a year ago (he was 2.5) she pushed for a hearing test and he ended up 4 months later having grommets (sp?) fitted and adenoids taken out - his speech has massively improved. Just a thought

Booyhoo · 11/01/2013 21:36

i hadn't thought of his hearing mum but he doesn't seem to struggle with it that i have noticed anyway. if i saw the GP for a referral would they send him for hearing test aswell?

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DreamySleepyNightySnoozySnooze · 11/01/2013 22:44

Probably yes, my Ds had his hearing checked before going to SALT. My friend's Ds was the same as mum's - he had a speech delay but after having grommets fitted he really improved.

The SALT sessions I did find to be mainly stuff I did already, as you obviously do too Booyhoo, but it's reassuring to know if it's just a delay, or if it's part of a bigger problem. I hope you don't have too long a wait for your referral. Smile

Booyhoo · 12/01/2013 12:42

thaks dreamy. yes he used to go to a chatterbox group for 2 year olds with delayed speech and it was mainly stuff we were doing already but it helped to know we were on the right track .

thanks all for advice.

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