Speech Therapy for one of my twins

[didihearthatright123456]

I have nearly 3 year old twins. They were born at 33 weeks as one of my girls had restricted growth. She has always been a source of concern due to her size, having Sepsis at 10 months old. There is just always seems to be something to be concerned about.

She has just been referred to our nearest (major childrens teaching hospital) to see an ENT specialist for a constant runny nose which has been going on for over 18 months.

When she was born she had a very large tongue, the Dr's could never agree whether it was an issue or not (I promise this is all relevant). I'm convinced this is a cause of her nasal problems, the large tongue, large tonsils and adenoids. She snores louder than my husband lol

DT1 has always been behind her sister in terms of development. The large tongue makes it difficult for her to pronounce words properly, I think she will have a significant lisp. We've thought for a long time that she is struggling with words & numbers. Her sister is absolutely thriving with her speech, and we have noticed that she does answer a lot for her sister, which we always discourage.

Nursery have told me today that DT1 will talk to the staff, but when playing she will only talk to her sister. She will play with other children but there is very little to no vocalisation. She also spends a lot of time observing how other children play.

For those of you who's children have had speech therapy, what kind of things did you do to encourage them? I do have a call into our health visitor and hopefully we will get a referral (goodness knows how long that will take).

So any tips or recommendations you could make to help whilst we wait to hear back would be very much appreciated, or just your own experiences and whether your child just naturally "caught up"

baby is 1mo old and appears to have a breathing problem snorong at nite and contiued coghing all day

baby appears have breathing problem with cough most of the time afebrile,...is this normal? my pediatrician says yes. Lung sounds are clear recent cxr was clear as well. she appears to get better after a breathing problem is treated with inhaled lung bronco dilators.

I'm no expert, but I thought it was common with twins that one would be the dominant one and do most of the talking. Also that some develop a language that they use between themselves.

In your shoes, I think I'd like some reassurance on this too though.

I think I'd try to make more effort to have 1:1 conversations with each child - so that one can't chose to dominate and one to be more submissive. Can you take them out on trips separately, or alternate the days they are in childcare, or something - even put them in different care facilities? My neighbour always insisted on putting her twins in different classes all the way through nursery and school so that they could both stand or fall in their own right.

Four of ours have had speech therapy, 2 singletons and both twins. They were lazy with older siblings talking for them, they did catch up and no longer need the extra help by 5 years old.
May help if you split them up and have conversations with them, a nature walk could be good for this.

I would speak to HV again, but also GP and ask for an urgent referral. Is she also under a Paed? Or should she be, if there are multiple issues? Don't wait. Push hard.

@Chely

Four of ours have had speech therapy, 2 singletons and both twins. They were lazy with older siblings talking for them, they did catch up and no longer need the extra help by 5 years old. May help if you split them up and have conversations with them, a nature walk could be good for this.

Thank you that is reassuring.

I was thinking about a woodland walk, DH does parkrun, he could take one in the running buggy whilst I went for a walk with DT1 and feed the ducks.

@Oblomov22

I would speak to HV again, but also GP and ask for an urgent referral. Is she also under a Paed? Or should she be, if there are multiple issues? Don't wait. Push hard.

I've really put my foot down today and managed to get the GP to make a referral to an ENT, but not before I had researched the ENT consultant at our nearest major childrens hospital. I was a bit cheeky & emailed him directly and gave him a full history. He replied within the hour and agreed to see her. Based on this info the GP really didnt have any other choice than to make the referral.

She was under the Paed until 12 months old but then covid hit, she was seemingly doing ok at that point so she was discharged.

Good. Well done OP.

Doesn't speech therapy need a separate referral though?

In our area there are drop ins every so often with speech therapists at childrens centres and a pre speech therapy course for children.
I hope the waiting lists are shorter in your area a than they are in ours