Positive Speech Therapy Stories

[TheOctomyTober]

My son will be 3 in December.

He had had various ear infections and blocked ears between ages 1 and 2. He's now had a hearing test and all is fine with his hearing now but they believe he had blocked years for much of that year which has delayed his speech.

We have just started with a speech therapist who believes his speech is typical of an 18 month to 2 year old. I agree with this.

He understands pretty much everything and there are no other concerns, other than his speech. He has a vocabulary of single words and will make 3 or 4 words sentences but much of his pronunciation is way off.

He and I are alone for the majority of the 5 days a week my husband is at work. I take him out everyday, talk to him all day, use short clear sentences etc etc. We are just starting with a speech therapist and wanted to hear positive stories please! I'm feeling a bit down and daunted by it all.

As a Speech Therapist, I have a bunch of positive stories! However I'm sure you'll want to hear more from families. My main suggestion is to communicate with your therapist if you do have any concerns or are not happy with any element of the therapy you are receiving. It's our job to be flexible and fit what works for you. It sounds like you're doing all the right things, just need to stick with it. Remember also that we don't have any magic wands, our real skill is supporting family/nursery to unlock your child's development within everyday routines. Best of luck!

Daughter had about 25% (to me as her mum) intelligible speech when she started school.

I've just had an extended argument with her (she's 10 now) about how I've ruined her life by the expectation I can see a path through her bedroom from door to bed - total clarity, bloody annoyingly sophisticated arguments used throughout. I'll be honest - her speech is still "quirky" sounding at times but she gets the job done and her message across.

It also kicked me up the arse in that I went back to university and retrained as a SALT myself (but I work with adults)!

Ds1 was understandable about 60% of the time by strangers when he started school. By about 8/9 his speech was considered to be in the normal range.

In February he is going to The Netherlands with his debating team as they won the national finals so are competing internationally.

He is autistic and has dyslexia and dyspraxia but his determination is amazing. He is predicted As / A stars in his 4 A levels.

Following with interest and solidarity - my son is the same age & struggles with clarity of speech.

We have tried SALT referrals and have been told that we can’t even go onto the waiting list here until he’s turned 3. Same with the hearing test, as his newborn one was fine & he’s only had one ear infection.

Thank you all! Its so good to hear some positive stories. I feel a bit overwhelmed by the responsibility of trying to follow everything to help his speech but he does start at pre school soon so I'm hoping that will help too.
@CoffeeWithCheese how interesting - I've had similar thoughts as it seems such a rewarding career.
@Leafywa thank you for replying- all positive stories welcome! I like the advice about the magic wand too - I did feel that of my spent a solid week with our speech therapist he'd be sorted but unfortunately it doesn't work like that!
@WombatBombat it took a year from me raising concerns to actually get to the hearing test. They then referred me to SALT, again at my request, but have said the wait is long. My parents have stepped in and are paying for private therapy now. We're very lucky I know.

This time last year I was worried sick about my DGD's speech. She was coming up to three and her speech was unintelligible. Other children avoided her and it was affecting her socially.

Six months of private speech therapy made a world of difference. She is now coming up to four and a real chatterbox, who communicates at an age appropriate level and has friends.

Different cause but really positive story that I hope will cheer you up! My son also had excellent understanding from a young age but didn’t talk. He didn’t say his first word till he was nearly 5 and wasn’t able to talk in sentences (still unclear) until age 7. His difficulty wasn’t his hearing but verbal dyspraxia (basically a motor co-ordination problem between his mouth and brain).

Anyway he had a fab speech therapist and the drive to communicate was v strong and he has made brilliant progress. He now (age 10) talks fluently - with slightly odd intonation still but he can say whatever he wants, uses super long words all the time and is a real joy to converse with.

You would never have thought this at age 5-6
when he spent a whole year learning how to say just 10 words! But once he had the basics under his belt his progress really snowballed.

On a practical note if your LO is getting frustrated at not being able to talk you can look into alternative communication methods in the interim and your speech therapist should be able to support with this. We did an eclectic mix of lots of different things and it let DS communicate with us in that period before he could talk.

Btw we had no effective speech therapy till he started school, NHS pre-school service wasn’t interested, so it is not too late for you either!

DS is 4. He had glue ear with hearing loss confirmed at 22 months ish, he'd not had any ear infections but I pushed for a hearing test due to speech delay. He had grommets fitted just under a year ago at 3 and a quarter.

His speech has come on incredibly rapidly in the last year and he now uses sentences that are the expected length. His pronunciation of the ends of words is now largely right, he substitutes a lot of initial sounds but we are now working on that with a speech therapist. Despite the starting sound substitution, with the ends of words now mostly being ok he is now generally understandable in context.

The only thing you might want to consider in addition to what you are currently doing, is whether it's worth putting your DS in preschool for a few sessions. DS was going anyway (childcare) but our speech therapist specifically asked about it. She said that at home they know you'll understand them anyway, so there's a lot less incentive for them to develop their speech - mixing with other people and children can apparently really help.

My daughter’s speach was difficult for other’s to understand at about 3 years old. She had brilliant comprehension and a wide vocabulary but only close family could understand her.

She had a couple of sessions of SALT, mainly working on slowing down and clapping syllables. She struggles with certain sounds so we had lots of games practicing those. Something clicked so quickly, enough for others to understand her much more easily. She still struggled with f’s instead of th sounds but that eventually sorted itself out.

Hi, I was just wondering what exactly your SALT did to help your son with his verbal dyspraxia?

I have a two year old with almost no words and the words he does have no one else can recognise as they are so distorted and he pronounces them differently every time. I think he may have verbal dyspraxia.

I’m signing with him, so BSL is now his first language but getting nowhere with the speech. This is fine when he is with me but not when he isn’t! So just looking for ideas of what to do to help him.