Would love to hear from Parents whose children suffered/are suffering with speech delay

[sebsmummy1]

Hello, I have written about my son's speech delay in the past but as things haven't particularly improved I thought I might find some solace online.

He is 2.8 years old. Has been attending pre school since March and has been assessed by our HV, a drop in speech therapy session then a more comprehensive speech therapy session where I have been referred to a course in Sept but individual sessions weren't deemed necessary.

He gabbles all the time, has good comprehension, but doesn't say more than about 20 words.

I've just come bank from the end of year party at his pre school and thought he had done pretty well seeing that most of the children there are three and four. But one of the pre school staff who tends to be a bit negative about his development, made another negative comment about his inability to concentrate and follow instruction (she is right, his attention span is extremely limited) and once again I'm deflated.

On the SALT instructions we have included lots more pretend play and this is going pretty well. He now tucks his bears up in his bed and pretend plays with his dolls house figures. Before it was all buttons and destruction.

His confidence is great, he sleeps a night, eats brilliantly, is big for his age, rarely I'll, shows no signs of Autism but I'm wondering if he may have as yet undiagnosed SEN. The preschool worker I mentioned certainly hints at it, and he is having a very detailed assessment come Sept to see if they need to bring in extra help for him. I just feel a bit lost and wondered if anyone cod relate?

Ds also had speech delay but presenting very differently from your ds. His attention span was exceptionally good but he couldn't pronounce the words even single sounds and said his first word at 2.5 and first sentence at 3. He was diagnosed with developmental verbal dyspraxia at 3.5 and had hours and hours of speech therapy, he is now in year 3 and doing really well with speech. The thing is that children with speech problems are all different! It's hard to apply our journey to anyone else's.

What I can suggest is to play listening games with your ds so that he learns to listen and pay more attention to his surroundings. You can play Simon says, or musical chairs, or play games by putting your hands by your ears and encouraging him to listen to birds, cars airplanes etc. search listening games online and YouTube and I am sure you will find loads of ideas.

Have you had his hearing checked?

Thanks for your post iwantakitchen. He has had the baby hearing test but nothing further. I have no reason to think he has any hearing problems though as he can hear a pin drop in an adjacent room so I think unfortunately for us it is developmental.

Watching this thread with interest. DS is 23 months old and babbles and will copy noises (clicking tongue / blowing raspberries) but no words. He's had a drop-in SALT session where we got a leaflet with play techniques and a referral to audiology. I'm just worried I should be doing more to help him.

Sounds similar to my DS1 2.7yo (thread here).

We don't have an 'outcome' as such yet, but what I can say is that I have largely ignored the concerned looks and furrowed brows. Not out of arrogance or complacency, just fed up of taking it into account when I thoroughly enjoy my little boy. Entering 3rd lot of speech therapy (NHS) in about 6 weeks from now, had 2 hearing tests and waiting on more in autumn, waiting for appointments to come through for multi-agency observation and diagnosis (sounds along the same lines as your detailed assessment, this is 5 sessions of observation; he had a development paediatrician assessment a while back which led to this referral).

But honestly? We think he's just a late developer. Early diagnosis if anything presents is of course a good thing and will help so much, but sometimes it isn't anything and we get worked up and worried and 'helpful' people make that worse. We are of course still following along with everything to support him and make sure he has everything he needs and very grateful for the provision in our area. But I can relate to your post

Agghh well there goes that username

we need an eyeroll smiley

Re hearing tests, it's well worth bearing in mind that it's not always volume. Often it's the frequency of the sound. My DD had glue ear and learnt to lip read. She gave a very good impression of a hearing child, hanging been deaf for her first two years. I'd get it checked.

My 4yr old has only just started to talk (came to live with us 6 months ago). We have had 8 sessions of 121 speech therapy, it's only a half hour session but has been brilliant for showing me what to do with her. We now do 30 mins per day and play the same games. Each session I ask the therapist to give us the cards with words/sounds that we are working on for that week and she can now say about 70 words clearly! On top of that she is confident stringing 4 & 5 word sentences together. Amazing!!
Don't lose faith OP. It will get better

My little boy is 2.5 years and sounds very similar he sleeps well, has v limited concentration which was picked up by salt and something we have t work on! He had a hearing test as he has lots of single words but his pronunciation is very poor and he is difficult to understand. We found d out he has glue ear and are looking I to private salt as NHS have limited support. The' I can 'website as recommended by another mum on here has lots of advise and links that might b worth looking at x

My 4 year old DS has a speech disorder and sees a speech therapist once a fortnight (when he starts school in September he will get additional support) plus we do speech games every day.

