Help! Speech and language therapy - where do I go?

[OliveHelper]

Hoping Mumsnet can help me out here. My youngest, 4 years old, has been struggling with some pronunciations (have really just started noticing the past few months), saying 'tat' instead of 'cat' etc. I've read that sometimes they naturally grow out of this, but I'm still a bit concerned. Could anyone recommend some easy tools to check for speech and language development? Probably private — have read that NHS is impossible to get an appointment. Also not sure I want to commit to a full therapist yet — any online resources??

Thanks so much in advance !!

Sincerely,
(Generally) stressed out mum!

Your first step could be to ask the GP for a hearing check. If they have started school, you can ask them to refer to SALT, otherwise the health visitor should be able to. Although different areas have different referral protocols, the school or health visitor should know what your local ones are.

www.oxfordhealth.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/docs/speech-sound-development-chart.pdf

Will give you a rough idea of speech sound development. If your child is still struggling with most sounds production, it might well be worth further investigation. T for c is quite common until just before/around 4 years of age.

In addition to NHS speech therapy, many areas also have speech therapists employed by the local authority (or straddling NHS/LA), so once a child is in education, they can often be referred through the school (often the SALT will be attached to a cluster of schools and visit on a set day). It might be worth speaking to his teacher about (1) what their opinion on DC's speech is (it's helpful to know how intelligible their speech is to others outside of the family) and (2) what the procedure for referral via school is.

We were also referred to SALT before starting school by the HV, so it's worth discussing with them too.

Our primary has a link SaLT who attends once a week to do group sessions.

This is a helpful resource and will direct you to the helpline if it flags up that you might want to speak to someone.

https://progress-checker.speechandlanguage.org.uk/

In terms of this specific error, it's called "fronting" and it is a good idea to seek advice about it if your child has not outgrown it by 3.5 years old, so you're doing the right thing.

My 5yo is at speech therapy and I don't think online exercises would have helped in his case as the speech therapist has really been able to look at him and assess exactly what/where/why the errors are occurring and come up with helpful activities to get him to practice. I don't think I would have been able to replicate this at home - it's really skilled and clever what they are doing.

I don't think I would have been able to replicate this at home - it's really skilled and clever what they are doing.

I found this too - we have different speech issues from OP's DC, but the magical 'tricks' for pronouncing certain sounds that the speech therapist taught DC were mind-blowing!

Does your dc have a tongue tie? Saying tat instead of cat could imply they are struggling to lift the back of their tongue which could be caused by a posterior tongue tie.

Health visitor would be a good starting point. NHS SALT has huge delays so private might be an option. Google paediatric speech therapy and your location and you should get a list of options.

In case it helps, we pay about £160 for an initial assessment then £80 a session (monthly in our case) for DS. I know that's not what you asked, but thought it might be helpful in figuring out what your plan is! NHS waiting list is epic, and frankly they seem to only be seeing the most in need at this point. DS definitely in need but the wait between "interventions" is about a year.