concern about speech delay

[kimberly1985]

Hello, I’m looking for advice or experiences from parents of late-talking children.
My son William is 3 years and 8 months old. He has a twin sister and is growing up in a multilingual environment. He understands us very well, has normal hearing and communicates in other ways, but he still only uses about four words.
Has anyone had a child with a similar language delay? Did they eventually start speaking, and what kind of support helped them most? We have arranged a speech and language assessment, but I would be very grateful to hear about your experiences.

When you say he communicates in other ways what methods does he use?
Does his sister communicate for him or do they communicate with each other?

Do they attend Nursery and is there a Communication champion who is Elklan trained?
SALT can assess in the first/ main language if given notice. It’s positive that his receptive language is good.

How is he with singing and rhymes? Will he join in at all or supply a missing word if you pause? This and repetitive rhymes and text are good.

I don’t know if you’ve spoken to any twins parents but as an advisory SEN teacher we were often asked to observe twins for social communication needs and frequently found that one would dominate and speak for both or that they were so reliant on each other that they didn’t interact with peers.
Sorry for all the questions just trying to unpick.

Multilingual children usually talk later.

My nephew grew up in a trilingual household (German, Hungarian, English). He was very late speaking. No problems - he was fluent in all three quite quickly after that. The language that most easily came first was German - that’s his home-country language, the language of his kindergarten and the playmates.

Interestingly his older db had no speech delay and was disarmingly cute chattering in all three languages as a toddler. He is fiercesomely bright whereas his younger db is just average intelligence.

Thank you — these are really helpful questions. William communicates mainly by pointing, using gestures, making sounds and taking us by the hand to show us what he wants. He understands instructions very well and usually manages to make his needs clear without words.
His twin sister, Arwen, speaks a lot in both French and English. She may sometimes answer for him, but they also communicate directly with each other. They play and laugh a great deal together and are very affectionate. Yesterday, for example, Arwen spontaneously said “I love you” to him.
We have had his hearing thoroughly assessed with a BERA/ABR test, and no hearing problems were found. We also recently paid £250 for a 35-minute assessment with a speech and language therapist in Chelsea. She told us that, at 3 years and 8 months, it is not typical for him to be speaking so little and recommended regular therapy sessions. Unfortunately, private sessions are extremely expensive, so we are now trying to understand what support and options might be available to us. We started private sessions but we hope it worth it.
Despite his very good understanding, he still uses only around four spoken words. Your observation about twins is particularly interesting. Thank you for taking the time to ask all these questions.
What should I do for him ? I don't want him to meet difficulties

Thank you — that’s very reassuring to hear. May I ask how old your nephew was when he started speaking? When you say he was “very late speaking”, roughly what age do you mean?
They don't

Thank you — that’s very reassuring to hear. May I ask how old your nephew was when he started speaking? When you say he was “very late speaking”, roughly what age do you mean?

Thank you — these are really helpful questions. William communicates mainly by pointing, using gestures, making sounds and taking us by the hand to show us what he wants. He understands instructions very well and usually manages to make his needs clear without words.
His twin sister, Arwen, speaks a lot in both French and English. She may sometimes answer for him, but they also communicate directly with each other. They play and laugh a great deal together and are very affectionate. Yesterday, for example, Arwen spontaneously said “I love you” to him.
We have had his hearing thoroughly assessed with a BERA/ABR test, and no hearing problems were found. We also recently paid £250 for a 35-minute assessment with a speech and language therapist in Chelsea. She told us that, at 3 years and 8 months, it is not typical for him to be speaking so little and recommended regular therapy sessions. Unfortunately, private sessions are extremely expensive, so we are now trying to understand what support and options might be available to us.
Despite his very good understanding, he still uses only around four spoken words. Your observation about twins is particularly interesting. Thank you for taking the time to ask all these questions.

Thank you — these are really helpful questions. William communicates mainly by pointing, using gestures, making sounds and taking us by the hand to show us what he wants. He understands instructions very well and usually manages to make his needs clear without words.
His twin sister, Arwen, speaks a lot in both French and English. She may sometimes answer for him, but they also communicate directly with each other. They play and laugh a great deal together and are very affectionate. Yesterday, for example, Arwen spontaneously said “I love you” to him.
We have had his hearing thoroughly assessed with a BERA/ABR test, and no hearing problems were found. We also recently paid £250 for a 35-minute assessment with a speech and language therapist in Chelsea. She told us that, at 3 years and 8 months, it is not typical for him to be speaking so little and recommended regular therapy sessions. Unfortunately, private sessions are extremely expensive, so we are now trying to understand what support and options might be available to us.
Despite his very good understanding, he still uses only around four spoken words. Your observation about twins is particularly interesting. Thank you for taking the time to ask all these questions.

Some good resources and ideas on here. Also info on bilingual children.

https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/educators-and-professionals/resource-library-for-educators/create-opportunities-for-children-to-communicate/

Did the SALT mention signing? Signalong is good. Lots of resources online or you might find a local course for parents.

My DS's speech delay (he started talking at 5) was only solved by taking the home language out of the equation and speaking English only at home too, but then he is waiting for an assessment for inattentive ADHD...