New member & need advice for 3 yr-old's severe S&L delay

[mummysmile]

Hello. I have a daughter who's nearly 3 and is severly delayed with her speech. She's had 6 one-to-one sessions with a private speech therapist & 5 NHS group sessions but although she's extremely vocal & everything is normal for her age(hearing, understanding etc) & she has no other concerns, she just cannot talk, only babble. They feel she cannot speak & cannot say her basic vowels and sounds needed to talk. There is talk of getting her statemented in preperation for school next year & allowing her to go to a specialised S&L unit but I want advice from other mums who have experienced similar things and what they have done about it? She still has a dummy at night but that is her only comforter & I'm not going to take that away from her yet as she's just started pre-school, is being potty-trained & she sleep-walks & wakes through the night so I'm allowing her to have the dummy still to have some degree of comfort. The SALT don't believe her lack of speech is caused by her dummy & that it's more of a physical problem with her mouth patterns. I also have a 15month-old daughter who is probably going to be talking a lot quicker than her sister! Many thanks

What has your speech therapist said your DD's difficulties are caused by? Has your speech therapist mentioned something along the lines of her difficulties being consistent with a diagnosis of dyspraxia? (they may use the terms oro-motor dyspraxia or development verbal dyspraxia)?

Sorry - just want to clarify that I'm not diagnosing there - just enquiring if they've used those terms. If not, what have they used?

Agree with the other posters. Places at a specialist unit are gold dust.

My Ds2 has mod - severe speech and language disorder and he attended ICAN Pre School Unit and then on to Speech and Language Unit attached to mainstream where he remains - he's now 10. He is doing very well and loves school.

He receives 1 - 1 speech and language therapy, weekly and group therapy, weekly, which helps with turn taking/social skills, the whole works; this type of intensive speech and language support can't be replicated and I would definitely get her statemented and accept the place at a speech and language unit.

Thank you very much to all of you who have replied to my post. I really appreciate it. There has been initial talk of her getting statemented and there is a SALT unit connected to a school in my town. I have no issue with her being statemented if it will help her. The SALT have not diagnosed her with any speech diagnosis as such, just that she can't physically say the words. They have discussed dyspraxia but nothing has been confirmed or explored. My DD does babble a lot with her tongue out, and it does tend to make her drool a lot so whether she has less control of her tongue, but then saying that she can also roll her tongue which I imagine needs quite a bit of control as I can't do it! Again, many thanks for all your replies. Hearing that I'm not alone has helped.

Definately go for the statementing. Speech and language therapy once children reach school age can be sadly very lacking unless you have a statement formalising her needs and entitlement. A statement is then legally binding. Hopefully you can get the language unit and things will be as good as possible for her.

Presume the therapists have suggested exercises to encourage mouth movements? Things like licking jam off the lips (put in different places to the side and lower lip too), blowing a pingpong ball with a straw, pulling faces in the mirror etc.

dd2 wasn't expected to be verbal either (she has oromotor difficulties because her muscle tone is affected due to cerebral palsy). she doesn't have any learning disabilites, her understanding was goo, it was/ is just physical articulation she struggled/s with.

she has had slt from birth (she also had feeding difficulties because of her poor oromotor) so has had a lot of slt. lots of exercises as suggested by bg (although we discovered she has no lateral movement with her tongue - she can poke it in and out and squish it against the roof of her mouth, but can't move it sideways at all - no licking lips going on there ) but also she was introduced to makaton ver y early, so that she didn't get frustrated due to her lack of speech.

makaton allowed her to join in with singing at nursery, (the keyworkers attended courses) and her peer group were also taught to sign and sing along. because it is sign and say, it doesn't hinder any speech, in fact with dd2 it seemed to be really beneficial.

from about 4/5 she was able to use the nuffield verbal dyspraxia programme, which made an enormous difference to her communication and her clarity. she's now completely verbal, and has dropped signing, but still has slt for clarity.

she went straight to mainstream (statemented) with 1-1 (not a unit) but the 1-1 was for her mobility as well as her communication needs.

dd2's speech issues sound very similar - she still has some issues with drooling now (she's 7).

i would disregard the dummy thing tbh - dd2 was never able to suck one at all as her tone was so low. they tried desperately to get her to use one as a baby as a way of increasing her muscle tone. your dd sounds as though she has low tone, not high. so in theory a dummy would actually help!

Many rules are changing for statement of special educational needs. In our borough, they generally don't provide a statement before the child has actually started school, except in extreme cases for disabled children. Also, in our borough, you cannot get a statement if a child needs less than 15 hours a week of one-to-one support. Again, in our borough, they do not give statements if speech is the only developmental delay. There are als changes to school action and school action plus, so we are left with very little support when DS starts school in september.

