Speech delay and gifted traits.

[littlemslazybones]

My almost 3 year old is AMAZING! I'm only stirring ;-)

I've been a bit concerned about posting because it seems a bit silly to be talking about toddlers and giftedness and I can see why it often generates a fair bit of eye rolling. I'm just looking for some advice :-).

My little one has a severe speech delay. When he was 2 he had no speech and little indication of decent receptive language (which now I would be happy to attribute to stubbornness). He was happy and sociable but couldn't care less about language. I had his hearing checked a number of times to makes sure he didn't have a hearing disability and then started running the SaLT gauntlet.

Almost a year on and I would say that his receptive language is very good but his expressive language is poor. I'm not sure what the therapist thinks, if she thinks anything she's not telling me.

O.K. So about 3 months ago I found out that my son seems to have a - (trying to avoid a medal moment) - much better memory than I have. My eldest (4) came home from school and wanted to 'teach' ds2 all the letters he had learnt at school, 22 letters at that point. I watched as ds2 learnt all the phonic letters in about 10 mins (demonstrated only through pointing not talking).

The next day, he remembered all those letters. I think he was memorizing the picture that accompanied the letter, rather than the sound. I'm only saying this because I think it only points to memory not reading ability. Since then, he's done other a number of other things that make me think that he has a number of gifted traits. (I only imagine he is gifted in the average sense, he's not balancing equations yet or anything)

I haven't told the speech therapist because it might not be significant and, if it is, I'm worried they might withdraw their help. But, maybe it is significant and it may 'mean' something else. (Like I could stop doing these mind-numbing speech exercises and get on with just playing with him).

Right so, after all that, I suppose my question is: For those of you with smart children who talked late, do you think that your child's lack of speech ran alongside their ability or do you think their ability influenced their speech acquisition? Did this change your approach to helping them to acquire speech?

Thanks. Sorry for the length of the post.

This was my DD1 to a tee and also my DS2 is going a similar way, whilst DS1 and DD2 were very early talkers.

The most important thing to say is that, especially with my DD1, roll on a few years and you would never know she'd had a speech problem. In fact she talks non stop now and is very articulate!!! Both children ticked every single box on CURIOUSMIND's list, although I am not sure if they are gifted......

PS The speech therapist's assessment of my DD1 was that her brain computed far far quicker than her ability to translate that information into words. It took me a long time to believe it but I do now.

Curiousmind, that is very interesting and described ds (7) to a tee. He was non verbal until 3, unintelligble to all but family until 5-6 but by seven talks about trajectories affecting the speed of a falling item, space time continuems and lots of other stuff that I don't understand

He was dx with Aspergers this year.

I am surprised you've had so little guidance, OP, esp. after 12 sessions. We've had lots of feedback from each session (bog standard NHS SALT).

DC were bright at school work in spite of late speech, it didn't help them in other ways. DC with worst speech delay was not brill at receptive speech, & has done worst at literacy, but I also think he's at the language disorder end of the normal spectrum. Nearly 8yo & still puts words together in strange ways, and needs the most explanation to understand things.

My son did not make sounds until he was 2. His first word was areoplane. His first major tantrum with words was aimmed at a playgroup poster having the LMS trains in the wrong livery. He could not do abstract concepts, had word finding difficulties and was a heck of a handful.
If all gufted children speak early then than would make him opne up from a goldfish but he is twice exceptional. His poor communication and lack of social language comes from having Aspergers & ADHD. His abilty to be as restful as the spanish inquistion with logic and facts comes from his raw ability and it took the principle SALT who was working with him a long time to recover from his use of his own devised written coding system instead of PECs. [PECs is a form of enhanced communication normally used with kids who have ASD's; it uses a variety of symbols most commonly widget.]
I am sorry but even with a genuis if you have a child with a severe language, speech or communication problem you have to keep on going with the mind numbing SALT excercises. It can take a long time before you see any real benefit but do bear in mind that they are designed to help a child bridge over a gap they may have that they cannot get over any other way. Keep going it will be worth it.

You may find AFASIC or similar groups websites useful to help you stay sane and continue to encourage you and your

Just a quick update and thank you.

Over the last six weeks my son has made some big leaps with his speech. We have moved from simple labelling to frequent simple two & three word utterances and between them a handful of really cool sentences. ("Ha-ha, Daddy did a fart!" and yelling "Mummy, Daddy, where are you?" down the stairs at bedtime and "Mummy, that is MY bike" when his brother ran off with it).

He is mumbling with the rhythm and intonation of regular speech and getting quite naffed off that I don't understand him.

We had another speech assessment with a different SaLT who has recommended another round of speech therapy in 3 months time. I know this is a big gap and that it is a result of huge pressure on the service but, tbh, I welcome the break. Clearly we have a long way to go but I feel like we are gathering momentum and I am much more hopeful.

Anyway, I wanted to just say thanks for being generous and offering such good advice when this had less to do with being gifted and talented and more to do with my anxiety over the speech delay. Anyway, I think I need to engage with the speech delay on its own terms and so I'll let this thread drop but just wanted you to know your help made a big difference and this is a calmer household.