DS's speech... should i be worried

[saladsandwich]

ds's speech is 12months behind, he's 3 so hes about age 2, pronunciation is terrible tbh but i understand 90% but tonight i realised that nearly all his sentences are the same.... he is generally repeating what i say but slightly differently... if i say "thats my drink" he will say "no datz minds dink" (no thats my drink) this morning i said "time for nursery" he repeats back "no not tine for nurtery" there was a pause then where he sort of couldnt get his thoughts and words together then he said "nurtery sut" (nurtery shut) is ths common? he sometimes repeats exactly what i've said back but its in a questioning tone?? he also missing alot of letters out of words and swaps beginning letters alot, i find him hard to understand when hes pronouncing the first part of a word wrong.

he can link words together but hes not holding conversations as such but can ask for things, answer questions, copies, he leads me by the hand to stuff, he is very observant ao will point out and tell me (one/two word) details about things hes seen.

he struggles still doing actions from songs but is starting to try sing nursery rhymes.

i just gt that sinking feeling tonight his progress although great from where he was 6months ago is not what i thought it was, he also only really talks to me.

I know not everyone likes Health visitors but it was chat and a run down of a tick box checklist with our HV ( who I had never met before as we moved here when boy was 3.5) about boys speech as he turned 4 that got him referred to SALT. DH and I had tuned into him and didn't really notice just how delayed his speech sounds were and thus how bad his pronunciation was.

A few months later boy had an assessment, charmed but baffled the SALT who concluded that Yes he did need some work on some key sounds. We then had six months of hard focused work with boy. He got up to age appropriate as he started school and was able to be understood by his teacher from day 1 . A much better experience than starting at a new preschool the year before when 2 members of staff failed to understand him so he stopped talking to them.

Are you already in/ known to the SALT system? If not maybe its time to ask for a referral and assessment?

ds is under salt has been since 18months because he was delayed in making sounds and gestures but they have been rubbish since they stopped the home visits they where great to begin with. hes seen community paed whose not giving us answers, its frustrating, i don't know if all the copying is age appropriate to his development (around the 2 year mark) or if its something else

What you are saying reminds me of echolalia (repeating your phrase in a different mode) and while it can be normal, it can also indicate some speech difficulties. I would go to another SALT and self refer to a paed, just to make sure you are not missing smth important.