3yr old with speech disorder any help appreciated

[feeble]

My daughter has just turned 3 and has been dignosed with a speech disorder. She is seeing a speech therapist who just seems to assess her not give her therapy. I am trying to find out what she should be receiving for this and if there is anything I can do to help her at home. I would also love to chat to any other mums who have had this with their kids as I am feeling really isolated
sorry to go on!
Fi

what kind of a speech disorder? who diagnosed her? really interested in this as ds has had a stutter and it seems worse than ever at the mo but nursery haven't expressed any concerns...

sorry can't be of any help. hope someone else comes along soon who can help you.

Delay or disorder? My ds2 didn't put 2 words together until he was 3.

How many sessions has she had? SLT should assess and treat, definitely, but maybe she is assessing over a period of time. Also maybe they are adopting a 'wait and see' policy as many problems do resolve. But fair enough not to be happy with that.

Moondog, are you there? I'm only in week 1 of my SLT training, that's all I know!

She is very unclear in her speech and only talks in 2 word sentances occasionally 3 and apparently has poor understanding of what is being said to her although appears to have a good vocab (I am very confused)it isnt just delay or so speech therapist says as she is a bit spasmodic as good in some areas but not in others. Got off to bad start with ST as she said it was an attention problem but education psyco - watsit says otherwise.I feel she should be doing some excersizes with her but ive been going for 4 months and nothing..!

my dd also has speech problems. When she was 3 was only talking in 2 words at a time.
She has had speech therapy and been sent to a playgroup that has a high staff to pupil ratio. she is now just 4 and is speaking really, she still mixes some of her sounds up but the improvment is amazing makaton signing is really helpful too.

the school has been great. they were the ones to suggest seeing the psycologist. I dont know enough about it to complain without

Hi feeble, I'm an SLT and although it's not right for me to give advice etc, i wouldn't do speheir own environments, speech sound therapy on a child of 3, too young, i would give advice on improving language levels though, how many sessions you had? you been given advice/ strategies? children learn best in their own environments, clinic therpay sessions for language are usually not that effective long term, hope that helps

sorry, didn't check my message before i sent it, it's all jumbled up!! the jist was maybe your SLT feels dd is too young for direct therapy at the mo, has she given you advice/ strategies? how many sessions you had?

Ive had 3 sessions, and just feel ive havent had any advice on how to cope with it (it affects her behaviour through frustration) Im willing to do anything to help her as I can see how upset she gets about it and her behaviour is getting her labelled as the naughty kid where she just dosnt understand whats being said to her. her spoken language is better than her receptive language and this is back to front apparently.

(sorry, totally different situation to ours. wishing you all the best.)

Actually thinking about it no advice at all just this 'diagnosis'

sorry you haven't had a great experience with your therapist. when you see her next ask for specific advice and strategies, ask her if she can work with the nursery if possible, if behaviour etc is affected then nursery will need input, she isn't naughty as you said, just having trouble understanding and following some directions. usualyy children understand more than they can say, but not all, as your little one proves! have you had a specific diagnosis?

i was only in on 4 of my DD's sessions (r done at playschool now). was all done thru' games, trying to get her to talk about what she was doing.
DD wouldn't have a conversation, just spoke phrases. This is where the makaton signing really helped, if you r interested in what it is watch 'something special' on cbeebies, and maybe mention it to the SLT.

I have 2 boys who have/had disordered speech (as part of their autism). Ds2 (4) still has help from a SALT.

Like your dd, ds2's spoken language is much better than his ability to understand what is said to him. He has been seeing a SALT since he was 2yrs-old.

I'm not an expert so obviously can't tell you anything specific about what would help your dd but can tell you how our SALT has been helping ds2.

The first thing was to go back to the beginning with language and teach individual nouns. We had lots of very simple pictures of things like house, doll, teddy, cup, plate etc. You can play matching games and lotto games with them to make it more interesting. We also used simple toys like dolls, dolls houses, bears and tea-sets. It feels really strange at first because it feels as though you're somehow babying your child as you've heard them say much more. It really does help though to build up vocabulary.

Once my ds was doing well with nouns we moved on to simple verbs using similar methods as for nouns. Lots of simple pictures of people or animals walking, eating, climbing, swimming etc. Again it's about building up understanding.

It also helps if you break down your day-to-day language into simple language, eg instead of "Do you want to go to the park, Jane?" you say "Jane go park?" You will feel really silly and self-conscious to start with but again it really can help.

A lot of people find the group ICAN useful too, especially if you are feeling isolated.

Also feel free to post on the mumsnet Special Needs board. There are quite a few of us with some experience of speech & language difficulties over there.

Has she had her hearing checked?

My DS 3.5 has similar problems. Still awaiting NHS appointments, I've had a few private appointments, DS is clearly very behind both in expressive and receptive language.

For general information and emotional support, there is a good book by Debbie Feit called "The Parent's Guide to Speech and Language Problems".

For some practical advice on what to do, I have found the Hanen books very useful (called "It takes two to talk", and "You make the Difference". There is also some useful information on the hanen website (www.hanen.org), and on www.speechteach.co.uk/p_resource/speech/speech_intro.htm.

I agree with beautifulgirls - it is sensible to have her hearing checked, it is a bogstandard precaution to see if a hearing problem could be causing a language problem.

thanks everyone. yes she had her hearing checked and it was fine. Will now be gone for a while checking out all this advice ! cheers fi

I have a son who is similar, he knew lots of individual words from early on but at 3 was not really able to string them into sentences or understand much of what was said to him. It's as if he was learning English as a foreign language so could understand things said slowly or written down but once people started to talk quickly he would be lost. I agree with TC about Hanen - we went on a Hanen course and although much of it was not relevant it was definitely well worth it. DS is now 4 and talking in sentences, albeit with strange sounding grammar. His understanding is very much improved also.

Hi feeble,

I am currently taking my 3.1 year old to ST and like your DD he can say words he is just struggling to string them together. We have only had one session of ST so far but it was a NIGHTMARE, he was terrible, he threw the mother of all tantrums because he wanted to play with the toys and they were trying to assess him whilst he was laying on the floor refusing to look at anyone. I was mortified and we gave up in the end but have another session booked for next month.
I have got friends who have had their kids at ST for different reasons all of them have said the ST has helped but it has taken time.

Please dont worry, she will catch up, its hard I know, my DS1 started talking at 1 and hasnt shut up since (hes 10 now) so it was a shock when DS2 didnt seem to be saying much by 2. He too gets frustrated but I bought a baby leap pad book and that helped a little with some words. He loves books so he is happy to sit and repeat (or try to) words I am saying.

I really want to put him in nursery but I worried that he would find it hard comunicating with the other kids but HV thinks it would help so I am starting him for a couple of afternoons after the HTH.
I got quite a lot of excercises from ST to try with him, did you not get any??