speech f /th

[morethanpotatoprints]

Can anybody tell me if this is normal.
DD had speech therapy pre-school until school. She seemed ok and they discharged her so must have been. Sorry this is a long post.
Reading is ok she is y3 and got level 3 in sats and 2a for listening, comp etc.
When using familiar words she seems unsure if its th or f and her spelling when writing is really bad, if you ask her she can spell the word out. I am severely dyslexic and dispraxic, not sure if she could be the same. Her comprehension and story writing is not good as she forgets the story or what she wants to say, although being quite imaginative.

I'm a speech therapist.

All really complex but basically you should re-refer her to the SLT department yourself. Detail what you've said here.

I too am a Speech Therpaist and agree with bistokids - re-refer her to your local SLT service

I hope she gets the support she needs

Thank you very much I have noticed other things as well and just recently somebody said they couldn't understand what she was saying. Could be coincidence but that was why we were referred originally.
Another one is reading ered and ed at the end of words. Apart from this her reading is very good.
Do I re refer myself or do I have to ask school to do this?

I'm a teacher. One child in my class was referred for speech therapy through school, another privately. I don't think it makes much difference in terms of how quickly it comes through - although if you do it through school then I think your child can have speech therapy at school in school time, whereas I think if you refer yourself then you'll have to collect her from school to take her to speech therapy. But I may be wrong! Check what your school does.

In my area there is far less provision for junior age children than infant/pre-school. You may find that you face a long wait.

Sadly, in my area, being discharged from SaLT doesn't mean there aren't any issues, it just means they are massively understaffed, and you don't meet their priority criteria. Generally speaking though, once families were known to SaLT, the best way to get back in touch, was a direct phone call from the parents.

BackforGood has the nail on it's head. My dd has been under SALT since she was 3, she is now in Y2 and just turned 7. She has had in school therapy since Y1, in reception I had to take her out of school for her therapy as not available in schools under the EYFS. Over the last year her therapist had to almost secretly keep her on the books as there was so much pressure to discharge all but the most severe children, the school has also campaigned to keep dd under SALT having to really through their weight around when dd's old therapist left and a new one was assigned, luckily the new therapist ended up agreeing with the school and myself when she met dd and we are still under SALT by the skin of our teeth. My dd has now not got too many issues with her day to day speech but she still struggles with spelling in particular and phonics is hell on earth for her, nothing sounds right when she tries to use phonics to decode new words. For dd there turned out to be physical reasons for her speech issues, she was found to have a severe and complete tongue tie along side very enlarge tonsils and adenoid. These things all effected her speech as well as causing other issues. She had surgery to remove her tonsils, adenoid and free her tongue which was a success although her tongue was that bed they were unable to completely free it so she still can't move her tongue upwards and this continues to effect her speech notably in the s/sh and t/th areas although she is able to hear the difference she struggles to reproduce the sound correctly.
The advice given by therapist here to get your dd refereed is defiantly the best way to go but be prepared for a fight, there is a huge shortage of therapists and the SALT units are under huge pressure to only take on the worst cases.

I am in the middle of all this again, ds starts school in September and has huge speech issues, much worse then dd. His issues come from other reasons, his mainly came from having bilateral glue ear from the age of 2-3, his speech is taking a long time to catch up and is extremely unclear. I would say I understand one in 3 words that he says and for people who don't know him, well, it could be as low as 1 in 10. We are still at the three word sentence stage and it is so frustrating, he is an intelligent boy, quick and eager to learn who is unable to demonstrate his abilities and it is so frustrating for him is behaviour often suffers. Things are even more tricky in that when ever he gets a cold is hearing suffers yet he is not consistently effected enough for grommets.
It is a constant battle it seems to get the help and therapy, you just have to keep pushing and pushing. :(

Roadkillbunny. Sorry to hear of your dcs struggle. I guess mine pales into insignificance after your experience, which I thank you for sharing with me. Thanks for other posts and suggestions, I suppose our SalT dept must have been quiet at the time dd was seen, as we were straight in. Thanks for preparing me for a battle, I am forewarned now.
Listening to your posts I do think there is a problem, you sort of know when something isn't right.

SLT services are very different across the country. I can assure you that the SLTs are probably as frustrated as many of you sound. They don't like cuts to their services and being restricted in who they can/can't assess/treat.

The best thing to do is to write a complaint to your local SLT service (whether it be NHS, Foundation Trust etc) outlining your concerns over the service. MPs also are a good starting point. The only way things can change is if service users complain. Services have a duty to respond to these complaints and they generally go to managers above and can often lead to positive changes.

Sorry to hijack post, but when should speech therapy be requested? Ds is only 2.5 but has a problem with s, he can hiss, but in words will come out as a fr or d, so Fireman Dam. He also has problems with th saying f instead. He has a slight tongue tie too.

I agree OzBrit, I know the therapists we have had at school are really extremely frustrated by the cut backs that force them to to discharge all but the most worst effected children, it is absolutely not the fault of the therapists, I admire the work they do and appreciate it is a very tough time in regards to funding for there 'less complex' special needs (not that funding for complex special needs is any better) and the pressure they are being put under is unbearable. Before she left dd's previous in school therapist managed to keep dd on her books by 'putting her file right to the back of the pile and slipping it through' (he words almost exactly), when the new therapist came in she arrived ready to discharge dd before she had spoken with her teachers or seen dd herself, luckily the school really came through on that one and dd remains on the books although we are finding we are having to 'justify' it to who ever the therapist answers to with paperwork and letters from dd's doctors and surgeon.

I do wonder about complaining but I haven't really got anything that could be put into a complaint about her current provision as she still has it (iyswim). I have got complaints about the service before school (provided by different areas due to geographic blips as a result of living in a rural location), my relationship with that team is extremely poor, they let dd down very, very badly and I find it very hard to work with them now with ds but I have no other option, problem is I trust them as far as I could throw them. I try and put all this past stuff in a box while ds is still under them and feel that making a formal complaint would not make it harder the deal with them for ds but make it impossible :(

Sorry, have rather taken over and hijacked this thread away from you op, I am sorry for my rants and just wanted to say, your dd's problems are just as important and valid as my childrens problems, any child who has problems in any way, however 'big' or 'small' they may seem next to others has the right to appropriate help. Next to so many children the problems my two have had and do have are very small, we are lucky and blessed in so many ways however my two still have the right to access the help they need to make the most of their potential in life. That is true for every child in the world, you can almost always find somebody worse off but that in no way negates the very real issues your dd is facing, I wish you the best of luck, let us know how things go.
(sorry for the spic post.. soapbox )

I am also sorry for the most appalling use of the English language, I have no excuse other then a very tired brain that suffers the side effects of my daily medication cocktail and to a lesser extent my impaired vision plays a part. I would correct all my errors but I would crate another epic post, once again

Hi, DS1 has been discharged from SLT, OTs, PTs etc etc and they've all said to ring them direct if we have future concerns, so would echo that suggestion. The worst they can do is say go back to school/gp and ask for referral.

DS2 has come home from school (reception) chanting 'Finger, Thumb', really emphasising the F and Th. When he says a word and isn't sure if it's F or Th, he (with our encouragement) chants 'Finger, thumb' while waving fingers and thumbs around.

Do you remember the song, 'One finger one thumb keep moving'?

I know this doesn't replace professional SALT, but it could be a fun thing to do while you wait!!

3duracellbunnies This is a great site for looking at what children "ought" to be doing at what ages.

Actually, it's a great site for all things language related

BackforGood thank you for posting the link, that site is really informative and useful!

My pleasure