Receptive language delay

[Loppyloo5]

Hi all I am seeking some advise/support.

My DS is 2.8 and has and speech and language delay. We are not sure of the cause yet (he has had hearing loss from birth due to glue ear but has grommets in the last 8 weeks but this could be a red herring) we are seeing a development pead and being reviewed every 6 months.

My main concern is his receptive language as I know you must understand first in order to talk. He follows instructions in nursery rhymes (I add new ones in or mix them around to make sure his not doing it from memory) but he doesn’t understand things like where is mummy or get me the ball. Any ideas on how I can help him whilst we wait for a speech therapist. At the moment I am commenting on all the stuff he is doing using one word labels.

Has anyone had experience with speech and language delay can offer me some encouragement as not knowing what the future holds for my son is really upsetting.

bit in a hurry so I will post links. DD has autism and speech/language delay and in the early days very much presented with a receptiv langue delay.

I used strategies in these two books a lot:
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0921145527/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ref=plSrch&keywords=it+takes+two+to+talk+hanen&dpPl=1&dpID=41vVS6ZqNEL&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1512663161&sr=8-1

www.amazon.co.uk/Verbal-Behavior-Approach-Children-Disorders/dp/1843108526?tag=mumsnetforum-21

Thank you for replying I will order those books.

I am expecting an autism diagnosis to be honest although the nursery teachers and SENco have said DS is not displaying any autistic behaviours? I guess only time will tell but I just want to make sure he has access to the support he needs.

How old is your DD and how is her speech and language now?

nursery teachers and SENCO are in no way qualified to diagnose or rule out ASD. If I had £1 for every time someone told me DD doesn't have ASD, I'd be rich.

He may not have ASD. it may be a 'pure' Salt issue. But it doesn't mean it is a better or worse diagnosis.

Yes I agree with you, it can be quite frustrating!

For me either way he still needs additional help which his not getting at the moment. Did getting a diagnosis get you any additional help?

no, next to nothing. we had about 10 sessions of salt in the course of a year. We fund it all privately. We claim Dla.

Might be worth pursuing a claim for DLA. it is based in need not diagnosis. The 'test' is whether the child needs considerably more help and support than an non disabled child of the same age. I think it might be tricky. A lot of 2 year olds don't talk that much and need help with all aspects of their personal care etc.

based on need, not diagnosis.

Our second son was referred to SLT at the age of 3 as he had virtually no language or understanding. He was diagnosed with a "severe and complex language disorder" at the age of 4 for both expressive and receptive language.

DS2 could barely string a sentence together and a lot of what he said was complete gobbledygook with the occasional recognisable word. I remember once hearing a much younger child say to his mum, "What are they doing?"and it struck me then that DS2 had never asked a question in his life.

We struggled to understand what he was trying to tell us. Frequently he cried himself to sleep because he couldn't get through to us. And we struggled trying to get him to understand us. He would just say "Yes," to everything, even when I said something like, "Don't do that again."

The despair I felt at not being able to get through to him was indescribable. It was as though there was an invisible brick wall between us and I just felt completely useless.

DS2'S receptive language was so poor he didn't get excited about Christmas because he had no understanding of what Christmas was, so on Christmas Eve he just went to sleep as normal. How do you explain about Father Christmas and presents to a 4 year old child without any understanding?

We also had a lot of behaviour problems as a result of his frustrations at not being able to communicate. Some of his behaviour was so bizarre, we were convinced he was autistic. At that point I couldn't see how he could ever go to a mainstream school.

The key to everything was the intensive support and intervention that was put in early. He had a Statement of Special Educational Needs (now called an EHCP) while he was still at nursery school, which provided for at least 15 hours 1:1 support and this was transferred to infant school.

He had intensive speech and language therapy with a specialist therapist from the Specific Language Impairment Team for several months. The Speech and Language Therapist went into school to work with him directly, and gave the TA tasks to carry out each week. DS2 loved learning and responded well to all the support he was given.

By the time he was 6, DS2's language (both receptive and spoken) was age appropriate, he was doing better than most of the other children in his class, and his Statement ended.

The following Christmas when he was 7, the little boy who had once been so isolated and unable to communicate, was given the part of Joseph in the Y2 Nativity play, a major speaking part. It was a measure of how far he had come.

DS2 is now 24 and has just graduated from Manchester University.

