Speech delay: parents with experience, I need advice please

[Starsky840]

So my little boy will be 4 in May. He isn't talking yet. We are with the early intervention team. I've done the Hanen it takes 2 to talk course which was a game changer. He communicates very well, albeit non verbally. The paediatrician seen him in October and said to call her again in a years time if we are still concerned, which kindve reassured us that she had no major concerns. We haven't had a formal diagnosis yet, and aren't really pushing for one to be honest.
He had grommets fitted in August, then he started preschool in September, and the Hanen course started mid September and I feel the combination of all three really had made a difference in his interaction and communication.

My main questions are:
What age were your little ones when they started talking?
Are there any parents out there who's children simply have never spoke?
What were the telltale signs that speech was gonna happen soon?
Or did it just happen like a light switch?
What helped you while waiting for your child to talk?
Did your child have any obsessions and how did you navigate that?
Do you have any advice? ANY?
I'm sick with worry 😞

A 3.5 year old with no verbal speech? What is the diagnosis? Of course paediatrician should be concerned unless you mean there is s clear diagnosis and the speech therapist is leading and the paed is just saying no other medical issues? ? What communication is he using? AaC? Signs? PECS?
Are his signs or communication at 4 year old level?
What is the diagnosis?

Ds has no verbal speech uses AAC also has SLD ASD
What are the obsessions?
Has he been assessed for ASD
?

Sending you a pm

My dd talked late and was diagnosed with Di George syndrome.
I'd ask to be referred to a geneticist.

I'm surprised the pead told you to ring back in a year?!
Are SALT involved?

What diagnosis are you waiting for? What has he been assessed for?

Yeah, the early intervention team are just treating him as a speech delay. I think they are happy to wait and see basically, same as the paediatrician. He uses signs and pecs. I'm sorry, I don't know what the other acronym you mentioned is.
Again, no formal diagnosis as yet. He was very badly let down by his public health nurse who was quite happy not to see him due to COVID so he's only been with early intervention since August.

❤

Pecs is a form of aac
www.communicationmatters.org.uk/what-is-aac/

High tech versions like grid for ipad (download free trial) may be more effective and expand vocab

Is he having weekly speech therapy? if not is this something you could fund privately - my DS said his first very unclear words at 3 and was 4.5 before he could really talk clearly and we had speech therapy from 2. There's a website called teachmetotalk on there is a pre-verbal checklist of skills they develop before speech.

What age is your ds?
No, I think the early intervention team are very cautious and handing out labels to very young children.
He plays with his flashcards all day. Uses them to communicate but also like a self soothing tool. We have to sneak them away from him before bedtime otherwise there is a full blown meltdown.

Aww. I'm sorry. I don't know much about digeorge but I'll definitely look it up x

They haven't really assessed him for anything. They seem to be using a wait and see approach, which I am happy with. I'm doing all the work at home and touching base with them periodically.

What does prescool say?
How does he score on M CHAT?
ADOS ASD assessment can be done this age and non verbal
What assessment has slt done?
What about his play snd other development?
Ask for standadised assessments of everything to get the rightvsupport

Thanks very much for this. I might push for weekly sessions, cant hurt.

This probably won't be much help but I hope it reassures you. I once taught an extremely chatty, bright child for a few years. One parent's evening the mum mentioned that he didn't talk till he was around 4. Nothing at all. They had all sorts of interventions but then he finally started talking with the help of therapy. I couldn't believe it as he was an extremely loud confident child (sometimes a bit too loud 😅) and very vocal. I'd have never guessed. He wasn't SEN and was diagnosed a mild case of ADHD. Personally while teaching him I didn't see any symptoms of ADHD so it must have been very mild.

Don't you have to apply for schools this year? you might need to look into applying for an ECHP to provide support in school or an alternative school a diagnosis would make the ECHP more likely to happen and pre-school need to be keeping their own records of his progress for this.

Does he show joint attention? e.g. will he point to things and look at you to see if you're looking at what he is showing you.

My son started school not speaking properly. I couldn’t understand what he was saying but he had a speaking rhythm it was that he couldn’t pronounce the words. Is that the issue that he talks but you can’t make out what he is saying? If that’s the case my son has slowly improved the pronunciation and grammar issues. It was around age of sic I could understand him properly. He still sometimes sounds like he has a clothes peg on his nose. He is 7 now.

My ds had some issues with speech. Not delay but pronunciation. I would say any concerns at all, push and don’t stop for a referral. Don’t leave it to see how it goes. We were referred in reception and we’ve only just had the appointment for speech therapy and he’s now in year 2. We ended up having to pay to go private after 12 months because the waiting lists were so bad.

It's better to be assessed by suitable professionals and have a appropriate diagnosis to ensure he's receiving the correct support. Also if he struggles in education it's a harder/longer process to get a diagnosis if needed and harder to put support in place with out a diagnosis (although not impossible)

My son has asd he was mostly non verbal until age 5 (although he used echolalia) he has a good range of words now (7) although how he communicates and uses language is different. He had salt from 20 months to age 6. His assessment was with a paediatrician, educational psychologist, salt and early years practitioner, over a period of two weeks. School, nursery, hv and other professionals who work with him also have input.

My child is 4, starting school this year also.

Since 2, we've had SALT involved, health visitor, educational psychologist, peads and nursery.

My advise, don't wait, especially a year.
The waiting lists are so long, for everything, you need to start getting referrals in.

The above have all helped my son.

I'm overwhelmed with the replies. Thanks everyone. I've learned so much already.
Gonna do a deep dive tomorrow and see what the next steps are for me and my Ds.

DD started preschool with 15 words, about 5 of those were understood by people other than me. She was diagnosed with speech dyspraxia/apraxia. She tried so hard to communicate (makaton, flash cards) she just couldn't speak. She had LOTS of speech therapy & was under paediatrics until she was 6. She's just turned 10 & her speech is understandable but she still struggles. Check out Mikey's wish on FB. there's lots of advice for parents of speech delayed children.