We have a SALT appointmet

[fairydust]

DD's appointment has finally come through for the 17th May.

So does anyone know what to expect on the first visit??

DD had hers a couple of months ago.
SALT got out toys etc and let her play whilst observing her. I encouraged her to speak, and she was asked questions aqbout toys. SALT asked DH and I alsorts about her, took about 50 mins. We received a referral for more SALT and an assessment from HV. Now DD has had 6 appts and has really improved. Appts were done on a weekly basis and were grteat. Now we have a 6wk break before we go back for another assessment and more appts.
HTH

bloody hell- where do you live? I think I've asked you this before?

Wiltshire, if you mean me!!!

Is the appointment for an assessment or for actual SALT itself?

Appointment is with the SALT - she was refered in february as you can't say the six words that a two yr should be able to say apparntly

Ah, it will probably be the assessment then. The SALT will give dd toys to play with and see what she does/says, eg does she babble as though she's talking to herself. She will also go through dd's history with you. Questions will include things like:

Can she use a straw?
Can she lick her lips?
What does she do if she wants something?
Does she point at things that she wants?
Does she babble and, if so, when did she start?

She will be looking to see how dd communicates with other people and also looking to see if there is a physical problem there.

thanks coppertop for that.

Thank you from me as well (sorry, don't mean to hijack thread). Our dd, 2y5mos, has her SALT assessment on 10th May , which is 2 days before I am due to give birth!! It's just really good to hear the type of thing she will be expected to do. I'm also trying to write a list of questions I should ask at the appointment. So far I have got:-
How can we help her?
How long is waiting list for regular appointments?
She is starting pre school in Sept. Do we need to tell the staff about her lack of speech (obviously they will notice both that and her bizarre array of hand actions !) in a formal manner or do we assume they have training to deal with this situation?
Thank you very much for any advice you can give me.

It would probably be a good idea to mention it to the pre-school when she starts in September, just so that they know. A lot can happen between now and September though and it's possible that your dd may have learned to say a few words by then.

When my ds1 started we had no diagnosis and were still on the waiting list for SALT. I told the staff that he didn't speak and they said that they'd had quite a few children who were late talkers so there was no problem as far as they were concerned. Ds1 started talking at about 3yrs old, although he still needs SALT.

We had about a 6-month wait between the assessment and the actual start of therapy. This may vary according to where you live so you're right to ask for an estimate of the waiting-time.

Best of luck with the baby and the appointment.

It's also a good idea to make notes of when dd first sat up, rolled, crawled, walked etc. They usually check these things to see if there is just a speech problem or if it is an overall developmental problem. Also try to find out when you and your dd's father started talking. I think one of the questions is about whether there is a history of late-talkers in the family.

the main reason she is being refered is because she has cerebal palsy and they think it's effected that part of her brain.

The last two posts were just answering Judd's questions about her dd. Didn't mean to confuse you or anything fd.

I'm impressed at how quickly you got the appointment, fd. Hope it all goes well for you and dd.

Just to update - we had our SALT assessment with DD (2.5ys) this morning. She was a very nice lady and DD just had to play with DH and toys, observed by uni student girl who was making notes on her comprehension, whilst I answered questions about her development etc. She said her comprehension is fine but they will be watching her carefully as they cannot rule out verbal dyspraxia. We are going to have a series of 6 video sessions which are apparently very effective...comments welcome on this !
I'm relieved that it is over and nothing too horrific came out of it. Now I can think about tomorrow and hopefully giving birth!

Judd, glad it went off ok without you giving birth half way through!

Good luck for tomorrow, or whenever your baby decides to make an appearance. Let us know what you have. xx

Judd have you seen Nancy kaufman's site Nancy is the US expert on verbal dyspraxia (apraxia as its caled in the states). I have recently attended her workshop, and also had an exchange of emails with her about a year ago when we were getting nowhere with the NHS.

Also type apraxia kids into google- there's a great website of that name- very helpful.

BTW I think my younger son (2 last January) "just" has verbal dyspraxia. (as opposed to his elder brother who has autism and verbal dyspraxia).

try the link again

What a waste of bloody time this was......

First she turned up an hour and 15mins late.....

Then she let dd play with the toys that she brought and observed her - she asked the sort of things we did with on a day to day basis after 5 mins she declared that dd was 6/7 months behind in speech (which we knew) she then grabbed the toys off dd which sent her in a histerics screming and crying told us to carry on as we are and she'll see us in 3months.

It took me an hour to calm dd down - we've just taught dd to give toys back and put them away when told to then this silly cow snatchs them off her - my poor Isla was felt so upset thanks to the silly cow.

sorry rant over.

so basically were none the wiser

Oh no FD what a cow. Poor Isla hope she's o.k now.

My dd2 has a salt appointment on thursday. Think it's just an assessment though, as it's at the health clinic not at home.

Hi all!
As a paediatric SALT, it's very enlightening to see what people think of the service...
Where I work the wait to be seen for assessment/therapy is about a month, but I know that's not typical.
Fairydust, sorry to hear your SLT experience wasn't what it might have been..have you thought about requesting a follow-up appointment or second opinion?

Jimjams, thanks for the link. I will definitely have a look at the site. I am trying SO hard with the pared down sentences - nothing I say has any more than 3 words in it. I even end up doing it with DH...who usually replies with a succinct 2 words! I am cautiously optimistic - we have definitely had new words like Noo Noo, one, flower. Not at all clear, but definitely know what she means. She is also a lot more confident about just shouting out babble, which is what we seemed to miss out on last year, and will now scream at the end of "Row Row Row Your Boat". However, she will only proffer words if prompted, or if pointing at something at this stage.
We didn't manage to get a place for video training this time round so hopefully will next time. I am hoping against hope that something clicks and we may not need the place after all....
If any one has any information about video sessions and what they entail, could you please let me know? It all seemed very straightforward when she explained it, but giving birth the next day seems to have made it all a bit hazy and I can't for the life of me remember what it is going to achieve!!

lol- os this the SALT who would be videoing? I video quite a few things - just to give me a reminder and for training if I want to teach someone else how to do stuff.

maidmarion Fancy moving to the SW- lots of work available!

we ahve decided to give the SALT one more chance as the next visit in july - if were still unhappy then were going to ask for a second opion.

BIG disclaimer here, I am talking about ASD and I'm sure this is not the same for other disorders/delays/disabilties etc.
Maybe things have changed but...... we were offered the standard NHS "6 sessions" (they do that for everything) of SLT before our son was dxd ASD. These sessions were videod and all it entailed was me and my DH trying to interest our DS in various activities (sand etc) and toys. Not only was it a complete waste of time but it was demoralising as it just showed us more than ever that we had no ability to interact with him. IMO, "traditional" SLT is like sticking a plaster on a wooden leg when it comes to ASD, you know, I mean

• get eye contact
• capitalise on their interests (non existent or repetitive)
• take part in what they do (switch lights on and off, turn taps on and off and open and close doors)
• model things for them to copy (nuff said) By the time we had finished the 6 sessions we were well on the way to doing ABA so didn't clog up the system and politely discontinued. Some years later, the very SLT we had (who I stayed reasonable friends with), told me she was embarrassed about the techniques she had been using with ASD and she had completely changed her approach!!!

ROFL davros. Those early sessions of SALt just make me cringe. I have an image of a room of adults parents + SALT leaping in the air with fixed smiles grinning with an "ooh look at the bubbles" type routine going on, and ds1 just ignoring us and trying to check out the taps instead (why oh why do they always have sinks in the room?).

We now have a private SALT who is fantastic with ASD (very interested) and uses a behavioural approach so we get some SALT done now!