Should I refer DD again for speech therapy or will it all come good?

[WearYourPinkGloveBabe]

HV referred DD to SALT when she was just turning 3, because she wasn't saying a lot of sounds correctly. SALT said they wouldn't see her before she turned 4, and we could self-refer back if she hadn't progressed.

So - she's 4 next week and she has progressed a LOT.

But she still can't say the following sounds:

K and T are mixed up (which is especially bad because her name starts with K and people never understand what she is telling them)

D and G are not right, so she says Dan instead of Gran

S coupled with another consonant always becomes F - so swim is fim, and smoke is foke.

She says pissmas instead of Christmas. Wodit instead of youghurt. And she is starting to get very self-conscious when ever we repeat it back to her correctly, and getting quite frustrated and shy about it.

Do you think we should refer her back? The thing is, so much of her speech has improved that I'm prone to thinking these sounds will come too, in time. Or should I get her some help now?

Thanks!

It won't do any harm to get her assessed and see what they think, especially if she us becoming aware of it. They sound like common speech disordered errors that will probably only fake a few sessions to correct but if left it might be harder to correct later.

I would get her assessed as well. No personal experience but my friend's DS struggled with his speech. She delayed referring him, hoping that he was just picking it up more slowly, and it has been a long road since. He's 9 now and still not perfectly clear but lots better and more confident. But she has had a lot of very specific exercises to do with him which is what you might need for your DD.

I would go back. DS1 had very similar speech problems (though he replaced S and F with W). He started speech therapy when he was about 3 1/2 and he was signed off just under a year later.

His speech still isn't perfect (especially when he's tired or ill) but I don't think it would be anywhere near as clear if he hadn't gone to speech therapy. He became a lot calmer as the therapy went on too, as he was able to talk without having to repeat himself as we couldn't understand him.

Anthema that's really interesting, thank you.

Thanks everyone, I think I will just do it. Who knows how long the waiting list would be anyway?

You're right about the waiting list. Self refer now and then see how she goes.

Definitely self refer. I self referred dc4 aged 3. He came on LEAPS AND BOUNDS in just a few weeks! I think it was partly my fault for not taking the time to correct his speech and work with him myself. He just got there so quickly with expert help.
As an added note, ds (now 9) has just been diagnosed with sensory processing disorder which is corrected with coloured lens glasses ... we've just found out his brain doesn't process his hearing properly so mis-hears similar sounds/words.

Yes you are so right about the waiting list. Here it is 12 weeks to be contacted about an assessment and then was a further 6 weeks or so before therapy started. We ended up going private in the end as DS was very difficult to understand and was missing lots of sounds. The five weeks blocks we were getting weren't enough.

Just to agree - I would always go back, even just for the reassurance and some advice on things you might be able do to help, particularly as she's coming up to school age. Things like k/t and g/d are normal; they last longer with some children than others but usually start to disappear by around 31/2 to 4. They'll want to check her hearing - if she's had a lot of colds or ear infections that can slow things down.