Speech therapy/speech difficulties

[Nightgardenbabyboy]

Has anyone got any experience?

I’ve been concerned about ds2 speech since he was 1yo. He’s now 2.5. He’s just very behind where his brother was at a similar age in terms of his speech.

He has a very good understanding of the world around him, communicates with me, can follow instructions, name and point to objects etc. But he’s only got maybe 60 words, and his pronunciation of some is bad.

Health visitor at 1 and 2 year check felt he was within normal age limit, so I left it at that.

His nursery have now raised it with me. I’m not surprised really but do feel a bit rubbish, wondering where I’ve gone wrong. It’s not like I ignore him all day, I talk to him all the time, read books and so on.

Anyway, has anyone got any experience of speech therapy, has it helped? Do they do anything that you can’t do at home?

My DS is now 2.9 years and at 22 months I got the details to do a self-referral to Speech & Language Therapy from our local SureStart children's centre. When I initially rang SLT they asked me lots of questions and then agreed that an assessment was needed. DS was described by them as a 'reluctant speaker' (aka lazy) and while they had no major concerns they offered me a parent-only course at our local hospital which gave us the details of the Hanen programme 'It Takes Two to Talk.'

I have just done a 3-week course with DS and three other families showing more ways to encourage children to talk and 'give' them words through play.

I would look into self-referral - if you have no SureStart near you then check with the HV or GP for details. Also ask them if they think a hearing test is necessary, as my DS has had two tests this year which both suggest congestion in his ears but they said he has sufficient hearing for speech development.

In the meantime try things like Match Plus One i.e. if he says car, you repeat 'car' and then say 'red car'. It's giving another word/s to whatever they say. Talk to him about what you are doing, chat about things you see/hear when out and about, read a lot.

Most importantly, SLT told me that parents ask their DC far too many questions - for every question you ask them wait 10 seconds for a response, before repeating or re-phrasing it. Also counter questions with commenting more often.

Good luck.