SALT- is this normal?

[Perkyduck131]

My daughter has just turned 4 and her pre school teacher raised initial concern about her pronunciation back in November. I had her assessed in December and there were no major concerns in terms of vocabulary or processing but, again, pronunciation was raised as an issue and the assessor suggested short term therapy to support. The focus was more the consonants blends (she will say ‘cwass’ for class etc)
We have recently been going to a local therapist and it seems quite intense- lots of strong holding/ gripping of the mouth. Is this normal? I suppose I thought it would be more talking, mirror work and some actual exercises I can carry on at home.

On another note, the speech sounds she seems to be working on with my daughter are sounds she can already say. I appreciate the process is complex but it feels like the past six weeks we haven’t got onto any of the blends etc that were raised as the initial concern.

Finally, how much feedback/ progress reports should I be expecting? I plan to speak to the therapist after half term but would really appreciate some alternative experiences so I can have a productive discussion.

Thank you!

I am not a SALT therapist and can only give you an opinion as a mum of a boy who’s had a lot of therapy.
Firstly every child is different and develops at different rates in different ways. There is no such thing as “normal”. Salt is usually divided into two basic areas, receptive and expressive language, both of which are sub-divided again into other areas of strength/weakness. Many children are slow with pronunciation and all is fine, some might struggle more and need intervention. It’s good your DD has been referred early, so everything can be investigated, and also physical issues such as hearing or verbal dyspraxia etc can be ruled out. Pronunciation became a problem with my DS because it meant he had (and still does have) very poor phonological awareness, so the impact has meant he can not spell and in turn de-code words for reading. (Basically profoundly dyslexic)
All I can advise is you ask lots of questions. The progress can be painfully slow (spent nearly a year trying to work on the difference between f and s sounds for example, where your teeth are when you make these sounds) but sometimes things can move on very fast for no reason. My son has an EHCP and gets SALT as part of his in school support and has done his entire school career, which might be something you might want to consider too depending on how things go.

Thanks so much for your reply.
By ‘normal’ life I meant in terms of the structure of the session rather than DD’s language development. You’re absolutely right, they all develop differently and It’s important to remember all their strengths as well.

That’s really helpful re the receptive vs expressive - I’ll look into that more. Also reassuring to know that progress can be slow- just feel very helpless atm and not sure what I can do at home to support. I don’t think she would be eligible for EHCP atm as school aren’t planning to refer until she’s 6- we’re seeing a therapist privately as she also has very poor vision so reading may present a challenge to her anyway.
These children like to keep us on our toes, thought it would get easier as they get older!
Thanks again x

I'm a SALT student and also the parent of a child who has had a lot of speech intervention. It shouldn't be rough at all.

DD has always had very good receptive language, it was purely articulation she had problems with (verbal dyspraxia) and it can feel like a very long slog with minimal results when you're with them day in day out - and it's only when you turn and look at how far they've come rather than how far they've got still to go that you realise you've made the progress you have. DD had virtually no intelligible speech when she started school, and now, she's nearly 7, she just gave me the most wonderful recount of how to make soup at her grandparents the other day - beautifully sequenced, grammatically correct and all completely intelligible. Her speech doesn't sound 100% "normal" still - but you can understand everything and the vocabulary she uses is brilliant.

Incidentally - DD who couldn't say most of the speech sounds, could still decode them correctly when reading and was reading at greater depth by the end of reception!