Should I be worried about my 3 year old not forming full sentences?

[dionnysoss]

Hi all,

I’m looking for some reassurance/experiences from other parents.

My daughter is 3 and a half years old and is due to start school in September. I’ve had some concerns about her speech as she isn’t yet forming full sentences consistently.

I spoke to our health visitor who did an assessment and said this can be quite common at this age and isn’t something to worry about right now. She gave us some exercises to work on and is going to check in again in a couple of months.

Nursery haven’t flagged any major concerns either, though they have mentioned she has a lisp and sometimes struggles to pronounce certain words clearly.

She understands what we say and communicates her needs, but her speech isn’t always very clear to others.

I’d love to hear from parents who’ve been in a similar position.

Did your child’s speech just come on with time? Did anyone do speech therapy or specific activities at home that helped?

Thanks in advance 🙂

I'd get her hearing checked as a first point of call.

Can I ask what assessments yhe HV asked you to fill in @dionnysoss?

Was it these two?

42 month Ages & Stages

and the 48 month Social & Emotional Ages & Stages.

I do agree with TTCJJB, the very least she should have done is refer DD for a hearing test and book an appointment with you in a couple of months to check her progress.

Yes. It was telephone conversation but the HV asked me the same questions under communication from 42 month Ages and Stages.
she said there is nothing to worry about but she did mention some exercises we could do.

it seems a bit if a contradiction that she says there is nothing to worry about but alao gave you some exercises. Do you know how they scored?

Well I did ask if there is anything I could do help further her speech development. She just mentioned repeating words correctly, describing what I am doing and so on.

Ah, I actually don't know the score.

Ok so if you’re worried and don’t know the score of the assessments, I would do this simple progress checker and see how she scores. If it says that she needs some support, they should send you some resources. You should also ask your HV for a referral to SaLT and for a hearing test.

My own DD didn’t talk much at that age and mixed up some sounds but had 6 sessions with SaLT and really improved. The sessions are based on play and she asked to go back once the sessions had finished.

Oh thank you! That's super helpful. I've done the progress checker and they've sent me some resources.

That's reassuring to know! Thank you for the help 🙂

No problem

If they e sent some resources does that mean it said that she needs some support?

If so, i would contact the HV again today and tell her that you’ve done the progress checker and would like a referral for a hearing test and to SaLT.

Speech & Language UK is a very well respected charity so your HV should make those referrals for you.

I’m not sure what the waitress bf lists are like where you are but she might not be seen before she September, even if the referrals are made today.

Yes, so after doing the progress checker it did say that she needs a bit of help with her communication so they linked the resources and sent them over. Wonder why I had different results with the HV, even the nursery didn't flag anything until I told them again this morning. They said they'll observe her closely and keep me updated. But I will give them a ring back and tell them about the progress checker and a referral for a hearing test and Salts.