He was first diagnosed a year ago and for ages it felt like he was never going to progress but over the last two months he's come on leaps and bounds.

Well done Pinkandpurple! It does seem like they are not getting anywhere then suddenly it's ok. I think doing it every day helps x

My DD had a speech delay. She understood everything you said to her but couldn't answer back. Her attention span was apparently bad for her age at pre-school too.
She had two x6 sessions with a lovely speech therapist who gave me lots of tips to help her.
Fast forward to now, she has just finished her first year in Reception and has caught up with all of her peers. Her attention span is heaps better, she is definitely in the top part of her class with regards to 'sitting nicely and listening'.
DDs pre-school were great, but I too got lots of negative comments about everything she was behind with and sometimes I felt like saying "Is there anything she IS fucking good at?" Sorry for swearing, but it REALLY got me down at times.
OP Please remember your little boy is still so young at the moment. He has so much growing to do, and so much time before he starts school. I found with DD she 'matured' a lot in the summer between leaving pre-school and joining school, and then things really really improved since starting school.
for you as its a difficult stage you are at, but it will get better and he will catch up.

First, the nursery or pre school worker is acting very unprofessionally. Ignore her.

Ds had speech delay. Attended two terms of group therapy and had lots of support at pre school which helped a lot. He only started therapy when he was nearly three. Now he is about to start reception and while I would say he is still at the bottom end of the class for speech, he has come on amazingly.

Unlike you however, we have wonderful supportive staff at his school. All of whom keep telling me how wonderfully he is doing. It is now clear to me that they were very concerned about him in the beginning but they did not over burden me as they knew that we were also concerned and doing as much as we could to help him.

DS is now 3.8 now but at 2.8 couldn't say a single sentence and had about 10 words in his vocabulary. His attention was fine though.
Initially we had SALT sessions at a NHS clinic but it's so slow and sporadic (there's no money as usual) however he then got assessed through his day nursery by a educational psychologist and was referred to the local preschool which has a speech and language facility on site. I'm amazed there's any funding for it but it's amazing. It's a regular preschool but about 20
Of the kids have a speech delay and there's designated speech therapist on site who works with the kids in small groups 3x a week.

A year later and he's nearly caught up with full on proper conversations. We can't believe it sometimes! A lot of it is down to the provision but I will also say he was a late developer in everything (crawling walking etc) and I just think he needed more time than anything else.

If you're in London PM me for details of the preschool. They have kids coming in from everywhere

At 2.8 my DS didn't speak either and doesn't really reflect many of the stories here. He only just started speaking at 4.8 and even now his words are indistinct. He was seen in two sessions by a speech therapist at 2.2 and 2.6 who referred him to a community paediatrician and he was eventually diagnosed with ASD.

However, DS had all the signs - no eye contact, moved around people like they didn't exist, no pointing or taking adults to things he wanted, was happy to play by himself obsessively. We felt lost at the time and like most parents were devastated by the diagnosis. As it was our first child we did not know what was normal development - we just kept thinking he would catch up - but he didn't. We went to see our GP and he told us to come back in another year when he was three as his nephew didn't speak until then. I made a self referral to SALT and things went forward from there. We kidded ourselves that if he had autism it was probably mild but looking back we were in denial.

My recommendation is to keep pushing and pushing as funds are so tight that it seems it is only the persistent parents that get anywhere.

Firstly check his ears for glue ear. They seems like they can hear you but the hearing is distorted cause of the fluid in the ear.
Secondly try proefa fish oils, they r supposed to help with apraxia
My ds1 was saying 5-6 words by last April when he turned 3 and now 4 months on he's speaking in sentences - still hasn't caught up but the progress is amazing. We did gluten free casein free (giving an enzyme when he has gluten), and giving extra zinc and vitamin d

Good luck x

My ds has bad speech delay, he's 5.5 and no one can understand him except immediate family, he works with a SALT once a week, he's made progress with his teachers but as he'll be in year 1 with different teachers come September, it's like starting all over again. He also took part in a DEST screening and has shown signs of dyslexia, so will need to look into that, incase he needs help. It's honestly something that's a lot harder to deal with than you think.
Can honestly say pre school is (normally) a great help with preparing them for school though, dd2 is thriving.