@*@*@*@ SALTS - your opinions please on Lulu's DD @*@*@*@

[Lulumama]

have posted before re DDs lack of speech.

she is now almost 2.4, not really forming sentences, and i am her interpreter/ transalator.. even DH finds it hard to understand her. She speaks her own little language but understands everything..

she is not really making any progress, and the small amount she has made has been very slow.

HV has referred her for SALT, this was in August, am still waiting , she reckoned i would hear by Xmas about an appt.

DH is thinking she might have verbal dyspraxia, and wants a referral privately to pead. and / or SALT.

so , is it worth going privately? or is she normal but a little slow?

parameters

thank you very much

hi

i used to work in a class for two to three year olds

there is a huge gap in that year age group with speech deveolpment

simply when you talk to her miss words in the sentence

ie would you like the milk or juice to drink

miss the word milk but show her the milk bottle and use it as
way of talking

just make it fun

hhmm to i make any sense
good luck and enjoy talking and reading to her

We got our private speech therapist for DD#1 from the asltip site and she has been brill so far. We had a 6 months wait for assesment on the NHS and THEN had to join the wait list for therapy after that. I'm really pleased we took her privately in the mean time.

Has your DD had a hearing test? We had no idea our DD had issues with her hearing, and having failed one test I though things would be fine at the second test 6 months later - but it was worse. Since she had grommets in her ears to sort out her glue ear her understanding and attempts at speech have come on a long way. We still have speech issues 6 months on and possible dyspraxia here, but I am so glad we have that behind us at least. DD is now 3.2, and we started on the referral route when she was 1.11

thank you

i have had a look at the site, and there are quite a few near me

i need to find one who is BUPA registered if possible

My dd has had her initial assessment and has waited 11 months so far for SALT. Our waiting list is over a year .

oh my goodness, that is horrendous

i think i will make the steps to go privately

thank you all for sharing your stories

Lulu - No advice on SALTs I'm afraid but just to say that my DD was exaclty the same and it is terribly disheartening to hear the other mums have full-blown conversations with their children when all you can do is have a few words.

My DD is now 3.8 and is fine with the exception of a few letters. He 'speech' didnt come until about 2.4 though. She went from being able to say a handful of words (but fully understanding everything) to then saying most things in sentences in just a few months.

hopefully it will be the same for your DD but I would say if you can afford it then go for a private referral as I understand NHS referrals waiting lists can depend very much on where you live.

XAlice,I know you are probably trying to be helpful but you are talking shite.
It is a very foolish idea to miss words out when speaking.By all means reinforce the meaning of words by showing the relevant object as you say it but not saying it at all...dearieme,that won't work at all.o

to use the word in a sentence

a prompt was what i meant

sorry if you took it the wrong way

ie

shall we have ..... or juice

not always giving the child something letting them speak

sorry if i did not come across well

I've only read the OP so apologies if I'm repeating something - I'm not a SALT but DS3 (5) has "a severe phonological disorder with elements of verbal dyspraxia" (phew!). We've never seen a private SALT and were initially referred via our HV (at about 2.5 - like your DD, lots of speech but I had to translate everything). In my area at least, it was worth chasing the Speech Therapists for that initial assessment - don't be shy about nagging strangers! August to Christmas does seem like a very long wait but I gather SALTs are thin on the ground.

On a positive note, and if it does turn out to be Verbal Dyspraxia, at 5 and after a lot of SALT intervention and work at home, DS3 is mostly intelligible. If he says something out of context or very quickly we still sometimes struggle, but he can make all the consonant sounds now and we're working on things like "th" and "ch" (which lots of kids struggle with anyway). He's Statemented, and has 1-1 speech therapy support at (mainstream) school. You wouldn't think he was the same kid as at 2.5 - SALTs do work wonders.

Sorry - this is long and rambling but I hope some is useful.

X,your point about giving someone time to speak is a valid one. However it is better to leave a gap or a pauseafter having posed a question or a comment rather than leaving out a word when you, the adult, are talking.

thank you all, again !

hassled, DS is in the process of bieng diagnosed dyslexic and has phonological issues too, although he was an early and competent talker.

wht worries me is that dyslexia is to do with language acquisition ,and DD seems to comprehend , but not verbalise adequately, IMO.. i had 2 years of thinking DS was doing fine at school, just not as week as we had hoped, and it turns out there is a real reason why not. don;t want to make the same mistake with DD

i am sure she is within normal range, but we are worried, and that does not help !

i think we will go down the private route, i thikn the NHS route is going to be too long a wait.

Loads (most) people with communication diffs have a mismatch beween comprehension (understanding) and expression (ability to get the word out)

9.9999999 times out of ten,comprehension is superior to expressive ability.

thanks

i spoke to my sister earlier, she asked what my gut insinct is

it is that she is probably normal, but slower to get going

but i have been concerned re her development verbally for several months and it is not going away

and with DSs dyslexia, i just want to get this sorted, and reassured. rather than thinking she is fine when she actually might not be

ifyswim

lulu - when my DD was 2.2 yrs old...she could only say Mummy and Daddy and the rest were all in babble as we could just about to understood her and other people didnt. I was told that if she wasnt speaking clear or making sentence by the time she is 2.6yrs old, she will be referred to SALT. She just gone past the age of 2.5yrs and overnight was speaking brilliant and slowly putting all the words together. Now she is 3.1 yrs old she had an excellent vocabulary as sometimes she surprised me...eg tonight she said to me "Mum, i want to go on a big adventure"

Well a private consultation should set your mind at rest.
(I am going to set up in private practice for MNers I think....)

but i do have to keep an eye on her as my dp got a mild dyslexia and same as my Dps Dad so i think its on the boys side

me first please moondog,, i boycott nestle you know.. can i be first ??

a few people have told me similar things biglips..

Nestle boycotters go straight to the front of the queue.

seriously, thank you for replying, will let you know what happens

many thanks

x

lulumama - just seen your conv - really hope you get it sorted. am a private salt myself - the www.helpwithtalking.com website is definately the best place to find a local therapist. you should be able to see someone really quickly. the length of nhs waiting lists vary so much. let us know how you get on!

thanks, have had a look at the list... there are some private SALTS near me, i need to find a BUPA registered one though, am going to take DD to docs on monday and get a referral

thank you all very , very much

"Very similar thread"

some links

" SLT Ax"

"Look at SLT Referral"

hth

Hi LuluMama
I'm not sure this really helps but just want to add another 'my dc was like this and it changed overnight' type story. Ds is 2.4 and as you probably know from other threads we've both been on, his speech and particularly his pronunciation were worrying me.

Literally this week it has improved leaps and bounds so although this doesn't necessarily put your mind at rest, it might all just be around the corned for your dd.

We left for a holiday last Sunday and the transformation in him has been remarkable. We got back today and things that I know he couldn't say even vaguely properly last week before we left were today being pronounced correctly or very nearly correctly.

It's like a switch has turned on in his brain for speech.
I don't think he'll ever be super chatty as dh isn't and ds takes after him but at least he is more comprehensible now.

I hope this happens for you too. I really do know how hard it is when all the other children of the same age are talking away.