Anyone fancy a speech therapy thread?

[mamapants]

Have read some older support threads but couldn't find anything recent.

My DD is 2.2 and has just had her second speech therapy session.
She's had an inconclusive ear test and we're waiting for another more comprehensive ear test.
She basically only has four consistent words.

I've been given some really useful tips from the speech therapist today and will share them later on if anyone thinks they'd find them useful.

Anyone else in the same boat.
Any tips to share or just want to share your worries concerns.

Thank you

[Inthehighcastle]

Watching with interest. DS 30 months has a speech delay. His vocabulary has improved as well as putting words together, he will do 3-4 words together now but it's his pronunciation I'm worried about. It hasn't improved at all in months and months. It is specific sounds he can't say and he won't even attempt a lot of words if they contain an s or c sound for example, so he doesn't say car.
It's interesting to hear about the lack of strength in their back molars, I'm wondering if this could be part of our problem. He has always chewed his food at the front of his mouth and very often just sucks it, takes an age to get him to eat a meal!

The health visitors keep saying give it a few more months and I'm getting more and more frustrated with the whole situation. I feel judged by everyone and will punch the next person that tells me their DC spoke early because they were always sang to and spoken to as a baby! I have been to group sessions with a speech and language therapist but after being on a waiting list it was basically just a stay and play where we got given a patronising leaflet at the end telling us to read books and sing nursery rhymes.

Sorry this has turned into a rant but I'm seriously fed up of feeling judged, everybody in rl thinks they're such a bloody expert.

I'm going to try blowing golf balls with him later

[helenlove]

Inthehighcastle that sounds really similar to my DS. He chews food at the front of his mouth and also kind of mashes it with his tongue and roof of his mouth. He also prefers soft foods and avoids chewy things like meat.

He can't say any s words or p words. It's so difficult when people ask me what did he say and I have to say 'I don't know!' As people expect me to be able to understand him but often I don't have a clue what he is saying. Poor boy!

[Inthehighcastle]

It's so hard isn't it, especially as I can see he's trying to tell me something. P, T and D all sound very similar and he won't attempt S or C/K sounds at all, although he can shush me and if I say what does a snake do he can do a sort of hiss. I was really hoping for more specific info from the speech and language sessions we went to. They didn't seem concerned with pronunciation at all.
He even makes his own words up now for words he can't say, which we can understand but no one else can and in my opinion this is just not learning to speak English.

The more I think about it the more I think I'm going to push for another referral, maybe a hearing test.

[mamapants]

I share your frustration.
I feel like no one has actually communicated how bad they think it is, or how much of an issue it is, what the long term plan is and what kind of progress we should be expecting/ hoping for.
Definitely feel lots of the advise is really patronising, I feel as though because I have an older child who was an early, advanced talker that people are taking me a bit more seriously and not assuming its because I don't put any effort in. But all the advise is the same and I'm already doing it and she isn't getting anywhere. Very frustrating.
But at same time I know children at two who had few words like dd but were told its nothing to worry about.
I had the report back from the gearing test and the paediatrician had written severe speech delay and it just felt so real and serious, but nobody has really acknowledged much while I'm there.
I really need to ask more questions I think!

[MrsHathaway]

Yes!

It wasn't until I said "and his setting have said that his speech problems are holding him back in this area and this area and this area" that they seemed to take me remotely seriously.

[Inthehighcastle]

I've managed to get them to refer DS for a hearing test which will take 2-3 months, at least that's a start.
The lady I spoke to said he is too young to do any specific one on one work to help with specific sounds but they have put our names down for a parent craft class in September. I'm frustrated to say the least .

[Sammysquiz]

I feel as though because I have an older child who was an early, advanced talker that people are taking me a bit more seriously and not assuming its because I don't put any effort in

I'm noticing this too. My DS only has a few words (he's 2.3) and I notice a change in attitude when people hear my older DD was talking in full sentences by the time she was 15 months. I think the assumption is the problem is caused by you not talking to them enough

[mamapants]

That's exactly it sammy and it seems without that notion to go on they haven't actually got anything to suggest

[mamapants]

Just checking in to say I met with a lady from Afasic last week and thought I'd recommend them for anyone who hasn't heard about them.
I just happened to come across a poster for support groups they run.
It was really good to meet with her.
She gave me some more resources, a CD and book on ideas. She also told me if the speech therapist recommends makaton for him then they will be able to put my name down for free courses and give me posters etc.
They also can come in to the school to advocate for more help of advise the school.
So definitely worth getting in touch.

[Msqueen33]

Following with interest

[MrBoot]

I am following this thread. My child is 32 months and his speech is very poor and difficult to understand. He seems to say the beginning of words but not the end part of any word. He refuses to even try to pronounce any 's' words. When I ask him to say them, he flatly refuses - no! no! no!

Nothing was brought up at his two year assessment but I know in my heart, he is very delayed. I'm not sure if there are further issues. I have always felt there may be but I don't know if that is because he has a very different temperament to his sibling.

[OhFuds]

I'm following this thread too...

My DS (4) can't say alot of words that begin with S, stairs is dairs, school is cool, stop is dop etc

He's starred nursery at 3 and his speech has never been mentioned by his key worker but when he goes back after the summer I'm going to mention if she thinks he's just slower to learn how to blend certain sounds or should I be looking into speech therapy for him.

