Speech therapy... is it necessary?

[ElfOnTheTopShelf]

My DD is four, she'll be five in October. She isn't in school yet - she'll go full time in September. She goes to a childminders while I'm at work, and last week, they went to a childminding group, where there was a speech therapist there. I dont think he was there to listen to the children; more to talk to the childminders, but he heard my DD, and talked to her, then pulled the CM aside to give her a phone number to pass to me. He told the CM that he thinks my DD should see a speech therapist because he wouldn't expect at her age for her to get muddled up with letters.
DD is very, very vocal - she chatters away all day long, and she's (imo ) intelligent; she can have full conversations about what she has been up to all day, so its not like she has problems with talking, but I do notice she gets muddled with d's and g's, and f's and v's.
Has speech therapy changed since the 80's? I have very vivid memories of having to go to ST and would much love DD not to have to go if she doesn't need to (DH doesn't think she has a problem).
WWYD?

That doesn't sound like a severe problem at all. If you & most people can understand her easily then I would think you're absolutely fine to not bother with SALT.

I have relevant experience.
I was sure that DD (also October birthday) would be flagged up for speech therapy -- actually, work on phonics sorted out her remaining issues soon after she started reception.

So when DS2 was hard to understand I was pretty laid back for a long time, even though he was very hard to understand. I got him referred for speech therapy when he started school. He's only had about 18 sessions and isn't scheduled for any more (now middle of Yr1).

Speech therapy now is quite play-based and DS2 had a great rapport with his therapists. I wouldn't worry about that part at all. Maybe seek another opinion from HV?

I personally dont think she needs it at all tbh. Sometimes professionals look for problems when there is none imo and get parents over anxious. As long as you and other people understand her and she speak thats great. I am sure that once she goes to school her speech will improve even more and that the teachers will flag it up if there is a problem.

I think if a person fully trained in speech therapy thinks she needs therapy, then you can't just dismiss it.

You're used to how your DD speaks, and I know as a parent of a DS with a speech disorder that it's very easy to just get used to little oddities, and not hear what others hear.

I think you should go, and see what happens. And speech therapy is fun these days - a lot of it is play based.

Thanks for the replies

I have now got the phone number from the cm so I am going to give them a ring tomorrow and see what they want to do. I may pop in for a visit and see what they recommend.

I had asked the HV last year during one of the reviews about DD's speech because there were more letters she was getting muddled up; her K's and T's especially, but they seem much better now. The HV had said then that they wouldn't get worried at that point, and would see us at some point later.

DD is learning/studying phonics at the childminders, and she always chatting. I do think that its hard for me to say for sure if there is an issue because I have always been able to understand her; and probably dont correct / coax her as much as I could on words she gets wrong / has an issue with.

Well, if she does have to go, it doesn't sound as bad as what I had to endure!

As a mum who's had 2 dds go through speech therapy recently she will be given the specific letters to work on and they make it fun by taking in turns etc.

One of mine had the d and g issue so dog = gog type of thing. The earlier you help your dd to recognise what she's doing so she can work on correcting it herself the easier it will be on her.

What takes the time is when they have lots of words they say incorrectly that they have to unlearn.

Its up to you at the end of the day, trust your instinces you know your child. My friend's ds who is 3 who is from a different country was recommended speech therapy at the 2 year check, she did not take it further and her son has really good speech now. You can always keep an eye on things and see how it goes.

I was at a playgroup recently with DS (aged 2) and spoke to the onsite speech therapist about DD (aged 6) who wasn't with me at the time but struggled a wee bit with certain letters (Ss, Rs) and dropped consonants between words from time to time. We weren't crazily concerned but wondered if there were things we could do differently to help.

I got some super advice there and then and was referred to the local speech therapy unit. There, after a couple of assessment meetings, which were pleasant, fun and DD enjoyed, we were sent on our way, again with some good advice.

I took the view that whilst help was at hand it couldn't harm to take advantage of it. Interestingly, DD showed no embarrassment or sensitivity about it, telling her chums where she was going and why, and so that was fine too.

Good luck

When DD1 was about 4 she was referred to SALT, same sort of problems as your DD. She had an initial assessment and was referred to a group session. She had recetnly started school and by the time the group started her speech had improved dramatically, so I never bothered sending her. For my DD being in school was all the therapy she needed

"You're used to how your DD speaks, and I know as a parent of a DS with a speech disorder that it's very easy to just get used to little oddities, and not hear what others hear."

I'm not picking on you Hassled, I know that's a common perception, but that sort of generalisation drives me InSane(!!!)

It was always us saying that DD and DS2's speech wasn't good enough, asking preschool about it repeatedly. Preschool repeatedly implied that we were unnecessarily worried, and I have even come to think I may suffer from APD myself. Meanwhile, we in the family were the ones who struggled daily to understand youngest DC. Only to encounter an assumption from other parents and some professionals that DC probably only developed such bad speech because we in the family somehow 'enabled' their bad habits -- when I was always saying things back to them correctly when I could work out what they meant. We were the ones struggling like crazy to understand what they said, and sometimes we were the ONLY ones in DC's lives questioning whether there was a problem!

The most common annoying comments were:
"Oh, the problem is that the older ones talk for him" (er, no, they're as baffled as us what he's saying, and they keep asking now that he's 3yo when will he start to talk)

OR

"Oh, you're probably used to the way she talks" (nope, I have to make her answer yes/no to questions to have a clue what she's on about -- and she doesn't even say yes or no very distinctly).

The first sodding set of questions from HVs were all about whether my DC had a systematic speech disorder that somehow we in the family had adapted to -- drove me crazy that. If it was systematic and we could easily suss out the system, I wouldn't be repeatedly asking for help, would I?

Okay, off my soapbox.
OP: maybe just ask your a load of casual friends if they can clearly understand your DD. That will be the outside check that you need to verify what you think you know already.

I'd go, I'm afraid. My DC1 had speech therapy but in my opinion was signed off too early when he still had a lisp. We have just started again and I am told that at 8, it is unlikely they can do much to help us now unless he is very determined (he isn't - he isn't teased about it and likes his voice).

I am a independent Speech & Language Therapist so my opinion may be a little bias however I would recommend trying the therapy. Therapy input nowadays is very play focused and a big aim is for all the activities to be as fun as possible because if the children are entertained they will attend to task better and therefore respond to the therapy better (however you do still occasionally get old fashioned therapists who insist on using worksheets etc and strict repitition - however these are becoming increasingly rare).

If your child has problems with d/g and k/t it will be due to one of two processes - backing or fronting. Backing is when sounds usually produced at the front of the mouth (e.g /t/) are produced at the back of the mouth (e.g /k/) - fronting is the reverse process of this. Therapy for this will be re-educating your child about where sounds are produced and mirror games are particularly helpful for this and can be quite good fun.

It is likely your child will need a quick assessment before therapy which will consist of looking at some pictures and saying what they are whilst the therapist analyzes the speech.

If your child is speaking a lot and has plenty of vocabulary, good sentence length etc then speech therapy input should be quite short term.

Hope this is useful to you
www.speechgroup.co.uk

Thanks all. I rang the number I was given and have been told I'll get a letter in the post so I can make an appointment.

Hopefully DD wont be too bothered about going, and as people point out, it may be a quick and painless process.