Support thread for speech and language delay.......

[jaybirdsinginginthedeadofnight]

I know this has been done before on here, but I couldn't find anything recent and am sure there is someone out there going through similar worries to us. So if you want to share your experiences/worries come join me

DD turns 2 in 2 weeks and has no words, not one! She babbles constantly and has added new 'c' 's' and 'th' sounds to her babbling in the last week. Her understanding seems good and she has her own way of letting us know what she wants (point & whinge a lot). She will have her 2 year assessment next week, I intend on broaching the subject of SALT.

I am sooooo anxious about all of this. DD's cousin is 6months older, and as her speech has developed well she seems leaps and bounds ahead of DD

Hi, I think a hearing test is definately good idea to start with. I know it's frustrating how long the waiting lists for this are. We waiting months for DS too.
Have you noticed whether she is moving her mouth correctly when making sounds? Watch carefully when she is speaking and possibly get her to look in a mirror to see if she looks like you do when making sounds. DS barely moved bus mouth at all at first but I hadn't noticed until I started looking for it.
We had a few little tricks with DS like for the f sound tell him he needed to make bunny teeth, making sure the teeth are touching the bottom lip and make the sound, look in the Mirror and see what it looks like when doing it.
For s we would make a wiggly shape with a finger from the mouth as we did it and say we were trying to make a hissy s like a snake et .
If you are happy to get private therapy then you could get an assessment and then will tell you whether they think she needs help of not.

Hope that I'd of some help.

So many typos! Sorry!!

Hi Adarian, I do worry like sick and cry a lot. At the same time, I pray a lot, it makes me feel better each time after I pray. Love my girl so much whatever she is, but feel so sad to see her struggling without words.

Hi Jelly. Thanks for replying.

Now you've mentioned the mouth thing, yes absolutely! I was reading an earlier post about putting the tongue behind the top teeth and asked DD to do this and she couldn't. It's definitely as though she isn't making the right shapes for the sounds.

I know it sounds silly but I don't want to waste anyone's time so wasn't going to contact a SALT until after the hearing test (just in case it is that). I hadn't thought about just going for an assessment and seeing what they said!

I think I'll do that and see what they say while waiting for the hearing test. At least then I'll feel that we've seen someone who knows their stuff.

Happy to report DD is making progress. She is trying to say more words and I think total she has about 10 now, although she doesn't say all of them that often. She is pronouncing r sounds as w, should this eventually correct itself? Or will we need to work on that? She was settling into nursery then got a cough and cold so wasn't in all this week, so Monday morning could be challenging!

How's everyone else doing?

Hi jay.
Pronouncing the r as w (gliding) is very common in young children and r is one of the later sounds to develop so don't worry about it at the moment. It's great that she is making progress.

Reading these really helps so thank you, my DS is 3 in August and has delayed speech :(

Hi Rubycat
Just popped on to update that we received DS discharge report from husband private SALT today.
Part of me feels a bit apprehensive to be honest, we've spent so long with speech being an issue it feels strange somehow and I worry about what if it all goes wrong again.

Hello everyone it's been a while! How's DS doing jellyandjam?

DD is doing well making progress, in April she had no words now 3months later has around 18. She is talking up a storm in nursery and they are keeping a note of all that she says. I love that she is making progress, but am a bit perplexed (there's always something) that she will not speak as much with me and DH. She will make the noises of words but with her mouth closed IYSWIM. I get that I know what she wants so perhaps she doesn't need to speak to me, so this morning she brought me to the fridge I knew she wanted a yoghurt. Nursery inform me she says yoghurt for them so I played dum 'what do you want, DD?' Waited and waited but she just stamped her feet and whinged and pointed at the fridge! As her brother was sleeping above us I gave in in the end. I just don't get why she isn't as vocal at home, I love hearing her talk

I was on this thread right back at the beginning. My DS was then 3.0, had about 50 words & had just started putting 2 together. He is now 3.3 & mostly puts 3 words together but often 4 or 5. His target from SALT was to regularly put 2 words together, spontaneously & preferably using a verb. He has smashed that target We have a paediatrician appointment next week to rule out autism, which I am really nervous about

jaybird he did a similar thing to your DD, 'saying' words/phrases but just the 'tune' of them, not actually pronouncing the words. His pronunciation is getting better now although still needs a lot of work. I'd say it's a positive step your DD is making

Hi all, glad to hear that both your little ones are making progress. Long may it continue.
DS is doing well. We haven't had therapy since April but he has carried on making progress and is now able to use all sounds. It's now more a matter of sometimes we need to remind him to slow down to make sure he is using all the sounds. And then there are sometimes certain words we need to work on reminding him with but on the whole he's great! Chats away to unfamiliar people who are able to understand and answer him .

