Speech delay

[findingsomeone]

DD is 21 months, and she is flagging red on the HV speech and language surveys. I've raised concerns for some months and the activities we are being given are not helpful because her understanding is really good, it's the actual speech that is a problem.

She is really good at pointing and gesturing, but really struggles to say anything that anyone can understand. She says 'doh' for dog and duck, for example. And 'bah' for ball. She doesn't say anything else that I can understand.

I feel we have been really let down by the NHS in general with her being born three months into the pandemic. I feel that waiting around for NHS services to trundle along will be a disservice to her. She will start school at barely 4 years old, and I don't feel like that gives me masses of time to get her the right help.

Has anyone had a similar experience with their child? Does anyone have any suggestions of who I could speak to or what I could be doing? No one has looked at her ears at any point. I've asked the HV about glue ear but as usual they never reply

[Jaffacake007]

@worriedmumma21

@Jaffacake007 I was wondering how your little one is going now? My DD sounds so similar and I'd love to hear how things are going :)

Hi

Things are much better. My DD was 2 in June and she's now singing nursery rhymes and can count to ten, say all her colours and animal noises!

She can't string short sentences together, it's literally just words. We finally had an appointment with an audiologist to check her hearing as part of the Speech and Language referral. That was completely fine with no issues. I should have had my first appointment last week but there was a problem with their system and my current address so it's been delayed, hopefully I'll hear back soon!

How are things with your little one?

[findingsomeone]

I didn't see these posts, sorry! @worriedmumma21

DD has improved, but not hugely. I'd say she is still very behind her peers. We do have a fair few single words now, but they are not clear (sheh-shoo for bless you and thank you, for example!). She had said the same two words together a few times several weeks ago but that has not been repeated lately and she hasn't joined any other words together since.

We had her two year check last week and I have been told that she now isn't eligible for a referral until she is at least 2.5!! Frustrating when she is meant to start school at barely four years of age (July baby). Doesn't give us much time to help her. I have decided to get a private assessment done to ensure we are doing the right things to support her and not inadvertently discouraging her or hindering her in any way.

DD also had a hearing test. One ear was fine the other was congested, which they said could have been related to a cold, so she has to have a retest in three months. Except they have such big backlogs apparently she will be waiting more than three months for the retest...

How is your DD getting on?

[findingsomeone]

@Jaffacake007 realt glad to hear things are going in the right direction for you! When you say your DD can do colours, is that naming them and pointing out the right ones? My DD doesn't seem interested in colours yet but can make animal noises. Her 'neighhhhhhhh' is my favourite 😅

[Jaffacake007]

@findingsomeone

@Jaffacake007 realt glad to hear things are going in the right direction for you! When you say your DD can do colours, is that naming them and pointing out the right ones? My DD doesn't seem interested in colours yet but can make animal noises. Her 'neighhhhhhhh' is my favourite 😅

Haha, my DD loves to neighhhhh as well!

Yes, she was into colours first before anything else strangely. She points at colours and says them, if you ask her for a pink ball she will go and get one etc, puts things with the same colours into groups.

She's doing well in some things but I wish she would say things like up, down, more, food etc. She seems to say random words or words which imply she's learning (colours,animals,numbers) but nothing which actually helps her communicate in 'normal' speech if that makes sense?

[findingsomeone]

That does make sense. Fascinating how different they all are! We have things like up, down, more, help, yes, no, cold, out. But then it's things like car/puppy/mummy/chocolate.

I'm very impressed she can do colours though, that's good to know as I'll see if I can encourage that to broaden things a bit here.

[Jaffacake007]

@findingsomeone

That does make sense. Fascinating how different they all are! We have things like up, down, more, help, yes, no, cold, out. But then it's things like car/puppy/mummy/chocolate.

I'm very impressed she can do colours though, that's good to know as I'll see if I can encourage that to broaden things a bit here.

I hope your private assessment will be helpful, let me know how you get on as we might end up doing the same!

[worriedmumma21]

@findingsomeone @Jaffacake007
My DD is 2 at the end of the month. About a month ago she had a massive explosion of words and is now exceeding the 24 month milestone. She is beginning to string 2-4 word sentences together, and can say some really tricky words every now and again but she still has hardly said mummy or any variation of mum! Talking about pulling at my heart strings not saying my name 😂😂 I still have some concerns like she won’t point out objects in book, like if I ask here why the cat is on the page she won’t point to it. She also still won’t nod/shake her head for yes/no very often. She sometimes does it for no but has rarely done it for yes.

Do your little ones point to objects in books and shake head for yes/no?

my other concern is she can’t say her name and apparently she’s supposed to be doing that?

so I am very happy with her huge amount of progress, but we still have some gaps I’m hoping to close soon.

[Jaffacake007]

@worriedmumma21

@findingsomeone @Jaffacake007
My DD is 2 at the end of the month. About a month ago she had a massive explosion of words and is now exceeding the 24 month milestone. She is beginning to string 2-4 word sentences together, and can say some really tricky words every now and again but she still has hardly said mummy or any variation of mum! Talking about pulling at my heart strings not saying my name 😂😂 I still have some concerns like she won’t point out objects in book, like if I ask here why the cat is on the page she won’t point to it. She also still won’t nod/shake her head for yes/no very often. She sometimes does it for no but has rarely done it for yes.

