Speech delay and starting nursery

[Dbrea]

So my 3 year old has a speech delay. She has around 90 words a couple of sentences but between the two it's crazy babbling, I honestly she thinks I can understand her..and she understands everything I say. She is potty trained.. needs help getting her undies up and down.. but she starts nursery next Monday and Im dreading it.. can I have any positive stories from anyone who is in or has been in similar position!!! Thanks from a worried mum!

Mine started Preschool at 3 with speech delay.

Has she been seen by an SLT and had her hearing checked @Dbrea?

She hasnt had her hearing tested since she was a baby. I've rang the HV 3 times and because each time she's saying more and more they just said see how she gets on at nursery 🤷🏼‍♀️. Nursery have said they can refer if necessary but Im just panicking.. she has words about 90 and a few sentences but she still babbles like baby talk and she thinks I know what she's saying 😂🤷🏼‍♀️

How many days/hours is she going to do at nursery?

As another has said I would really push for a hearing test. If the Health Visitor isn't being helpful then arrange an appointment for the doctor to do it.

Is she being seen by a speech therapist already? If not I would get this referral done as soon as you can because the waitlist is long to be seen. You can self-refer to your local NHS speech department so just give them a call and ask to be put on the list.

My son is speech delayed and initially I didn't find nursery helped his speech but it helped his confidence and social skills. I reduced his nursery days from 3 days per week to 2 days per week so he would have more 1:1 time with me which I dedicated to speech activities at home. It is hard for nursery to dedicate 1:1 time which I believe at the time is what my son needed in order to understand language and speak. So with your time at home I would recommend trying to do as many speech activities as you can if you aren't already.

There is a new app for speech delay called Pippin. It has so many great activities to try at home. I wish it existed 18 months ago since it would have saved me so much time researching for ideas and inspiration of what to do at home with him! Would recommend giving it a try:

pippinspeech.com/

@Dbrea Hiya I gave up pushing my HV for any help and went straight to the GP (the in-house paediatric Dr who does all the newborn checks) and he has referred us for a hearing test and SLT. Lord knows how long the wait will be but certainly less if I stayed waiting for the HV. I'd recommend just going to the GP. I don't know how how things will pan out in nursery, you may find the exposure to children pushes them along a bit. Have you spoken to nursery about your concerns I'm sure they'll have seen this before with other children X

I'd deffo push for hearing tests OP. Mine understood everything very well but was a bit delayed with expressive language particularly pronounciation. She's 4 now and more or less caught up although still a bit dodgy with some pronounciation.

I actually found the move to preschool very beneficial for mine. As they get more soci

Sorry phone pressed send too soon.. As they get more socially motivated they start to work more on their peers understanding them. I found mine became significantly more understandable after she moved to preschool.

I'm sure your daughter will be fine and I'd just get that hearing test and keep tabs on her progression. You may also find it helpful to contact your local SLT department yourself. I did this. One 5 minute phonecall and they had my dd on their waiting list. Much less hassle than messing about with drs or school. X

Forgot to add, mije has quite bad glue ear which I think has contributed to her expressive language issues. She is awaiting ENT review x

@Dbrea Hello, some update with speech?

Hiii.. wow seeing this pop up is a blast from the past.. she's now year 2 at school and doesn't shut up 😂.. shes doing fine.. abit behind but nothing worrying as she is a summer born baby.

@Dbrea That's great! Do you remember when she started speaking in sentences and became conversational?

School definitely helped I would say 4.. she started school in the September and by the Christmas she was catching up.. now I don't feel there is any difference between her and her school friends. We were put forward to speech therapy just after she started school and haven't heard from them yet and she's now 6 🤦🏼‍♀️