[Tippytoes13]

The one thing I have learnt, don't listen to people who tell you, they are just lazy, they will talk eventually etc. I did that with my first son and even though I know there was a delay, I thought I was worrying too much. He was referred to speech therapy when he was four, we had a long wait and then was discharged, she gave me things to do at home with him, which helped, but he did have a language delay, she had only noted he had a pronunciation delay. He's 10 now and he is going to be referred back to speech therapy, we suspect he has a processing delay too, his speech has never been quite right, but he was plagued by ear infections as a baby/toddler, so I think that had something to do with him missing out the crucial early sounds. I used to sit with him and do flashcards, lots of play, read books etc, but his speech just never progressed, he did understand everything I said though. It did lead onto lots of frustration and tantrums when he was a toddler, as a result of lack of communication. His younger brother however, is very advanced speech wise, it's only now that I see the difference, with your first you don't have anyone to compare them to. If you do think your child has a problem, do get help.

[mamapants]

Have you spoken to anyone mrboot
If youbare worried you should chat to HV or someone.
Does he sound very different to his peers?

[mamapants]

Sounds very stressful tippitoes when is he being seen? What are his issues now at 10?

[Lulu2515]

Hello! I'm an SLT, this is quite a nice link to look up some norms of development... <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.talkingpoint.org.uk/sites/talkingpoint.org.uk/files/stages-speech-language-development-chart001.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjRiYGxyaPOAhUHcRQKHS_UDZgQFggbMAA&usg=AFQjCNEZWqGU3k623q5c9o9EBUCIEg0TIg&sig2=PBFdQwD8djcjF8foRcdKOA" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.talkingpoint.org.uk/sites/talkingpoint.org.uk/files/stages-speech-language-development-chart001.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjRiYGxyaPOAhUHcRQKHS_UDZgQFggbMAA&usg=AFQjCNEZWqGU3k623q5c9o9EBUCIEg0TIg&sig2=PBFdQwD8djcjF8foRcdKOA

[OhFuds]

Lulu Is there anything particular I can do with my DS (4) to help him pronounce S words better? I try and get him to repeat the words he says wrong, sometimes he eventually get it but others times he doesn't especially the words starting with SC and ST.

[Lulu2515]

Has he had a hearing test to make sure he is hearing the /s/ sound properly?

I would model the sound to him and practise saying the sound in isolation. Like hissing snakes, make it a game.
Then practise adding in a vowel so s-ee or s-oo.
You mentioned about some s blends (s+another consonant). These are trickier but you can model the same way e.g making sure he can say the /s/ then slowly building up to s+k or s+t.

Try and make it fun and I'd advise to not pick up on every mistake that he makes as it is likely to impact on his confidence. Just model back the correct way of saying the word and move on. Occasionally you can challenge him with 'did you mean 'sop' or did you mean 'stop'?'

Hope that helps

[OhFuds]

Thanks for the advice, he hasn't had a hearing test. His key worker at nursery has never mentioned it so maybe I'm being paranoid and he'll eventually catch on. I'm going to keep a note of the words he definitely can't say and the next parent's meeting at nursery I'll see what the teacher thinks.

[MrBoot]

Mamapants I rang the HV today and she agreed that it sounds like there is an issue. I am anxious to begin to help as soon as possible, they have put him on a list to be seen. In the meantime, I think I may look into a private consultation just to see if I can start working on anything in the meantime.

Today I asked DS to go through the alphabet. Apart from W,X and Z he pronounced them very well. Then I asked him to say 's for snake' and did a little hissing sound pretending to be a snake and he copied me using a 'cl' sound. I don't know, when he speaks it is almost like he has false teeth rattling around inside his mouth. Everything seems to begin with 'cl'.

[mamapants]

How long did HV say the wait would be Mr boot?
Sounds strange how he can say all his letters but not in words.

Am getting a lot more babble that's almost sounding like words now, so think that's a step in the right direction for us. Still no more words though.
Should be seeing the HV soonish for the 27mth check where I think I'm going to say that I'm concerned in general, not just in speech. SHe's such an odd little monkey.
And should be getting the next hearing test soon.

[Inthehighcastle]

My DS is similar with the s sound. He can hiss like a snake and if I do a long s sound he can copy. He can say shhh mummy lol! But when we have tried to add a sound on to the end he will do the long s then just say the word how he has always said it.
I don't understand this speech development at all, for example he can definitely say B and N really well but no matter how many times I model the word bin he will not even attempt it but when I say wheelie bin he will attempt the wheelie part which to me seems like a much harder word.
There are other words too that he should theoretically be able to say based on the sounds he can make but he says them totally different, I can't think what they are off the top of my head, I just find the whole thing really odd!

[mamapants]

Its really odd isn't it. Don't know how our brains compute these things.
I remember being amazed at my first dd , how they just magically acquire speech and when you stop and think about it its really amazing. It must be such a complex thing.
So I guess its probably obvious that some will struggle with it more than others and take a bit longer.

[Jennywallpaper]

My DS is going for his first appointment today, my DH and I went and did a group meeting with the salt in July and they gave us some tools to try and help develop his speech. I've seen a little improvement in the last few weeks or so but really hoping that with the salt help it will come on a lot better. My DS is almost 3 and can communicate well but doesn't say many words and some are only clear to DH and I. His comprehension is very good (I think) so am not to worried about that. Just don't want him falling to far behind

[mamapants]

How did the appointment go Jenny?
DD has had another session and now been referred to paediatrician and clinical psychologist etc. Think they may be concerned about autism. Am struggling with the whole thing. Everything takes so long, still waiting for second hearing tests.
Speech therapist is contacting the preschool to suggest a 1-1 for her when she starts in December.