Nursery referral for speech

[Whathefisgoingon]

Nursery have just asked me if I’m happy for them to refer my son regarding his “pronunciation” He is 2.8 years old.

I personally think he is totally within the range of normal, but have agreed on the basis that it surely can’t cause any harm checking!

They spoke as if someone would come in to the nursery to do the assessment, is this normal? I’ve asked to be there.

Yes, nursery should have a good idea of what is normal. A speach and language therapist will come and assess him.

I think if nursery are making a referral they must have some concerns, the referral is a long process and they probably know this. Services are hugely stressed so if your child even meets threshold, the waiting list in most areas is around a year. Lots of parents ‘tune in’ to their child’s speech and do not notice. I have many who are surprised when I want to make a referral. It may be that your child will grow out of it but it’s also really good that they are getting a referral in at an early stage.

I think it’s good of them to be proactive about it - it may come to nothing, but no harm in having him assessed. As pp said nursery should have the experience to know what should be expected at this age. It’s hard for us to assess our own children in this way because we are just used to how they speak. Problems can sometimes be pretty obvious for anyone to hear but a professional will pick up on more subtle problems.

Honestly, I'd let them refer him. If by the time your referral comes through, you have no concerns, you can decline the appointment.

We've been on the waiting list for 1.5 years since nursery first raised DS's possible speech delay with me. Within that time, it has become more apparent to me that he is not speaking as well as his peers.

We've finally got the appointment through for next week and I can't wait.

The nursery will likely know well enough whether your DS needs the support.

So what happens next? If he does need some help, I’d rather go private than wait for months on end. Should I just book a private SALT?

Also, what does this actually mean for my son? Is it common for toddlers to need help? Or does it suggest something more serious is going on? They’ve said it’s nothing to do with his communication etc, just pronunciation and they feel he struggles to get words out properly. The example they gave me was how he used to say “milk” - he’d always say “miiaalk”

I mean, I’m not making much sense but I also don’t know what this means.

No harm in the assessment. They may well just give you some tips to help his speech develop. The threshold for actual speech therapy is very high and they expect parents to work with the kids themselves a lot first.

Oh and he’ll prob get a hearing test which is good to get done just to check

Perfectly normal and common!

It’s super common, most of them grow out of it. It probably doesn’t mean anything at all! My son was pretty behind but he’s totally caught up now at 5. And they gave me some useful exercises to help him enunciate better. By all means pay for a private assessment for peace of mind.

We waited about 2 months.

What happens next really depends on where you are in the country. If we complete a referral our community link speech & language therapist would visit the child in nursery to observe them & chat to staff. If it was needed they would then make an appointment for a chat with parents in clinic & to do some more formal assessments.
Please try not to worry, it's really common for children to experience some level of speech delay or speech sounds issue when they are young. It doesn't mean anything more serious or long term is going on. Most children improve after a block of speech & language input or speech exercises in nursery and will the. continue to develop in line with their peers.

If that, was more like 4-6 weeks thinking about it