Would you delay reception for a child with a non-trivial speech delay?

[PeanutButterCrumpets]

DD will be 4 this month (June) and due to start Reception this September. Her speech is roughly that of a 2 year old. If it helps to know, didn't say a word prior to 3. Her expressive word count now is around 150 - 200 at most and her Receptive understanding can stretch to "can you get mummys keys please", or "leave your hat in the car" for example and she understands straight away. She is stringing mini phrases together (cold outside, big dog, help mummy, daddy working) and we are working on her pronunciation which is quite slurred - its difficult to determine what she is saying most of the time. Apart from her speech we have no suspicions of any other SN's and she is a cluey kid with a great memory and good attention span. FYI I was denied an EHCP assessment (not a compelling enough need they said) and separately DD has a mild high frequency hearing loss and is aided in both ears for this. Our speech therapist who has only so far spoken to me and not worked with DD is virtually ordering me to delay her purely based on her speech delay. It's thrown me right back into doubt as I was all set to send her into Reception this September. Nursery disagree about delaying her but i'm wondering what happens after reception (year 1+) when theres less play and more focus on academics. Maybe she'll have caught up by then... but maybe not. So my question: Did your DC have a speech delay and how did they fare in school? Did you have to hold them back during any years following Reception?

yes and I did a term, nursery wanted to delay a year but a term was the right thing for us.

Hi, I am bookmarking this to respond better once the children are in bed

Is there a school near with a speech unit with speech therapy on site?
Has she had developmental assessment generally?

We didn't for DD: speech delay and august baby on top of it!! And not very outgoing 😕

I wanted to delay her but DH was very much against it.

Tbh she's doing ok 🤷🏻‍♀️ she took a bit to read (but then I hate the UK system, they start waaaY too early) and she needs a lot of support doing homework (year 1). But she's suddenly started reading really well!! It just clicks!!!

In regards to the speech delay, the reception school (3 different schools in 3 different years 🤷🏻‍♀️) gave her some support but half way through the year said that she was good enough to stop.

Is the child being followed by a therapist? What is their opinion on the progress? My understanding is at this age they don't really care about the delay but more about the progress and how the child is otherwise (in case there are other underlying issues)

Good luck!!!

I got permission then didn't delay. I wish I did, just everyone was so against it. Dc initially excelled in reception then it locked down again and year one has been very hard. We have done a lot of speech therapy privately. I just say reading hasn't really been affected although some year one phonics are more tricky. It's been the social side and the slow speech, it just doesn't come as quickly.

We did, he stayed in Nursery til Easter and joined reception then and moved to Y1 with his cohort. Very glad to have done it.

I delayed mine for a term and he started at Christmas. Worked really well for us. Speech is now great and confident r is building week by week.

Will be back after bed time, thanks so much for the responses so far!

I would definitely delay if you can. It will only benefit her but to be fair I'm not in the UK and would hate to send a child that young to school . I would go with the speech therapist and not the nursery. I find pre schools nearly always say children are ready even when parents have serious doubts

We did, DS2 is summer term born and had severe speech and language delay at that age. He started mainstream school reception at 5y and 4months. By that time he had an autism diagnosis (not saying that your DD does, just recounting our experience). He has stayed with his class and is only 4 months older than the second oldest child in his class.

To be honest, he was t really ready to start school even when he did, but we wanted Mai stream for him and it’s been the right decision, I feel. It also gave us more time to get an EHCP in place for when he started school.

This makes no sense to me, because they then miss starting off together and phonics learning starts immediately, unless your child already had this phobic knowledge ( my Ds knew the letter sounds despite a speech delay)

My son was speech delayed and had speech therapy services before starting school, beginning around 20 months. We did not delay as we were able to get speech therapy and other accommodations in school for him.

He just graduated from uni and already has a terrific job, so don't despair.

In your shoes I would delay. My DD has always been behind with her speech and it impacted making friends.

Provided you get it confirmed she can enter reception a year later.

I didn’t delay ds and he’s just coming to the end of his reception year. Academically he is slightly ahead with everything except writing. The speech delay has caused some issues but he’s managed and the school have given him extra input. Both one to one and in small groups.
he had his first block of speech therapy in his last term of preschool. He should have had another block by now but there have been staff shortages.
in our area there are pre salt courses at childrens centres and most of the schools do nelly.

‘flexible school admissions for summerborns’ Group on Facebook has families who have delayed reception start due to speech delay.