Hello all havent been on here a while either but its great to hear about all the progress the little ones are making !!!!
My DS now has 2 words "Mum" and "yeah" his progress is slow but we are heading in the right direction and at least if he signs and I repeat what I think he means he can say yeah when u get it right lol

Glad to hear everyone is doing well We still haven't had any word on DD's hearing test referral isn't that wild? But I'm nearly 100% sure there's nothing wrong with her hearing so haven't really done anything about chasing it up. We should be getting our follow up SALT appointment within the next month though, that I will be chasing up

Hi everyone.

• For the people who are worried about Autism, speech developments all the communication stuff- including play/sensory etc.

Y'all should check out teachmetotalk.com a website by a speech therapist called Laura. She also has free to download podcasts on iTunes that answers every questions regarding speech/ autism, commication, play, sensory, toys, speech disorders etc.

I do find that she tends to go on a bit. But still, she's really good.

So received a letter this morning offering DS another block of soeech therapy- it's been 6 months since his last block!

*speech (obviously)!

Jelly it does take a while between SALT sessions, doesn't it? Ours tends to be 4-monthly.

Jay definitely chase up SALT & anything else, make yourself a real nuisance

Skuntoo that's great, progress is progress

I am so happy & proud today as I actually had my first ever 2-sided conversation with DS (he has only just started answering open-ended questions, although he's been talking more for about 4 months now). It went like this:

DS: Going nursery
Me: That's right, you're going to nursery today
DS: Have breakfast
Me: Yes, you will have breakfast. What will you have? Cereal, toast, fruit?
DS: Have cereal
Me: What cereal will you have?
DS: Shreddies

So proud! Of course, a lot of it might not be understood by people not close to him as his pronunciation is still unclear eg reddies for Shreddies, he-el for cereal, rek-a from breakfast, nu-ny for nursery, but it is there! Considering that 4 months ago he had only just started putting 2 words together I think it is amazing! Am noting it down for our SALT review next month Just had to share as I felt you lot would understand how ridiculously pleased I am

gutted that's wonderful!! How lovely!

Yes, it's just ridiculous how long it can take between blocks! What us more funny is that since the last one he has been discharged from his private SALT as he can and does use all age appropriate sounds now! So glad we weren't relying on this!

The waiting lists in children's services are ridiculous! Especially considering the rest of the NHS has targets etc to meet, and have people working out of hours shifts to keep on top of waiting lists! But children's services are 'different' was what I was told when I queried a 6month wait for a hearing test!

On a lighter note DD is saying the letters A-H in order though just an 'uh' for B. Don't know if she's saying this by rote or what, but she seems to recognise these letters when asked to point them out. When do children know their numbers, letters and colours?

I am with you all completely. My 7 year old was diagnosed with developmental verbal dyspraxia at the age of 3 after next to no speech at all. Our health visitor kept on telling me that it would come when my older son started school, it didn't. We were then referred to speech and language therapy (SALT) following his 2 year check, the speech therapist was fantastic and put a lot in place for him at nursery and reception. Then in Y1 he was referred to a specialist speech and language school where he still is, he's about to go into Y3 and doing really well. These specialist units do exist and it really is worth fighting for a place.

Hello all. I've just found this thread and only read the first and last pages, but its very very relevent to me and my ds so I thought I'd introduce myself before I read the rest of the thread.
I have three ds, the eldest is now 5 and has speech delay/disordered speech sounds. He didnt speak at all until he was over three (understood everything and was a miming genius). He's been seeing the SALT for years (I first took him for assessment at 18 months but was told they don't work with children before 3, which doesn't seem to be quite true I realise now). He's just finished Reception class and having seen his report, I think he needs a lot more intervention than he is currently getting. Verbal Dyspraxia was mentioned by his SALT just before she transferred him to the SALT that works in schools. I think I now need to be much more pro active in getting him a lot more help than he's currently as his progress is very very slow. His language is fine, but his clarity of speech is really impacting him at school now. It'd be good to have somewhere to discuss all this with people that understand!

Hello all. I've just found this thread and only read the first and last pages, but its very very relevent to me and my ds so I thought I'd introduce myself before I read the rest of the thread.
I have three ds, the eldest is now 5 and has speech delay/disordered speech sounds. He didnt speak at all until he was over three (understood everything and was a miming genius). He's been seeing the SALT for years (I first took him for assessment at 18 months but was told they don't work with children before 3, which doesn't seem to be quite true I realise now). He's just finished Reception class and having seen his report, I think he needs a lot more intervention than he is currently getting. Verbal Dyspraxia was mentioned by his SALT just before she transferred him to the SALT that works in schools. I think I now need to be much more pro active in getting him a lot more help than he's currently as his progress is very very slow. His language is fine, but his clarity of speech is really impacting him at school now. It'd be good to have somewhere to discuss all this with people that understand!

Hi letTheRiver welcome As I'm more or less at the beginning of our journey I can't offer any words of wisdom to you. DD had one waste of time SALT session in May and we are awaiting a follow up appointment probably around the end of August.

Hopefully someone with more experience can give you some advice.........

Ask away whatsonemore ..........