What is the problem here? Any SALTs out there?

[JetSetWilly]

Hi,

DS had grommets fitted about six weeks ago. I have not seen a massive improvement yet but I'm sure that will come over time, as he gets used to hearing better. He is under the local ENT and paediatric audiology.

My only (small) concern is that DS still pronounces words incorrectly i.e. 'bop' instead of 'stop'. This is not like the usual words that toddlers sometimes find difficult like yellow, lorry, television. For example when he says 'fireman sam' it sounds like bam bam bam! However when I ask him to repeat it slowly, he does pronounce the words better, and can make the 'm' and 's' sounds perfectly. So what is the problem here? Is he just getting used hearing better? Why is that when he says some words in day to day talk he mispronounces but it is clear that he can actually make the correct sounds?

Do you think a SALT would help (and if so how do I go about contacting one) or is it worth mentioning to ENT/paediatric audiology?

TIA

I've had 2 dc with speech delay. IME (as a mum) they have to relearn all the words they already knew and said incorrectly....

takes a long long time and I also used to have to interrupt them and model the correct sounds.

So I'd say something like "bam bam bam?" what's that?

or "do you mean bop, or stop?"

Still waiting for dd4 to say "yes" instead of "nyeah".......

CarGirl, how funny, DS says a sort of 'neeer' sound instead of yes! We are trying to teach him correctly, sounds like it may take a while!

I did think this was the case, that he is truly relearning his entire vocabulary which, up til the grommets were fitted, must have sounded like he was under water (due to the glue ear).

Do you think a SALT would/could assist with this? Are your DC under a SALT?

Good advice there, thank you

Both of my girls got one lot of SALT group therapy - 6 sessions with several other chidren.

dd4 has worse speech problems than my older one but tbh parents spend the most time out of anyone talking/modelling speech so it's us who makes the difference.

My older one had glue ear and had grommets. My younger one had very poor hearing in the lowest frequencies and most of the higher frequencies that I had to have treated privately using johansen sound therapy (trains the brain to hear them).

She couldn't hear/say s f v th y and several other "first" sounds because they are all high frequency ones. She uses lots of substitutions especially when talking in sentences and she is a complete chatterbox.

So far her teacher is understanding most of it, clearly dd4 hasn't spoken out of context yet.......... (she was 4 in August)

As DS has had not passed a hearing test since birth (due to his glue ear) we are still actually unsure of how his hearing is affected! We have an audiology appointment shortly so hopefully we will get a good result then, now the grommets are fitted. I haven't heard of Johansen sound therapy.

I think DS is on the other end of the scale - he has trouble hearing the low frequency sounds - but hopefully this will be cleared up at the next hearing test. I could be wrong though - it's late - and also because he does have trouble pronouncing those sounds you have listed above s f y th. interesting I will keep an eye on that.

I think it sounds as though I may need to be a bit more active in correcting DS in his mispronounciation.

thank you for your advice

you have to do it as & when they are in the mood. Well if dd4 wasn't in the mood she'd get narked off and disappear in a strop

Look at Johansen sound therapy www.soundlearningsystems.co.uk/id13.html it could really speed up his progression as his brain will have to make all it's pathways now that it can actually hear. So much of hearing & speech is to do with auditory processing which is what johannsen sound therapy improves IYSWIM

thank you CarGirl, I will have a look tomorrow, off to bed now