Speach problems

[cliecost]

Hi,

First time posting here so not sure if posted in correct area.

Quick background story, me and my girlfriend recently took on two children with the expectation of them being with us until they reach 18, we have a boy (3) and a girl (2).

The girl seems fine in every normal way, she seems to be developing well.
The boy on the other hand being older developed a speech problem most likely because of the problems in his early life (he was moved from his mum to his nan and then to us).

I'm not sure if he is on the Autistic spectrum of just holding back due to his past but he wont talk no matter how much support we offer.

The children have been with us for 4 months and the girl has settled in fine, although the boy is happy its this one thing that is bothering us and it's really hold back his development and as you'd guess because he won't talk neither will his sister, she says more than he does (here, there and other simple single vowel words) but not as much as would be expected.

Is there a way of having the boy tested or examined to see if he requires any further support or specialist education.

The only reason I ask is because I have no idea where to begin with looking for help as the children were just one day given to us with no support at all from child services and it has been a VERY steep learning curve.

Please help,

Richard.

I don't know how far you would have to seek consent from parents/other family members in dealing with medical matters, but, that issue aside, many speech therapy departments these days accept referrals from parents/carers, if you google the speech and language therapy department for your PCT, you should be able to find out if they will accept a letter from you to refer. If not, then go via GP or health visitor. All under school age children should be under the health visitor. You may find the professionals are very relaxed about the little boy, and don't want to refer to speech therapy, as he is under 3 (3 tends to be a watershed age). Hopefully given the fact the kids have been moved around so much would mean that the medics would take any issues more seriously. Also worth getting the little boy's hearing tested (should be straightforward via GP or health visitor). If you are concerned about autism, then consider asking for a referral to a paediatrician from GP to check his development.

Also if you are near a Children's Centre, it's worth going to the classes/groups there, as the staff often have access to professionals such as health visitors and sometimes educational psychologists etc for further advice.