However, he is in a language facility for Nursery and he is making very good progress. We didn't need to have a statement to get in, the Salt did the initial referal and DS was seen by educational psychologist and pedeatrician.

I'm sure it's different in other areas of the country and even in different schools.

My daughter has verbal dyspraxia, and attends a lovely little preschool. We started the statementing process for her 1 1/2 years before she was due to start in reception. It has worked out quite well although it has been a very slow process. In this year (upper nursery) the statement provides for some 1:1 time with a trained/ experienced TA, 1:1 speech therapy with an experienced/ qualified speech therapist, and some OT.

More importantly for me, next year she has a place in a speech unit. There are only 2 places per year available so it is a huge relief to have confirmation that we've got on of them.

In the unit she'll have daily speech therapy, weekly OT and 1:1 support/ small group work all the time. Also, she'll meet other children who have similar difficulties. At 4 she has an ever increasing awareness that she is different and also that there are things that her peers can do that she cannot.

My other daughter is 2 1/2 (16 month difference) and talks very clearly for her age. She overtook DD1 quite some time ago. She has been an enormous help to DD1, and can also act as translator when I'm not around for other people- she understands the word approximations as well I do. DD1 seeks to copy her sister more than parents too- and they try to sing together etc where she will never sing with me...

sorry for length and hope it helps a bit

BlueberryPancake,

re your comment:-

"Many rules are changing for statement of special educational needs. In our borough, they generally don't provide a statement before the child has actually started school, except in extreme cases for disabled children. Also, in our borough, you cannot get a statement if a child needs less than 15 hours a week of one-to-one support. Again, in our borough, they do not give statements if speech is the only developmental delay".

I'd still challenge it though. Only criteria for statement is need.

It may be that this particular LEA are acting unlawfully here; all the above could perhaps be seen as blanket policy (which in itself is unlawful). Would seek independent advice on this matter from ACE, IPSEA or SOS:SEN.

mummysmile,

Were you aware that you can actually apply personally for the Statement?. I would do this asap, do not delay unduly even though she starts school next September. Statements can take around 6 months or so to set up.

If you are offered a place at a S & L unit on behalf of your child, say thank you very much and that you will accept it gratefully!!!. Its a great move, these places too are as rare as hens teeth. Also if your DD requires more help from the S & L unit longer term she will need a statement to access such a place too.

Thank you again for all your comments. Beautifulgirls- yes the SALT has suggested tongue exercises although I haven't heard of the ones that you've suggested. We have to get her to stick her tongue out and touch her nose with her tongue, and move it around her mouth, as well as blow bubbles and blow out candles to get "O" shapes with her mouth.

Madwomanintheattic- my DD does have a lot of problems with her tongue. She can stick her tongue out and try to touch her nose with it but if you ask her to touch her chin with her tongue etc she just moves her head in that direction so the SALTs think she does have low tongue muscle tone.

Attilathe meerkat-how do I get DD statemented myself? I haven't been told how I can do this and I would really like to start the ball rolling. My DD has been waiting for a year for speech therapy and all she's had is 5x 30-min group sessions which they've told me was a waste of time because she really needs 1-to-1!

DD has just started at a brilliant pre-school who do sign-along sign language and are getting STS(?) involved with her too. I get the feeling though that things are going to take a lot of time to sort out so any advice I receive that can help me help DD is brilliant.
Thanks again mums!

mummysmile,

IPSEA's website www.ipsea.org.uk has model letters on there you can use to write to the LEA.
You will need to write to the Chief Education Officer at your LEA (your council office will tell you that person's name) and give them six weeks to reply. Note that date on your calendar.

Keep posting on here too if you need any further help.

Good luck!. Appeal their crass decision as a matter of course in the event they reject the statement application.

Thank you AttilaTheMeerkat. Will do this next week.

hi Ds is bit older than your dd .And i would say apply for a statement yourself they told me he would never get one .He ahd one by ms reception but it became very obvious that he needed a unit and as we moved i applied and he got one .Though did have to get help from Ican independant reports to show that his main need is s&l

He has done well and can now blow for the first time in his life he is nearly 6 .Can make vowels and has now added M and B to his sound sthough still struggling to use ina word .

He gets 1hr a week of direct therpahy and then has specialist teacher ta for the rest .Like your dd he is very low toned and has hypermoblity to and struggled with his tounge/mouth shapes

He has dx of sever devlopmental verbal dyspraxia which means sometimes he can make the sound other times not and dx of sever oral dyspraxia .In reality for him he will always need a speech unit