Those who have children with speech delay. Do they make any sounds at all ?

[RudyVonLasagne]

I am asking because my ds's speech is coming on in an odd way. He is nearly 3 and his speech, such as it is, ranges from very clear single words, or short phrases to sentences which are only understood by me and which are forced out as if he wants to say it as quickly as possible. He is being assessed for social/communication difficulties anyway, but I wondered if anyone had children whose speech was largely unintelligible to start with and then improved.

Thanks

Sorry - I know that all children's speech is unintelligible to start with, but I am talking about those children who are late talkers, or who have problems talking.

DS (3.9, with a provisional dx of high functioning autism) got stuck on single words and the odd short phrase for a very long time - first word before 12 months and not using sentences 2 years later. The first sentences he used, he was repeating things he had heard people say, or heard on television, but as if they were one long word. Since he turned 3 there has been a massive improvement and he talks in spontaneous sentences and strikes up conversations. It does still sound a bit weird; he mixes up pronouns and makes the kind of grammatical mistakes a 2 year old might make (e.g. "I felled down") but is so very much improved from a few months ago that I often forget he is still behind.

Do you think your DS could be echoing whole sentences and that is why they sound funny?

My dd made very little noise at all, no babble only 'intonated vowel sounds' until she was 2.6. Then she started talking but very indistinct. SHe was referred for SALT, assessed and put on the waiting list. We are still on it.... Now (3.6) she speaks reasonably clearly. She has trouble with the beginning of words. Some sounds she can't make, and others she can, but not at the beginning of a word IYSWIM. And yes, she did start talking by parroting back whole sentences in one long burble. But she came on very qucikly once she started.

LGS - my god your DS sounds similar to my DS(except I'm waiting for the massive improvement, unfortunately!!)

Hi rudy, no personal experience myself, but a friend's son was very vocal and chatty, just unintelligable, when he was assessed it was diagnosed as dyspraxia. Since then he's had a speech therapist, and 1-2-1 help at school and has come on amazingly.

I'm sure your ds will be fine - hth

btw I always say this, but if you can get on a Hanen course, or just get one of their books (You make the Difference about £12, It takes two to talk about £30 on ebay) that will give you loads of practical advice.

google verbal dyspraxia and apraxia (especially apraxia kids) (Apraxia is an american name for verbal dyspraxia). See if it rings any bells.

Hey thanks for the tips folks - I didn't think anyone was going to reply...

WIll check out Hanen mts, and have started to look at stuff on apraxia, gess. It does ring a bell actually - I didn't know there was such a thing as verbal dyspraxia tbh, and it seems to fit ds's current development more than anything else I have looked at. He is generally doing well in other aspects of development and his understanding is pretty good.

He is now attending a 'special' playgroup, with a high ratio of staff per child and in the few weeks there, seems to have come on already. He will be observed there in the autumn and will have another joint assessment hopefully sometime after then.

The worrying thing is that his sister (nearly 2) is catching up and starting to overtake on speech - it makes it all the more noticeable.

My boy was only baby babbling at three but used tantrums and sign language to communicate. With four siblings speech was going on around him all of the time. He wasn't deaf. The speech therapist found out he could not recognise many sounds so had a lot of confusion about what words meant. eg copy was cough and inside, outside, beside confused him. He couldn't get his mouth around most sounds so we had to teach him how to hold his tongue, lips and mouth to make the sounds before we taught him how to string these into words and later sentences. This was one of many problems. Teacher aids required at school etc etc Dyspraxia of course. Dyslexia is present too. We are slowly accepting he may not grow out of his problems.

Babbled and had a few words til 13 months when he regressed, by 3.5 he had 10 words but used to make strange sounds such as barking or panting like a dog, high pitched squealing etc.

Little in the way of social interaction - eg you could sing him a song and bounce him on your knee while doing it and he would be staring into the middle distance uninterested and making no attempt to do actions or join in.

Diagnosis at 7 of HFA