I would delay as she's summer born.

As an aside my youngest has high frequency hearing loss and Johansen Therapy which massively improved her hearing johansenias.com

I really appreciate these responses. A mixed bag and some great food for thought. We have yet to speak to the school and get their take and are speaking to an Ed Psych in the morning. For those who did delay, did you stay in nursery or move to a middleground between a nursery and reception - ie: that might be a preschool I suppose?

I have an end of July born 2 year old with some speech delay due to glue ear who we are going to have to decide what to do about school applications in September. I also have DC2 currently in reception and DC1 in year 2.

If your DD is currently at the level of a 2 year old that is quite significantly behind, what impact is it having socially with her peers? What does your speech therapist make of her rate of progress over the last year? What's her level of understanding like if you read a story to her, can you talk about the story and what the pictures are showing you?

With the jump between reception and year 2 very visible to me at the moment, I'd be very tempted to look into delaying her if you can. By year 1 they are expected to sit down all day, and there's a lot of formal learning there (e.g. they start learning about nouns and verbs in year 1). I'd have thought also that in a year's time the gap between her and her peers in terms of ability to talk to each other would be smaller which would make it more likely she'd thrive rather than merely survive at school.

My ds1 had a speech delay starting school - limited number of consonants, still using words such as baa baa for sheep, only understood my people who did not know him about 50% of the time and only just using short phrases. He was also a July birthday

However I knew he was 'bright' (although it took a while for school to realise this) and I also thought he was autistic (took everyone else many years to realise this!)

I did not delay starting. He is now in year 11, predicted 8s and 9s (A*s) in a couple of subjects and 7s in the others (except English as he is also dyslexic).

Whilst he had to work amazingly hard in his reception year learning how to talk and struggling with near impossible phonics I am so glad I did not delay a year.

If it is just purely speech and not overall academic ability I would not delay a year.

Hi, I was wondering if you are in the uk and if the advice was a private or NHS therapist?

My son has speech delay, turned 4 in May and is now managed three or four word sentences. So can say - where is daddy. Daddy back work.

We are having speech therapy with the nhs - one appointment every 6 months and a private therapist each week.

At no point has anyone suggested holding back or delaying reception. He is at nursery and tonight I spent time with his key person talking about strategies of how he are going to get him ready.

It did cross my mind to hold him back but I was worried it would be harder for him to integrate. Luckily he has two friends from his nursery going to his school. I was so relieved as he finds new things very hard

@lorisparkle Appreciate that so much and my goodness your DS1 is doing brilliantly! I think you hit the nail on the head with the distinction between speech delay and academic ability. She is very receptive to learning and can retain concepts so on this basis we're thinking we forge ahead depending on what the school feel (speaking to them tomorrow).

@PeanutButterCrumpets thank you, he has done amazingly well. It was the best decision for us but every child is so different so do what is best for your LO.

I'm a SLT, don't really work with school children anymore but have recommended and provided evidence for children to start late. Generally for a summer born child it seems to be worthwhile. Like others have said actually reception with eyfs curriculum isn't too bad but at year one it can really hit hard and it's too late to make any change

Absolutely without hesitation. The entire curriculum is delivered through language and I would give your daughter an extra year in nursery to develop her skills. If she does not have great language skills she is very unlikely to have the foundational skills for phonics (a knowledge of syllable and rhyme) and will likely struggle to learn to read. There is no rush to get her into school. She would be better finishing school at 19 years old with qualifications and a greater sense of self esteem than being rushed in now when she's not ready because her peers are starting. School in the UK starts too early.

@welshladywhois40 I am indeed in the UK - the advice was from a private speech therapist. Our NHS speech therapist feels we should go ahead with starting reception in September. Your DS's situation sounds very similar to my DD. We've seen a few NHS Speech Therapists and have a block of 4 sessions starting next week. When we were last seeing the NHS speech therapists we hadn't been thinking about school or potentially delaying but will be asking for sure when we have our workshops next week.

May I ask if you are happy with your ST? And if they happen to be in the South East can I PM you for their name 😁 We've had 3 private ST's so far... its been hard to find a decent one.

That's great your DS will have some familiar faces! DD also will have a handful of kids going to her school. She's been getting on well socially - she's a happy sunny kid and loves people and so far the speech delay has not hindered her friendships. I suppose this may become a problem as the year progresses but i'm sure theres a someone for everyone in each class...