4 yo ds teacher concerned about his speech and development

[ifiwereanewyearmillionaire]

At the parent teacher meeting at the end of last term the teacher raised some concerns/set goals for next term.

I am wondering if ds is struggling and I am missing something very obvious.

She mentioned his lack of interest in drawing shapes/ colouring in...he squiggles circles and straight lines but won't draw stick figures or attempt to colour within a picture. At home he does various arts and crafts from painting to building things so I am putting it down to him being too impatient to take his time with colouring. He has started making squiggle people so i'm guessing his fine drawing will happen at some point.

His counting is coming on slowly, only 1 -20 just now, but he can only count items to 3 at school.... they are aiming for at least 5.

At home he can count 5 items and work out how many are left if some are removed/added.

He is showing no interest in writing/reading his name and they are obviously keen to encourage this.

He loves listening to stories and can recite them to his little sister using the pictures. I am thinking his interest will come soon...he has started asking me what certain words say on buildings/vans etc.

I just don't know if I should be more concerned than I feel..TBH I am happy to encourage his interest but don't want to start pushing.

The main concern was his speech, which they find difficult to understand on occasion and she suggested a speech an language referral.

I am unconvinced about this and have said no for now. She agreed to monitor his speech this term and talk about it again after Easter.

Again this is ...am I blinkered to a problem???

His understanding of language seems good to me. He can ask/answer questions, follow instructions...and give out his own , explain and repeat/alter information to pass on to others...blah blah blah

He talks in loooooonnnnggg complex sentences...on and on and on [yawn emoticon]
His use of words is good with some exceptions....saying her/him instead of she/he..."her has my toy" I just repeat it back using she etc and am assuming he will follow my lead

My concern is that there are some letter he he can't pronounce properly within words... e.g

P instead of C for cushion but T instead of C for cat ????

D instead of G in get/goat

B instead of V in very/TV

I had not thought this was a huge problem and assumed he would learn over time...now I am anxious that I have not been concerned enough and sould refer him to SALT???????

sorry for strange spelling but my computer randomly misses letters and I don't always catch it!

Drawing - Is he interested in it? Try getting him a colouring book that matches his interests. Superheros? Trains?
Before writing you need to learn pencil control. Before pencil control you need to learn to use you fingers. Fiddly things will help. Hama beads? Lego? You also need to be able to sit at a chair for a while, or, a clipboard can help if he's an active boy. You can write while still running about and crawling under stuff.

Why turn down speech help? The teacher and other teachers have decades of experience and qualification as well as language experts with all kinds of degrees to call on for second and third and fifth opinions. But you know best do you? 3 months of ignoring a problem is 3 months wasted, and if there isn't a problem, a few pointless appointments but nobody gets hurt.

If somebody offers help, take it. Even if they just get proven wrong.

From memory those constanant sounds should be sorted at his current age certainly the D for G one as that was one my dd had trouble with.

Here is a chart for "normal" ages for sounds

www.talkingchild.com/speechchart.html

we had "gog" and "gonkey", can't remember the other sounds she struggled with.

I love that chart, CarGirl. My DD's very first word was bapum (thank you), at bang on 12 months!

Some of those things are red flags for dyspraxia and for asd.

Not saying for one second that they aren't also within the realms of normal, - however a SALT will help figure that one out and tbh, if your ds DOES need help, a month of input at this age can preventing him from needing a year of help later down the line.

I would take the referal tbh.

I would take the speech referral to be honest.
It will only take a short time for him to be assessed by a SALT, and then he will be in the system, and able to access help if he needs it. If he doesn't need it - well he'll have spent 20 minutes of school time talking, and probably playing some fun games, with a therapist. With funding being as it is, there is no way he will get therapy he doesn't need!
I would also bear in mind that lots of schools don't get the services of a SLT all year round. It can often be the case that a school will only have an SLT visiting for one term per year, because there aren't enough therapists to go around, so if you turn down a referral now, you may have to wait until next January.

thanks for all your advice. I understand my long winded(ds gts it from me ) post was blunt, but to be clear ... and not wanting to drip drip information to you ...

I obviously I didn't tell the teacher she was wrong or just say no to referral. When the teacher broached the referral she said she was unsure if there was a problem as she might be mishearing him as he is very softly spoken, (at school anyway).

I explained I hadn't noticed anything seriously wrong speech wise but was unsure if this was because I am so used to communicating with him and would take the holidays to pay closer attention to his speech and discuss it with dh.

I wanted to get input from other parents if their child had experienced similar things as ...like any parent..there are plenty of things I am unsure of.

I don't have an issue contacting SALT and would be happy to do this...just didn't want to be wasting their time if the referral was not required IYSWIM.

She advised me to refer myself as it takes less time privately than via the school so I will start things off after the holidays.

She left it with me and we were to discuss his progress ... referral or not... at the next parent teacher meeting.

TiggyD I have no interest in one-upmanship over the teachers or proving them wrong ...I should have been clearer on my first post but I was trying not to waffle and concentrating with two screeching hyper under 5s isn't easy

With speech problems such as using the wrong letters IME as a mum of 2 dds that had speech delay (including one that was severe) the sooner they get help the better. It takes them much longer to unlearn the wrong words rather than new words correcly IYSWIm.

My other advice would be to get his hearing tested both of mine had different "hearing" issues but they were both the cause of their speech delay. The fact you've said his language skills are absolutely fine says it is more likely to be a hearing problem than not - one of mine had glue ear the other had a flat hearing "curve" low frequencies were too loud and high frequencies she couldn't hear very well at all.

My youngest had advance language skills yet severe speech delay - when she started school her teacher understood virtual nothing of what she said, it was that bad. Dd still prattled on and on though

I was sent to people about my 'language problems' when I was little. Turned out to be nothing wrong. The SALT will I'm sure be very happy is there's nothing wrong with your child and they can close the case with a happy ending.

Sounds very much lke my four year old ds2, part from different sounds h struggles with.

We are in Scotland so he is still at nursery so none of these things(apart from speech) have been raised as a concern.

I have no worries at all bout his development even though ds1 and dd could draw recognisable pictures, count and recognise numbers/letters before they were two.

I think he is just a different kettle of fish and more interested in developing his physical skills - he is an ace climber, can swim and could ride a bike ithout stabilisers when he was two

thanks again. I will phone on Wednesday morning when life gets back to normal and let the teachers know I have contacted SALT.

Just have to wait and see.

Wallace ... is that William??? i'm in Scotland too. The sunny west coast.