Results of speech therapy assessment

[confusedofengland]

DS2 is nearly 28 months & has very little speech (about 10 words). He had an SALT assessment today & I don't really know what to think, whether it went well or not!

The SALT said DS has a fairly severe language delay, as well as some delay in play skills (eg in pretend play he will give a pretend cup of tea to a person not a teddy). He will have further sessions in September/October to give a fuller picture as to whether the delays are wider spread.

She did say that as he hit other developmental milestones on the late side, it was quite possible that his speech was just following this pattern & could well catch up of its own accord.

She also said that he attempts to communicate well & has good eye contact, and that he's made good progress in the last few months, so that's positive.

I just can't work out whether it is a good thing that she thinks he is behind but will catch up in his own time, or whether this is actually a developmental delay without those words being used & if so, will he ever catch up or always be behind?

In my heart, I've always felt that he's slower than other DC his age to pick things up, so she confirmed that. However, IME, he also catches up eventually & now does a lot of things that he was late doing at the same level as others his age.

Does anybody have any tales of a DC that was delayed/behind? Did they catch up? Feeling

I think if she mentioned a severe language delay then this is an area that is an issue for him over and above other developmental areas but can be part of a generalised delay and the assumption would be that he will make progress but slower. Some kids catch up completely and some will always struggle a bit but I would try not to worry easier said than done until he has the additional assessments later on as to what the delays mean. Just know its a good thing they've been picked up relatively early.

The best thing you can do is provide a really strong language learning environment for you DS - lots of play with simple make-believe games to do with dolls/teddies/mummy feeding/washing/putting to bed/jumping/dancing etc and action games for him e.g. jump to the fridge, hop to the sofa, tip toe to the tv etc. with you doing lots of modelling of actions for him and making it as fun as possible. Try not to tell him "no" when he doesn't get it just model what you said. Saying the names of objects/actions loads and loads of times and when he finally says a word - e.g. "jump", say "yes! Teddy jump", "mummy jump", "jump, jump, jump, jump", "[son's name] jump!" etc. Don't correct him if he pronounces things wrongly, just model the correct way of saying it. Its a good idea to focus on a few words at a time (e.g. 10 per month) and do maybe 30-40 mins a day of activities focussing on the chosen words. If he goes to nursery/childminder, get them to do some too.

Your SLT will give you tons more activities and advice when you see them next.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Panda, you sound very knowledgeable

Since we got home, I have been trying to play make-believe games with him. Sadly, this is not something I have really thought to do before beyond the odd cup of pretend tea! So, just now at dinner time, we had dolly there in her highchair and he happily fed her after I showed him & gave her a kiss. Then we moved back into the lounge & I took dolly & highchair back through, he popped her back in it! Then put her to bed, blanket over her, dummy in after me showing him just once. Maybe I have to learn things as much as he does!

Have also been offering choices at dinner & saying 'Ooh, yoghurt, you want yoghurt' as well as narrating his play a bit

Brilliant!! Well done! Sounds like you're a natural. Just keep up a narrative all the time so you telling him "dolly in the chair", "look at dolly", "mummy put dolly in the chair", "[sons name] put dolly in the chair", "shall we feed dolly?" etc. Plenty of simple statements with the word you want to encourage. Good luck with it!