Speech Delay - Almost 4

[Nix01]

My youngest son is turning 4 in a month and will be starting Reception in September.

His speech appears to be quite delayed when I compare to his nursery peers. His nursery teacher has to really concentrate to make head or tail of what he's saying.

Where should I start with having this assessed? Would one start with a GP appointment?

Thank you in advance.

Hello. Please go to your GP. Glue ear is often present and should be looked for. Others with much more supportive knowledge will come along soon.

Good luck

Yes definitely - GP appointment and they will refer to speech and language therapy and arrange a hearing test (after checking in the ears that there is no wax).

Waiting lists for NHS SALT are long - definitely get yourself on the NHS list as they will co-ordinate with school, but if you could afford it then a one off private assessment could give you some things to be getting on with at home.

You can find a private SALT who is accredited by putting your postcode in here:

www.helpwithtalking.com/

Thank you, will get straight onto it x

How does one get onto the NHS list for speech therapy in the interim? We can only get in to see the GP on 17th March so won't really know for sure until then.

It was our HV who referred Ds for speech therapy, so that could be a good place to start. We never saw the GP about it.

GP needs to refer you. They might be happy to do a referral after speaking to you on the phone.

If you google your area and Speech and Language Therapy, you may be able to self refer, there should be an advice line number on the website.

His nursery should have a SENCO who can also refer you to SALT.

I did it through my son's pre school. (He is now 5 and started school in sept). Get onto it as soon as you can because as others have said NHS waiting lists can be long, we waited four months before even being seen and then another six weeks before his therapy started. We have ended up going private now as with the NHS he would get 5 sessions and then have to go bank on the waiting lists for weeks again.

*back

We were able to self refer to SALT. They worked really hard with us and the nursery to sort out DD's speech delay.

We went via our hv. Do make sure you get a referral to have his ears checked at the same time. Hearing problems (mostly due to glue ear) are the main cause of speech delay, so it's essential for the SALT to know if that's the underlying problem.

the senco at our local children's centre did the referral for us the waiting lists are long we had to wait 8 months for dd to be seen but this may vary in the meantime we paid to have private speech therapy which cost £50 an hour