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

Welcome bellossum DD has a hearing referral too but you know what I've no idea on the wait for that, HV is calling tomorrow for some form I've to sign will ask her then.

enormouse glad you are feeling positive and DS enjoyed preschool, I'm hopeful nursery will have a positive effect on DD when she starts in June.

I think she was trying to say 'a ball' today though it was more like 'ahhhh buhhh' but definitely related to the ball and did it a few times. Those of you who have other LO's not speech delayed - did they have a monumentous first word like one day they just said mummy as clear as a bell, or was speech more of a gradual trying words out kind of thing (IYSWIM)?

It's a combination of both for DS. Sometimes he'll say something with great clarity without having tried to say it before and other times he'll practice a lot. There's been a lot of 'duh duh duh' type noises before he progressed to saying 'dad' very clearly. He still makes the 'duh duh' sound for other d words he can't say clearly yet like 'down' or 'drink'.

Some progress with DSs speech. Dp fitted a stair gate to his bedroom door so he can't go walkabout at night, DS looked at it and said 'oh no' and walked off. I felt so proud, I know it's not a massive thing but it's one of his first two word phrases. He does like this book a lot so it might have helped.

enormouse that made me chuckle I can just imagine his wee face seeing the gate and excellent that he used the two words!

I'm now certain DD is saying 'no' it's happened too many times to be a coincidence. Ahhhh I dreamed of her first word being mummy, but it seems it's 'no'! But I love it every time I hear it, her GP's nearly cried today when they heard her it was lovely She's the first girl on our side so is on a mighty big pedestal as you can imagine, there's a lot of people willing her to speak!

So spoke to a SALT who in a nutshell said she wouldn't treat her until the outcome of the developmental assessment was known. I was a bit miffed it was like being told you've to wait 6 months for an op on NHS, to then want to go private and have the private sector tell you just to wait for the NHS! Anyway she did say with waiting list targets in the health service no child should have to wait 6months for intervention and I should query this time scale. I felt like saying no shit, that's why I was seeking intervention privately!! Ho hum another dead end. Feel like everywhere I turn I'm getting fobbed off. Just spend 6months sitting on your hands doing bugger all! How is that helping DD??? Rant over

Hi my LO is going to be 2 in July he receives EI services such as PT,OT and now SI and SP were added. My lil guy has no mores except for mama and dada. He does babble but side from that does not verbally communicate. His frustration levels have increased at times I have cancel out things before I get to what he wants. Speech has not yet been picked up by a therapist which has been really stressful because he was found to have a severe expressive delay and a moderate receptive delay. I am grateful that you started this thread. My son has PHACE Syndrome which can and has caused developmental delays. Sometimes I notice things he does and I try not to focus on them such as spinning wheels (he will flip the stroller back to spin the wheels on it), he stares at the fan, he has started to spin himself around, he walks on his tip toes (not all the time) He loves the light, his attention span is so short....... Sometimes I feel like he spaces out and will ignore us briefly won't respond to his name being called... But he is social he will wave hi and make eye contact and play with his older siblings.
I look forward to gaining insight from your personal stories

*marks place

Cant believe that Jay !!!! I waited 6 months to be placed on a 4 week course called "Helping your child communicate" and when speech therapist came and I told her what I was doing she was shocked as it was all the stuff they were going to cover on the course.
We had a home visit yesterday as Ds has started Nursery!!. The lady asked about what schools I was thinking about sending Ds I said school A same as Dd and she said did u know school B have a special needs unit!!!
Its always in the back of my mind but when someone makes a comment it does feel upsetting

skuntoo I know what you mean the SALT made a couple of comments that got my heckles up, and it was the elongated way she kept saying significant delay was a tad annoying to say the least! I was thinking about it today and surely the SALT have their own way of assessing her to see how they need to be targeting their treatment? Anyway I dunno what to do now, back to HV stamp my feet until she gets a SALT referral?

Hi Mynumber4 welcome, excuse my ignorance but I haven't heard of PHACE syndrome how does that affect your LO?