Do your little ones point to objects in books and shake head for yes/no?

my other concern is she can’t say her name and apparently she’s supposed to be doing that?

so I am very happy with her huge amount of progress, but we still have some gaps I’m hoping to close soon.

My DD won't nod her head. She will shake it but not as an action for 'no' in context. Literally over the last week, she had started saying her own name. She does point to animals in her books and can name them and make the noises.

Similarly, she has hd a sudden burst with her speech but has some gaps. I'm finding it really helpful to sing and then purposefully miss out random words to encourage her to say the missing one. And repeating the same sentence over again 'Mummy loves DD!' I think that's how she's finally saying her name, despite the fact I say it many times a day when she's doing things she shouldn't haha

[Louise0701]

I could’ve wrote this when my son was the same age. We paid for a private hearing test and were seen the next day for about £220. Once that was ruled out we sought a private speech and language therapist. Well worth every penny. I can recommend one if you’re in South Yorkshire?

[samebutdifferentt]

My dd was exactly the same and was let down by the NHS speech hub massively. They kept saying she was fine and within the thresholds even tho she had no real words and missed every consonant for sounds she could make. Even as recently ad a few months ago with reports in hand, they haven’t got the resources in our area to give her more than a telephone appointment. She’s had one zoom call with someone over the course of 4 years of trying.

She had a private SALT from about 3 which helped but due to covid had to stop. When she started reception they could barely understand her and asked me in our initial meeting about her speech (so it was obvious and concerning not something they didn’t notice) but the school weren’t equipped to help and she slipped under the radar. She was slowly improving all the time but still at least 2 years behind where she should be.

we moved her school and she saw her original SALT again who signed her off even though myself and the school still had huge concerns. I think my dd’s difficulties were beyond her expertise and she didn’t know where go go next. We managed to get another private SALT in place who diagnosed her with Developmental Language Disorder which ticks all the boxes. Her first SALT said it was a speech delay and nothing more which I always knew wasn’t right. Her current SALT was shocked by this as it’s quite clear due to the way she puts sentences together, can’t find words and uses words in the wrong context that it’s not just about the speech. She’s coming up for 7 now. It’s likely she’s also dyslexic and receives support for this. She enters year 2 in September.

it depends on your area but in my experience you won’t get anywhere with the NHS service so if you can (and it’s hard since the pandemic with long waiting lists) find a good private SALT. If you’re not sure, get a second opinion as some are more experienced than others. It does get better tho, our dd is quite clear now as long as she’s not rushing. We still have a bit to go but they all get there.

[BertieBotts]

Sorry I'm late to the thread, but have you come across ICAN Talking Point? I find them really informative.

[Louise0701]

@samebutdifferentt completely agree with you! The only real way a child will make progress is with a private salt who sees them regularly. My son also has DLD.

[Sunflower987]

Try the PECS method (picture exchange communication system) you can buy the boards from EBay the speech therapist told me my child would talk in weeks, he certainly did.
Like a light switch turned on.

[Louise0701]

@Sunflower987 pecs can encourage speech in children who don’t have speech disorders. So glad it worked so well for your child! It is a helpful way for non-verbal children to communicate and very easy for school to use, too.

[Sunflower987]

My son did have a speech disorder @Louise0701, hence why he didnt start talking until he was 3 and had Hypernasality.

[Louise0701]

@Sunflower987 sorry I assumed he had a delay not a disorder with you saying he started speaking within weeks. I’m glad he is speaking now.

[findingsomeone]

Off to research PECS!

@BertieBotts yes I have used ICAN but a good reminder as it's been a while. Definitely recommend it for others who are worried about their children's speech development.

@samebutdifferentt thanks for sharing your experience. I'm sorry the system has let you down so much. It's a good reminder that we can't rely on the NHS for early intervention. It feels like they don't care about things like this. I hope your DD settles into year 2 well ❤️

@worriedmumma21 so pleased things have accelerated for you. That sounds like amazing progress. DD will point to things if we ask for where the ball is or the butterfly etc. she has shook her head for a while but only the last month or six weeks has started to nod. DD has also only just learnt to say her name since a couple of weeks after her birthday. DD has also been flagged as behind on gross motor skills because she can't jump yet 🤷🏽‍♀️

[ToDuk]

Pecs is great but I'd also recommend signing. Baby signing can really help language and communication and I can recommend some books to help if you're interested.

[Justbecause19]

My son is almost 3 and speech delayed, he has been seen by a SALT and referred to a paediatrician. Have a look at the communication triangle, it shows you what skills they need to master before language can progress. Things like joint attention, pretend play etc. DS is brilliant at labelling objects, colours etc but still can't use language to communicate his needs at all. So he's been flagged as having a potential social communication issue. Also repeating words/phrases especially when they use the same intonation is called echolalia. It can give the impression they are learning words when they don't really understand what they are saying. I am just venturing into PECS with DS, you need to use highly motivating objects to get them started and build up from there.