ds (3.6) so much to say-no speech at all,feel a bit overwhelmed.

[hazeyjane]

Something seems to have switched on in ds. He is much more alert and interested in stuff, I'm not sure what has caused it (better sleep possibly?) but it is wonderful:)

An upshot of this is that he wants to communicate so much more,however his complete lack of speech, obviously makes this difficult! What makes it harder still is that, now he spends time away from me at preschool he comes out gesticulating wildly about what he has done,and I haven't got a clue what he is on about! I am over the moon that he is doing so well and is so keen to communicate,but am so worried about how difficult it is to understand what he is trying to communicate.

I'm not sure if I'm asking for advice or just want to have some honks. We are using makaton, although we need to learn more signs, and have talked to his SALT about using BSL or the possibilities of an AAC device, it just seems ad though we are at a point where ds has realised he can 'chat', and I feel like we need to give him the tools to do this,but i haven't got a clue what that tool is.

Wow! That is blardy wonderful!

Honk! Wanting to communicate is brilliant! It was to turning point for my ds too!

Great news hazey but it must be very frustrating for you both.

We have had some success with using pictures with 2 non verbal children at work who have the desire to communicate but little or no language.

We have not been trained in PECS but use communication in print symbols.

It may not be fast enough for your Ds thought.

Good luck

Good Luck to you. It's great that he is wanting to communicate now. My DS is very difficult to understand with a lot to say. It is frustrating and it takes time but he is getting there as will your DS.
Can pre-school not have a little book where they record what activities he has done whilst there to help you understand what he is trying to say when he comes out? This was suggested by our SALT for DS when he started school but we abandoned it as I could mostly understand what he was telling me by this point. This book could also be used so that you could record anything that he might want to talk to school about to help them communicate with them (if he's done anything special at the weekend etc).

Thankyou - it is odd, because whilst I am so happy that he is so keen to tell us stuff, it has made me feel quite down about his complete lack of speech, and the uncertainty about whether he will ever speak.

We have tried to use picture cards and he gets very frustrated by their limitations, we have a GoTalk communicator which just gets used as a weapon when he can't get across what he wants to say!

The commnuication book with preschool sounds like a good idea, i will talk to his 1-1 about it. We are hopefully going to go on a makaton course together (the 1-1 and I), which will help expand our vocabulary of signs. we are in a bit of a hiatus with the signing, because the advisory teacher says she felt that makaton wasn't going to be enough for him and because he is being investigated for mild hearing loss, wondered if British Sign Language might be a better fit. This of course brings a whole other set of issues!

Thankyou for listening to me blurble on.

Oh such good news hazey!!! But yes it makes it harder as you get the brunt pf the frustration - as well as better communication w nursery how about asking your salt about the next step on. Maybe an iPad could help in terms of taking pictures etc to use as props. He could have pics of his day and show you things.

So excited about this - gives me hope

Oh hazey this is sort of where we are now. My son, nearly four, DS, is just at this stage. It is sort of newly heartbreaking all over again, but this time I've come to recognise that we are always going to have these patches and so to be kind to myself whilst doing the best we can.
He uses a little Makaton, lots of his own home made signs/gestures (it's a bit like playing charades!) and he is trying to copy our words too. I understand the point about feeling some frustration being motivating and it was a timely reminder to read it today
I also do my best at looking at what he has just been doing or his preschool staff are very good at cuing me in and saying he's just finished this model, or whatever it is.
I know the feeling so well though...lately when I pick him up, I feel madly jealous on his behalf over how easily the other children are babbling on. But then I couldn't be without him so reassure myself that it's par for the course and he gives out better hugs than anyone else, I think he squeezes in those emotions that he can't name yet.

Honk honk honk, because sometimes it is very hard isn't it?

I forgot to add that one of the tools you can use to communicate is to really spend some time looking at whatever he brings out of preschool,(if he does) so if my son brings out a model, when we've got home, I sit next to him and find two or three simple things to say about it and touch the model or painting so he can reall see that I'm properly looking. That way I hope I may have covered one of the things he might have been trying to say. I'm really desperate for him to have more speech as school is looming and even if (hopefully) he gets TAs organised, what will the other children make of him? I worry he will get behind socially as he isn't able to join in those involved imaginative games that they make up between them.

for us all, it is hard

Thankyou everyone, you are all so lovely. I wish we could all meet up someday, it is only really here on these boards that anyone really gets it - the frustrations, the small successes that are huge and the endless worries.