Sorry hello to Mynumber4 too.
I had a very long and tearful conversation with Dp and he has admitted he finds our DS embarrassing and he thinks he will never speak properly finding it hard to stay positive. All we seem to do is wait for bloody appts and then when we finally get to speak to the experts they tell us to wait. Fed up of playing the waiting game !!!!!! Sorry rant over I'll try and put my positive mummy head back on.

skuntoo I know it's hard not to feel down but your DS WILL talk. In fact all your LO's will talk in time.
DS was four and still unable to be understood by anyone outside of our family (and we found him very hard to understand too) but honestly now only 7 months later at 5.6 he is talking so clearly. Yes he still misses sounds at times (esp when he is tired or rushing) but the majority of the time he is understood by everyone now.
I know waiting is hard but I am not sure DS was ready for this kind of progress when he was much younger.
Stay positive

I'm feeling a bit flat and need to offload at the moment. (So sorry)

DSs assessment went ok, his SALT was lovely and very tuned into his needs, despite him being uncooperative at times. As we thought it does seem to be stubborness and being very into his own agenda so to speak. DS will do what DS wants, when he wants and he will be into what he's doing completely until he's finished. Then he'll move onto something else.
His expressive language was flagged up and it was hard to gauge his receptive language as he wasn't going along with what the SALT wanted. Because his attention is completely on whatever task he's doing, he hasn't picked up language the way he should have.

She's told us to work on his attention and getting him to focus on one task at a time. Hopefully, preschool will help with their routine of focused activity interspersed with free play. I've also found some makaton classes which the SALT suggested trying.

I did feel a bit upset after and I'm ashamed to admit I did have a bit of a cry. I have exams next week, coursework due in and I'm pretty upset I can't give DS1 (or DS2 for that matter) the full attention he deserves till then.

enormouse don't apologise for off loading and never be ashamed of crying, crying is good, a powerful release of stress! You have a lot going on and you can't (despite every mum feeling they should be) be superwoman. It's good that you liked the SALT and you have an area to work on with DS. I think it's easy to get overwhelmed looking at the bigger picture and the desired goal. Breaking everything down into manageable tasks makes it feel like your achieving something and that can only be a good thing IYSWIM? Sending you now deep breaths and relax!

So HV phoned me this am and said DD's referral has been bounced back from developmental assessment people who recommend she's to have speech therapy intervention in the first instance. I'm taking that as a good sign! That they think a S&L delay is the main problem? I dunno maybe looking at it through my mummy rose tinted specs. But anyway the referral for SALT is three months and given the referral went in nearly a month ago now that's not too long to wait So happy something is happening!

However I enquired about the hearing test- 6 month wait for that!!! Can you believe it?! Apparently child services don't have the same waiting list targets as the rest of the NHS! Anyone gone down the route of getting a hearing test privately?

Glad something is happening with the SALT.
DS hearing test letter for an appointment came back fairly quickly but the appointment was 9 weeks after that (so probably about 3 month wait in all) which I thought was bad enough!

Cheers Madrigals but not in the area, good to know though that it's possible, I have emailed a couple of the private health care providers near me to see what they come back with.

Hi everyone
is it ok if I join in ive just found this thread in the morning after being worried all night about DDs speech.

My DDs 22 months now and spends a lot of time at home with her dad, as I work more hours and im starting to think that he doesnt talk with her that much, he plays but I dont think he uses a lot of words.

She babbles a lot and can say a few words if you dont mind me listing: mum, dad, no, wow, oh wow, go away, alright, one, two, five, ten, stop, dont, hi, bye, see you.
and two family members names

she doesn't make sentences and im just starting to worry a lot as ive heard younger children speaking so clearly also a family nember said she was speaking gibberish even though it was said in a jokey way it did actually hurt.

she seems to hear ok sometimes if I call her and im not in the same roon she wont respond but I dont know if its because shes so distracted by whatever shes doing or she cant hear me. I haven't seen my hv since her 1 year check im not sure if its a set thing that they get a 2year check?

Sorry to go on but im glad ive found this thread x

im thinking of ordering a book OP and every one else how are the books that you bought?

Got the letter today to phone central booking place for DD's SALT assessment, and got a cancellation for next week couldn't believe it a wee bit of luck at last