Nearly 3yo speech delay?

[DuckWaddle]

My dd is 2yr 10 months and is struggling with her speech. She has trouble with pronunciation and finds it hard to string a sentence together. She has a wide vocabulary and can say some 4-5 word sentences. But in the main she shortens everything to basic sentences. I saw a SLT at 2 yr 6 months and they thought she was on the low side of normal.
But I'm getting so worried as watching her struggle is so painful. I feel like the only one going through this as all her friends are happily jabbering away. It breaks my heart seeing her try so hard. I'm worried about what it means for her long term.
I'm impatiently waiting on another SLT assessment so just wanted to hear about others experiences. I'm so worried I can hardly sleep or think about anything else at the moment. I'm blaming myself for going back to work to a job with long hours a year ago. Sorry for the ramble!

I think the levels of stress you have over this might just be a little out of proportion. She is stringing 4 to 5 word sentences together and that's really good. In fact it's way more than my DD could do at that age. Just to put your mind at rest, she's just in KS2 now. Is a very enthusiastic reader and doing really well at school.

Have you spoken to your HV about getting her hearing checked? I'd also take her for an eye test. My DDs speech improved once she had glasses.

Thanks for the message. And I'm pleased to hear I may be over thinking things! Yes, I'm currently in the process of getting her hearing checked (although I think it's fine) and she previously had an eye test when they were checking for a squint

You can get a private referral for speech therapy you don't have to wait for the NHS.

It might be worth ringing slt and seeing how long they expect it to take for an appointment to come through.

Shortening sentences is very common too, ie "me want drink". If you are expecting her to say "Mummy Darling, I'm a little thirsty, what do we have in"? You might have slightly unrealistic expectations.

Don't forget, she was assessed as normal

Have you spoken to her key worker at nursery about your concerns?

Following this as my 3.5 year old (going to nursery school in September) is speech delayed but no areas of concern anywhere else...at all. Sociable, sweet natured, funny, expressive - just not bloody talking well. What we're planning is early years help approach in conjunction with his current nursery and the school so we'll see how that goes. His new nursery teacher is also hoping to do the talk+ qualification.

Fingers crossed it sorts itself