starting to be concerned about speech

[UpsideRaspberryAround]

7es has always been behind on speech, never worried and presumed he'd get there. Barely a word until two.
Now he's 3.5 and at nursery the difference seems quite stark. The other children converse and it's beyond him. If an adult asked him clear and familiar questions he'll respond in short sentences but flowing conversations or multiple inputs is way beyond him. For example if he's asked 'give me the white jumper' he'd try passing anything nearby until he got the right object, or give up and run off. When his classmates play he may say simple statements and play around them but they get frustrated as he doesn't reply. He also Mixx sounds and his teacher says she rarely understands him without repetition or questioning.
I'm posting because at a party it was clear that while he's popular it's because he's lively and they do look after him like a younger child. For example they found him and took him by the hand when boys were called over or to get him playing football they take the ball to show him and point, whereas they just shout to others to play. He's always in the middle of things, but playing the clown and they pull him round like a riddle (he's small too). He's dropped though quickly if the activity changes to singing at

Have nursery advised you? It sounds like he needs assessing. Go to the GP and tell them what you've said here...he needs to see a speech and language specialist. x

Call health visitor or go to gp. Insist o. Hearing test. Then get a referral for a speech and Language assessment. Your son is so young and some good speech and language therapy will really help indentify what is holding his language back.

Do not take no for an answer until he has had an assessment. Most GP's etc seem to be on a cost saving mission and their default setting seems to be to avoid referring.

Your son is sooooo young and speech and language therapy will help massively.

Good luck.

Nursery have only mentioned it in response to a direct question as to how she found his speech. He talks a lot at times, it's more understanding and intelligibility than vocab. He does replace words with actions a lot.
The annoying thing is I've twice or three times asked the hv and been brushed off despite not attempting to speak to him or listening beyond my opening comment. I popped to the clinic after they missed both his one year and two year checks to say I wanted his speech checked and again at three to say potty training was a problem because he couldn't be understood asking to go to the toilet by anyone outside the family.
I've waited and waited for him to pick up and tried to help at home but I now think it'll be a social problem soon. Already at the park problems are starting with exclusion or even talking about him in front of him about being stupid. He's thankfully oblivious but it's been a few times now with different children. His nursery crowd are lovely and accept him easily as I said before.

google speech and language therapy and your local area, they should have an advice line, and you should be able to self refer.

OP they sound crap....the GP can refer you. Google receptive language processing in children and have a read.

sorry, meant to add, ask your gp for a referral for a hearing test - it may be that he is not able to discern what his peers are saying, especially in a crowded environment.

I will. My sister is deaf, I am HI, yet it's difficult to get past the fact he passed his hearing test at birth (his sister didn't). He's clearly not deaf but I have wondered with hearing, though I didn't see a pattern in sound swaps

My ds, also passed his hearing test at birth and another test done at 18 months, however he had a hearing test 2 months ago (he is 3.4 now) that showed that he has a mild sensori neural hearing loss, and may need hearin aides. I think that it wasn't picked up at the 8 month test because he is delayed in all areas, and so they couldn't record his responses sufficiently.

If you get a referral to SALT the first thing they will do is ask for a recent hearing test anyway, so it is worth organising one yourself to save time.

I had much greater success with speaking to the SAL department myself than the referral system.

Good luck.

Definitely go to your GP for a referral.

ds2 has just turned two and has almost no words and the words he has are not used regularly. His two year check was by a nursery nurse and she dismissed my worries saying children progress at different rates and see in three months. Once home I'd decided I would go to the GP despite what she said because he's obviously not getting it. However, she rang me back and said she'd spoken with the HV and they were referring him for hearing tests.

From what I've read online for my ds, in absence of other delays, it's either a hearing problem, most commonly glue ear, or a speech/language processing disorder.

I actually cried after they said they'd refer him because it was acknowledgment of what DH and I knew, but so many people say they'll catch up that you end up second guessing yourself.

X-post

From my reading there is even a small percentage of profoundly deaf children who pass the newborn screening.

Thanks, although my sister and I have hearing loss (as do others in the family) none of us had a test pre-school (can you imagine now... a child diagnosed as deaf at five, had a huge life long impact) so I didn't know it wasn't fail safe.

I will on Tue repeat my request to hv a final time then look at self referring from Wednesday.

Not that I'm suggesting profoundly deaf! Just that even that level is not picked up in 100% of cases.

Upside, definitely sounds like you need a referral. Agree with other posters.

Wasps, DD1 hardly spoke at 2. Now, at 4, I can't shut her up. So it doesn't definitely mean a problem.

No thanks wasps I didn't take it that way. Dd failed the test but imo can hear we'll observing her compared to ds! She babbles away.

An example, day is saying 'mama lus at me rabee, mama I pill a hi his', which after modelling is corrected to mama look at my rabbit, I pull at his hair.

So iycswim there's no missing words, normal vocab, he does talk quite. Bit. Just hard to understand and he's struggling with understanding

Agree with the others - he needs to be assessed. You usually can self refer for SALT. Your surgery should be able to give you the number. Not talking is one thing but having trouble understanding is another issue all together

Get also a hearing test sorted to rule out any underlying hearing issues (e.g. Glue ear).

Do you have any other concerns about his development?

His development I think is fine otherwise, quickly completes unfamiliar puzzles, plays well, loving, happy, an easy child. Only think I can think of is slightly poor balance, can't use a scooter or balance bike but climbs well and sure footed.