This May be long so please bare with me. Also may not be in the right place as DD hasn't been diagnosed with any special needs (yet)...
Our DD is 2.2 and is delayed in her speech. She has only a couple of words which she uses in context and unprompted. She has a few more which she will say when prompted by us. She has had maybe another ten words which she has said in the past in context but has never repeated. At around 15 months her speech seemed normal, she had developed a few words that she used often and in context but she just stopped using them one day and hasn't used them since.
She has certain sounds which only we understand. She is good at pointing at things that she wants and can make her needs known well. I would say she has ok eye contact although sometimes it isn't particularly prolonged. She is cuddly with her parents and one set of grandparents who care for her regularly and will accept kisses, she rarely gives out kisses. She has a newborn sibling who she will bring bottles and dummies to when crying.
She is very shy around other people and can appear whingy and clingy, this includes with people she sees weekly. However when she is with people she knows well she is generally quite happy. Often when she plays with other children it is like she has blinkers on and only focuses on what she is doing and doesn't generally like to interact with other children her age. She does ignore us a lot of the time when we call her name but in general does follow verbal commands well.
She likes to watch television and would watch all day if allowed, she prefers to stand very close to the TV but will move when asked, through usually will move back to right in front of the telly. She does do imaginative play, will make pretend cups of tea and play with her toy kitchen for example. I wouldn't say she has any obsessions or obsessive behaviour. She does sometimes walk on tip toes, particularly when pottering in the living room, the rest of the time she walks normally.
She is not keen on toddler groups or singing type activities. Often demands snacks part way through sessions, sometimes I think as a comfort then always demands to leave early by giving me our coats and pointing to the door! If we don't leave early she gets quite upset and often tantrums.
She has very good focus for activities which she wants to do. However with drawing skills she only ever scribbles, does not like me to show or help her with new craft skills such as drawing balls or glueing. She is at her happiest when she has lots of open space to run like at the park or soft play.
We have had her hearing tested and the audiologist thought she might have a high frequency hearing loss. However she said this was unlikely to effect speech development. I find it very odd that hearing loss wouldn't affect speech development though??? They wanted her to have a repeat hearing test in 6 months time but to me that isn't good enough so she is having the test repeated this month instead. If they still think she has a high frequency hearing loss what will be the likely treatment for this?
Obviously I am concerned that she might have mild autism as well but I really don't know. I have no experience with special needs so I don't even know if I'm just reading too much into things. I'm just fed up of everyone telling me there is nothing wrong with her and that she will catch up. I feel like we're being ignored and the system is letting my beautiful girl down. I'm so stressed and exhausted with it all. Why aren't we being helped?
She is supposed to be having NHS speech therapy which is once every 12 weeks (yes, really!!). She has had one session so far and we haven't heard anything else since. I have been trying to chase this up today and it has been a nightmare. We have started private speech therapy for her in our home which will be weekly although we've only had one session so far.
On a daily basis we do flash cards, reading, modelling language, sabotage etc. We've been teaching her some makaton. We are a dual language home, she seems to understand some of DHs language but does not speak it.
If you've read this far then thank you! I'm am just so tired and fed up of being fobed off. I just want to help my little girl but don't know how really.
Any experiences or thoughts would be much appreciated.