Speech therapists - help please

[cansu]

DD ASD aged 7 in mainstream school. Largely non verbal, has some words but was told by old salt that dd has verbal dyspraxia and that this was probably reason she wasn't making good progress with her expressive language whilst receptively is much stronger. DD tends to say only part of words eg hou for house. New salt seems less convinced about this and seems to be more of the opinion that it is ASD based and more about encouraging and motivating her to communicate and making good use of proloquo2go on her ipad. I feel very confused about what is the best way to go with dd but feel the work on sounds has gone a bit by the wayside since new salt took over. Should I be insisting that work on sounds is a prime focus? I can see that it is really hard for dd when I try to help her to improve her pronunciation at home but I'm worried if we let it drop she won't make progress with her speech even though cognitively she is quite bright. I am thinking of going to have a chat with new SALT about this. Any ideas / thoughts welcome. Thanks.

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Hmm, don't have that much idea what you can do, but didn't want your post to go unanswered.
I read a book recently written by an Australian woman with autism (if I could just remember the title!). She describes how she can hardly speak, and yet she is obviously very intelligent & has written a book.
I suppose what I am thinking is that if your dd finds it easier to communicate with her iPad, then that might be the way to go.
How does she cope in a mainstream class?
There's a SALT that used to post on here called Moondog. You could try a new thread with her name in the title.
Sorry I can't be of more help. I can understand how frustrating it is for you when professionals don't agree & you don't know what to do for the best. But don't forget, YOU are the expert on your child.
Good luck!

Can you afford going private? If you can, I think it's worthwhile to have a private assessment and then go from there really. It can be VD, it can be smth else- one thing that strikes me is that even if it's autism related, I can't see how working on sounds can be anything but beneficial for your DC. Surely, if she struggles with sounds, it will help her to work on them. Have u tried Nuffield?

It shouldn't really matter Whether the reason she is struggling to make sounds is ASD based or VD, the main point here is that your DD can and is trying to make sounds. DS is young so cannot compare to your situation but our ABA consultant has always said that whatever modes of communication you use whether it is signs, PECS etc to make it easy for dc to communicate, they are just tools, the goal should always be speech.

It seems like for whatever reason, this salt has given up on speech. Can you get a second opinion or go private? Based on what you have written here, I would be politely insisting on incorporating working on speech as part of the program.

Thanks for your replies. She copes in mainstream currently because of her brilliant TA. school have also been v good so far. I suppose I am concerned about new SALT's approach and also am not sure if she is leaving work for TA to do with her. I haven't given up on DD's speech but am concerned SALT may have. I am not sure if Nuffield has been tried before. It was mentionned by old salt, but as dd was very good visually with letters and individual letter sounds we used those in the end on laminated cards. I did ask about an approach called Kaufman that I had heard of that used more colourful, motivating resources but was looked at blankly. I will make an appointment for a chat. Everyone raves on about this SALT probably because she is employed directly by LA (old one was private! and LA had to pay for it!). I agree that working on sounds can't hurt and can only be beneficial. I am very concerned that we might be on the old 'let's play with bubbles' track; I have lost count of the number of useless SALT sessions we have had over the years and feel very frustrated when I know how desperately dd needs a great SALT!

My ds 4 has DVD not ASD do don't know much about two together. I can whole heatedly recomend the Nuffield. You will need to be referred - have a look on website. They are amazing

Cansu funny you should mention kaufman, we had a workshop yesterday and our consultant mentioned about this. There are some resources and more information available on this website www.kidspeech.com.

Thanks, Dev was it mentionned in a positive way? I have had a look at the site you linked to. I might just buy some of the cards and have a go.

Happy to help, It was mentioned in a positive way, DS babbles a lot but no coherent or consistent sounds so we were just discussing the different ways we can encourage him to imitate sounds. Kaufman was mentioned as one way of achieving it, but ds is not really ready for it as it needs to have imitation skills in place. Our consultant explained as breaking the word down for them, almost like a pyramid, for eg.

In different stages, Biscuit will be

B
Bi
Bic
Bikit
Biski
Biscuit

You break down the sounds of the words in order to 1) make it easier for the child to master it and 2) also build their confidence for them to try the next stage. There is a section on the website in the families resource, there is a list of useful iPad apps there, maybe check that out as well.