Delayed Speech

[FairyMel]

Hi everyone.

My dd2 is 26mths old and had her 2year development check yesterday. Her speech is delayed and I'm aware of this but the HV marked her as 12mths for hearing and speech which I dont agree with.

Yesterday I wrote down every different word Katie said, there was a total of 31. She isnt putting sentences together. I have no doubts that her hearing is fine. She can hear you whisper her name from across the room.
She can follow instructions like "Can you pass me your trousers", "Where are your shoes?" etc etc but she is VERY strong minded and often ignores you.
She babbles alot but like I say, she can say quite a few words... she just didnt say them yesterday at the assessment!

The HV is coming out to our home in a couple of weeks to reassess her and I'm really worried. I know she is behind but I really didnt think she was at the age of a 12mth old.

Katie is also quite unsteady on her feet and careless about where she walks. She often trips over things because she is in such a rush to get somewhere. She started crawling at 5mths, pulled herself to standing at 6mths and started walking at 10mths so in that respect her physical skills are fine.
The HV quizzed me about her falling over yesterday and I'm worried she is connecting it with the speech.

I'm really confused about what will happen next. My elder daughter was saying loads at this age so its all very new to me.

Until the ages of 33 months Ds 2 said about 5 words and would point and grunt for everything else.
Now he is 6 and never shuts up and has a very wide vocab and high IQ!
I would try not to worry too much esp as she is understanding you.
Is HV trying to suggest DD is dysparxic maybe?

My ds certainly didn't say 31 seperate words at 12 months, so I don't know what your HV would have put him at!!
Maybe it is partly to do with the way they "tier" speech development - I mean, maybe they don't have defined stages other thatn age 1, age 2, age 3 - etc which is why it seems so far behind?!
If her hearing is fine, I wouldn't be too concerned.

In the same boat as you - although I think saying she's at 12mths is a bit bonkers!

My DD1 is 2yrs 3mths and says loads of words, knows most colours, shapes and counts to 15 but only just last week put two words together. She has no grasp of verbs so she never says 'more juice' or 'Mummy do it'.

I'm taking her to a speech and language playgroup I found through our local Surestart (avoided the HVs as they seemed ineffective) after the holidays to see if they can give me some ideas how to move her along and also if there are any underlying problems.

I spoke to them briefly and they said the bulk of the children they saw had a minor delay and with help it speeds up the process of getting it sorted.

Like your DD - mine also falls over everything and we are thinking that dyspraxia needs to be thought about. If it is that then we just want to be ahead of the game and get her help asap before she starts pre-school.

Personally I'd see what's out there to give her a helping hand although it may just be that she's taking her time!

Thanks for the comments. The stages the age markers went up in were 3mths... if she had marked her at 15mths I might have been happier. When she comes in a fortnight I will have a proper look at the assessment form to see where she marked her for the rest. I was so upset yesterday I forgot most of what she said.

I've found myself analysing everything she has done today and its driving me mad!

Katie is very hard work, she always has been. I'll be glad to get some help with her I really will. She is a lovely child... full of love but she is on the go ALL the time.

I'll keep you informed as to how she gets on. I might need to use this forum to vent a little bit about her behaviour!

Thanks Tc thats really helpful.

I'm feeling alot happier today. I've observed Katie really carefully the last couple of days and written down all her words aswell as what instructions she can follow so that I have some info together to give the HV.

The list of words is currently 76 long. There's probably more that will be added to that as I think of them/as she says them. Some of those are 2 words together (all gone, love you, Oh dear!).

Oh, meant to say... its been good to write down all her words. I now have a lovely list that I can put into her memory box. It made me chuckle reading down the list.

Look at it this way - if her speech/communication/hearing are within the normal range assessment will not change this. If there is an underlying problem it may well help her. Children do develop at different rates but at the same time problems with hearing can be quite subtle and difficult to detect so it does no harm to check and check again.

agree with wb (my DS has a language delay). SALT are more expert at assessing language use and comprehension than an HV, so obviously pay attention to what HV is saying, but try not to worry too much about extent of delay till you see the SALT. I would try encouraging verbs and then building verbs up into little 2 word phrases, as verbs are the building blocks towards speaking in sentences.

and generally - speech therapy is non-invasive- your DD will just see it as a nice lady coming to get her to look at pictures/see how she plays etc - so if she has one or two sessions that prove to be unnecessary it will do no harm at all - it's us parents that get stressed by it alL!