Perspective - ds always comes out of preschool with a little clutch of drawings (drawing is his 'thing') all rolled up with elastic bands (his 1-1 says that he drags her over to the box of bands to do this!) I ask him what all the squiggles are (they are always pirates or fire engines). It is an odd one, because his range of interests and things that he wants to do is very narrow - playing endless hide and seek, looking at the same books for the same pictures, playing 'ghost' (one person hides, ds pretends to be a ghost to scare them), and rescuing things with his fireengine. But I think the reason why he wants to do the same thing over and over, is because these are the things that he knows how to talk about.I guess we just have to keep gently widening those things and learning signs to help him communicate.

I worry about school too - hopefully he is going to a special unit which has a maximum of 8 children, within a ms primary. He doesn't show much interest in other children, but seems to like them being around. the children in his preschool absolutely love him, though, and really want to play with him, despite him looking completely nonplussed by them!

Zzzzz, what you say about frustration is so true - it has been the same with his physical skills. He has never been able to climb the stairs, and usually ends up being carried, but he is desperate to and so he learnt to clamber up in a crawl (although he would always collapse half way). Last week we had a low stair rail put in for him, and within the week he has learnt to climb up holding on to my hand and the rail - it takes about 20 minutes to do it,and we have done it about 150 times a day - but he is a determined little bugger!

There's a great makaton song DVD by a duo called "singing hands"

They use it in my son's nursery and it's brilliant especially for one little boy who has no words. My Ds loves it too.

I have hearing problems so I find the signing very useful as an adult when communicating with my hearing son.

Leap pad type toys with a kind of speak and spell function might be good to try too.

Good luck, he sounds like a lovely boy and I hope you continue to get developments.

Hazey .. Where did you buy the go talk communicator . I have googled but can't find it .

I'm loving the rubber band story; he knows, he wants to show you...so lovely xx

Bish this is the one that ds has. It was issued by the AAC specialist at local SALT services. It is ok for simple set things like a song (I made a sheet for old macdonald, with different animals for each key) or snack time, and we used it at preschool to do a simple thing like choosing colours with another child - this was good because it sort of got ds interacting with another child - although god forbid that child should pick black (ds's favourite colour) because then the Go talk would go flying!

It is very limited though and we have put it away for a while as ds got so frustrated with it, that he pulled out all my lovingly made sheets and tore them up. Being woken up first thing in the morning by being bashed on the head the the GoTalk, is not something I miss!

We are hopefully seeing the AAC specialist in the New Year, when we know more about ds's hearing. She did talk about using ipad apps (the Grid?) - which would be quicker and more accessible. Ds LOVES the ipad!!

Thank you ... Ds loves his iPad and I know there are apps available but not sure which ones are best .

Hi
We have a few apps that were recommended by the SALT. We first got one called bigmouth sounds- there is a workout one which is great for oral muscles and then the other is games/stories etc using the bigmouth characters.
We also have articulation station which is good but quite expensive, but you can just buy sounds as you need/want them. It initially comes with the p sound for initial, middle and end positions and we then bought f because that was what he was working on with therapy.

The Grid 2 was the app that was mentioned to us here. But I will let you know more when I have spoken to her!

The bigmouth app looks great, although it may be a bit beyond ds. The only sound he makes is a noise which the SALT says is the easiest sound to make which sort of comes from the back of the throat, without him having to move his mouth, IYSWIM. In a Ruth Griffiths assessment which broke down each element of speech and understanding, the verbal part was at 0-6 months. I try to do oro motor exercises with him to try to encourage mouth/tongue movement - so it may be helpful for that.

Yes the bigmouth might be a little way off for you then, although the workout might be one to try and get him moving his mouth more and also using a mirror when doing it to see what the mouth looked like was good for DS. We don't use big mouth anymore as DS had made progress now and is past that point but it wasn't that long ago that it he really struggled with it. Can't remember if it was on here but other things that were good for DS muscle control were blowing bubbles, blowing through straws, musical instruments like recorders, whistles etc.
I agree to that it is good to have some that are just apps and not 'work'! DS loves songs I found a free app called phonics songs which is basically just lots of nursery rhymes with different versions, he likes listening to these and joining in as much as he can!

The ipad is pretty amazing, although I think ds seeing it as something else apart from the thing he watches his beloved 'lots and lots of firetrucks' advert on may be tricky!

That's a good idea, zzzzz and far cheaper than my genius idea of buying him a mini ipad.

(not so that I can have his cast off ipad - of course!)