Speech and language appointment

[JSB16]

Took my son to the gp around 6 months ago with concerns around speech and language delays, they came across great referring him for a hearing test and for an appointment with the speech and language team. He had his hearing test which was all fine but we didn’t hear anything on his other appointment, I’ve not chased up as I’d just assumed long wait lists. Fast forward to the other day he had his 2.5 health visitor appointment who said they would chase it up.
I received a text later that night which just said ‘I’ve had a look and xxxx has been discharge from speech and language’ no follow up information on what we now do.
Firstly, how can he be discharged without ever seeing anyone, why has no one told us he was discharged and surely the health visitor could at least advise next steps even if it’s go back to your gp. All I can think of is they discharged him off the back of his hearing test?
I will ring my gp next week but anyone else feel
like they are just going in circles with their child’s speech?

Personally I’d chase this up with the HV who can also make a referral to SaLT. She should also be able to explain why your LO was discharged.

How did he score on the 30 month Ages & Stages?

I don't think speech and language will see boys before the age of 3 for uncomplicated speech delay because it's so normal for boys to be late talking, so it could be as simple as he doesn't meet their criteria on paper yet. What kind of delay are you seeing with your son?

I’ve not heard that before. Around here it’s 2 when they accept referrals for SaLT and they do not treat boys in a different way to girls.

Sorry this has happened to you, that message from the health visitor is very unhelpful.

I would contact your local speech and language service directly to ask what happened to the referral. If you Google paediatric speech and language therapy + your local area a team with contact details should come up and you can call or email them. The referral either will have been rejected or they may have tried to contact you and you have missed it/they had the wrong details so they've discharged him.

I'm sure every area is different and I am guessing they can't actually apply different criteria to boys and girls but informally SLTs know that as a rule of thumb you can't draw too many conclusions about boys before the age of three if it's just delay. I expect they are overwhelmed with referrals and know that they would be able to make a better assessment after 3 so are using any small thing such as the hearing test to get him off the list for now, knowing that if there is a genuine problem the referral will come back again.

Thanks for all the useful information.

When we went to his original appointment when he’d just gone 2 he had very little words at all, I will say although his speech is still definitely delayed he has progressed a lot since then. We actually raise this originally on the back of feedback from his nursery.

If standard isn’t to be seen until after 3 absolutely fine but at no point during the phone appointment, face to face appointment etc with the gp did anyone communicate this.

If he’s been discharged due to his age again fine, I also understand he likely isn’t priority as I say he does have some level of speech but again my frustration here is no one is communicating this with us.

I completely agree, you do need to know why.

I would follow @Hopefulbride18’s advice. Before you do contact your local SaLT service it might be worth doing this progress checker from Speech & Language UK. It will tell you which areas that he needs support with, they’ll email you some resources and the charity is we respected by HCPs.

Do you know if this was the only area that he needed some support with a d do you know if he was scoring in the grey or the black?

And did your HV suggest also filling in the 30 month Social & Emotional Ages & Stages?

Thank you @ExplodingSmittens

She did mention he was slightly behind on his fine motor skills for his age but didn’t seem overly concerned.

He has brilliant understanding and is a very active, happy and sociable little boy so I’m not overly worried about the speech being linked to anything else, I just think he’s struggling with how to communicate. He has a lot of sounds that he knows exactly what he means but sound nothing like what he’s actually trying to say.

Online advice in general seems very mixed, some say wait some say catch early.

I will try see what I can find out tomorrow

thanks again

Hi OP, our Trust doesn't accept GP referrals, so they get rejected for that. The letter gets sent to the GP with an explanation that it's an inappropriate referral and that either the parents or school/nursery setting will need to refer, so perhaps this is what has happened?

That does sound very much like my DC2 was at that age. Early intervention is really worth exploring. I would find out tomorrow why he was discharged but do consider private SaLT whilst you wait if you can afford it.