could something be wrong with ds

[kbaby]

Hi, I'm hoping someone may be able to give me some advice. Ds4 was very late to coo. He developed normally and his motor skills are fine. When starting nursery it was picked up that his speech wasn't correct for His age and he was referred for salt, he has the problem that he couldn't form sounds correctly so dad was gag, top is cop etc. Over the course of the year his speech has improved and he can now say all sounds and is moving to remembering to use them in sentences. I thought his speech was isolated and family have been telling me he will get there etc. However I went for His parents evening tonight and there seemed to be so many things he isn't doing I'm worried that his speech is not the only problem. They said he can't seem to put things in sequence or order, so putting things into the order they are done throws him completely, he can count but can't put numbers into order and doesn't recognise the written numbers. He is very quiet but does socialise as long as its with quieter children, he seems to dislike noisy children or parties etc. It seems he is very behind the other children. I asked the teacher if she thought that developmentally there was something wrong but she said as his speech is very delayed she would expect the rest of his learning to be delayed. She didn't say anything further but they have put him on some learning plan.
I don't want to assume that hes just behind because of his speech or that he will pick it up because that's what I did with his speech and it resulted in a referral.
Does anyone think there could be something and if so what could it be so that I could check the symptoms. His parents evening has really worried me and I can't believe I haven't thought more of his delayed learning.

TBH I would see GP and ask for a referral to a developmental paed. It could just be speech but from what you have said it doesnt sound like it is.
Least then you would have an idea of where the developmental delays are and how to help.

My son has a fairly major speech problem - he wasn't late talking, but had/has an issue with the sound formation - he also has some of the issues that you mention and at 13 was given a diagnosis of Asperger's

before that panics you, lol

One of the reasons that he was so late being diagnosed was that they were unsure whether it was Asperger's or ASD because speech problems sometimes cause problems very similar to an ASD - so they were waiting for his speech to resolve a bit to see if that improved his other issues or whether they were indeed something separate (obviously they were)

so yes, it could be his speech and yes it could be something else as well, really the only way to know is to do what lisa sugggests

I would definitely follow the above advice to ask for a referral to a developmental paediatrician. This isn't because I recognise any problems but because you are concerned and that's a good enough reason to get him checked out.

Just to reassure you speech plays and enormous part in children's learning and the development of their understanding. They use speech to order their thoughts whilst playing so your sons speech difficulties could well be affecting a lot of his learning.

The good news is that if delay in speech development is the cause he should catch up with everything else one it is overcome.

I wouldn't panic. I think it's a good idea to have him seen by a developmental paediatrician but from what you say he has made amazing progress with his speech over the last year. The other things you mention don't sound concerning to me. My children (no special needs) don't like noisy children/parties either, I think that's quite common.

It seems he is very behind the other children You would not be very behind other children if there was only a speech issue (I don't think). I think it is best to get him checked out.

(Unless you mean he is only behind with speaking...)

Teachers are not great at telling you what they really think.... If you left with the impression there was a problem - there probably is.

Sorry.

Thanks for the advice. His teacher kept contradicting herself, one sentence she said he is behind and doesn't know numbers, sequence etc but then when I asked if they were concerned there was a problem she said oh we'll consider that in the summer. It seemed there were no positives at all apart from he is well behaved. I spoke with his speech therapist today who said she thought he picked things up well and if there was a problem its there he would go so she told me to call and speak to a lady there and she would contact the school for me to see what they were concerned about and do some tests herself. So that's good news. I don't want the school to think I'm blowing it out of proportion because on the one hand it could be his teacher just isn't very complimentary about any of the children and it may be a small issue but then if not I need to act on it now