speech therapy

[peppajay]

My son is 3.5 and very bright and bubbly but his speech is very quick and fast and very difficult to understand. He is very chatty and doesnt stop talking and due to his poor pronounciation pre school referred him to the speech therapist with no other concerns other than this pronounciation problem but have received report from speech therapist and she thinks he has severe learning difficulties and severe co ordination problems, she is basing this on the fact that he can't put the swords in the pop up pirate game without help!!! Apparent his oral tongue co ordination is poor and his pronounciation is poor and his listening is poor as is his mouth movements.

She is basing this on a 20 min appt. Pre school are shocked as in their eyes there is no sign of and learning difficulties and they think he is one of the most co ordinated children at pre school he loves puzzles and building blocks and is a whizz on his balance bike.

Due to speech therapists finding she wants to refer him to a paediatrician for tests for autism, aspergers and dyspraxia. He can count t0 50 and knows lots of little words and last yr was in the rising 5's group at pre school!!!

Very confused as she seems to be assuming alot, he was only referred to her for help with his fast overactive speech.

Anyone else experienced anything like this with a Speech therapist??

Thansks

hmm well, i don;t know.
ds1's nursery didn't pick up on the fact that he is (probably) autistic.
they don't always.
and the speech therapist will see children with difficulties like this a lot and potentially be better at spotting stuff like this,

that said, it does seem unlikely that no-one would have spotted if he had severe issues.

i would say go ahead with the paediatrician referral. if there is nothing wrong then you haven't lost anything. but if there are underlying issues then you're in the system and will have access to anything your son may need.
they don't just go around diagnosing kids willy nilly, so don't worry that he will be diagnosed with something he doesn't have. just be honest about how you see him, and maybe get nursery to write a report of how he is there and what they think of his behaviour/co-ordination etc and see how you go?

Hi peppajay, I'm an Early Years Speech and Language Therapist. We are trained to assess attention and listening skills, play, social development, understanding and use of language as well as speech sounds and fluency. Sometimes during an assessment, it becomes apparent that a child may have difficulties in other areas of development which we are not fully qualified to assess - in those situations, it would be normal practice to refer to another professional, like a paediatrician.

20 minutes sounds like a reasonable amount of time to spend with a 3.5 year old. The therapist would also have taken into account any information that you gave during the case history, and any information that was given by preschool. It's interesting that preschool are not at all concerned about his physical or learning development, this would suggest that he's functioning well in his daily routines. I would go ahead with the paediatrician's appointment - you will get more information about how your DS is functioning and if he does need any extra support, the earlier that can be put in place the better. I hope that's reassured you a bit

Very difficult because this had never been thought of or mentioned before!!

Will run with referall coz like you say nothing to lose and he is the system for help then!!