Suggestions for games, etc I had to play with DD with lots of enthusiasm, as per the speech therapist for a receptive disorder from 2 y 10m:

1. Extend his concentration by table top activities like jigsaws, drawing/painting, building blocks, etc and reading/looking at simple books together. It's important to teach we read top to bottom and left to right before they learn to read.
2. Teach colours and basic numbers - by emphasising colours as you play with Duplo bricks, etc
3. Teach concepts like big and little, by playing teddies tea parties, emphasising " give the plate to big teddy!" Or small teddy!
4. Teach in, on, under by games like "put the cup in the box"
5. Teach verbs like run, clap, etc through Simon says with lots of demonstrations (it's easier to pick up nouns like tree, if somebody points to one a hundred times, than verbs). Also set up obstacle courses, which all the children can play
6. Hide an alarm clock in the house and set it to go off - the game is to find it (gets them to listen)
7. Get a range of toys that make a noise, hide them behind a blanket, make a noise with one and the game is to guess which one? (Encourages auditory discrimination)
8. Nursery rhymes and rhyming games to encourage phonological awareness
9. Don't talk to DC with background noise like the television - children find it harder to pick out our words than adults

10. Push up the key word level. DC might only be at the one key word level - i.e. If you say "get me the ball", DC might only get one word out of that sentence, probably "ball! While playing teddies tea parties, say "give teddy the plate" - there are two key words in that sentence, teddy and plate. Then move later to three key words "give big teddy the plate", where the key words are big, teddy and plate.

Children with a receptive delay are more likely to struggle with abstract, conceptual words such as wide, narrow, the w words like who, when, where....than concrete nouns.

You took me back there with some of those activities Checklist!

The trouble was though I ended up having to do everything twice as DS1 thought it was a game and he wanted to play!

By the time we got to DS3 also needing SLT I was rapidly losing the will to live...

Thank you for all you replies.

Coffeemachine we are starting the EHCP process now and will look into DLA. With the lack of support we have received so far I think I may need to go private too. The nursery thinks the support will kick in at 3 as speech therapist usually don’t like to work with children younger

Checklist they are some really good suggestions that I can start doing with him straight away and get all the family involved over Christmas.

Ellie56 thank you so much for sharing your story it was uplifting. It’s such a scary time not knowing what the future will hold for your little one but I’m happy to know with the right support he can improve.

My son had language delay and we found Makaton really helpful. He could and still can remember the signs better than recalling the words. We learned most of our from Mr tumble but there might be courses in your area?

Yes we went to a makaton class once a week for 9 months from the age of 15 months but it was a singing one so he is very good at signs in nursery rhymes but not in everyday life communicating. I am trying to use them every time I speak with him and so are the nursery. I can’t find anymore classes which is a shame I think this would really benefit him.

We have tried Mr tumbles his not interested unless his singing.

I have an ASD 3 year old. I resonate with so much there Ellie. Its so hard, I’m on AS’s.
Great ideas from checklist — any ideas on how to get him
To focus long enough to carry any of them out?!

You have to pick things they are interested in and work with that. My son was really interested in animal at that age so we made all the activities animal based.

We were given advice to give commentary on what he was doing. So rather than just directing him which I prob did far too much (give me the car! Look at the kite! Put the square in the shape sorter! Jump through this hoop!), just describe what he is doing. You put the car on the track. You've drinking from the cup.

I remember the "w" words just missing entirely, and he never did have a 'why' phase.

Sounds like nursery rhymes are good road in for you. Could you use nursery rhyme books and maybe some real life props to act them out and help translate them to real life? You could also try making some up using real life things he needs to know, maybe based on some other rhymes he doesn't know yet. Eg silly example, if he didn't know 3 blind mice you could sing "spoon fork knife, spoon fork knife, see where they go, see where they go" etc. Sorry if this is a really daft suggestion!

Skyistoohigh I just wanted to say thank you! The three blind mice suggestion worked!
I wonder why everything is easier for him in song or rhyme?

I have been looking at private speech therapists and one I spoke to said usually people with receptive language delay need help for the rest of their life. Is this true??

Fantastic, thanks so much for updating Loppy.

I have no idea on your qu but Ellie's story is certainly positive, and age 2 is way too early to write anyone off! Also at clinic (on something unrelated) one consultant told me he didn't like to give improvement rates because he only sees the most complex cases so he has a completely skewed view of what is typical. I'd hazard a private speech therapist might be in a similar position. Their typical is not typical of the general population, and even a population typical tells you little about any specific child.

I wonder if the nursery rhyme thing is to do with him learning to sign through rhymes? Babies and toddlers are meant to understand adults doing "baby talk" - maybe the singsong style is a similar thing.

My aunty used to work as a home tutor to children who had little/no english. She collected a huge stash of everyday objects in miniature form - dolls' house chairs, playmobil accessories, random kinder egg toys/party bag tat to help teach nouns. Thinking of DS (possibly autistic) he might struggle to connect the models with real things but I think it might help some children.

Ellie56 I had goosebumps reading your story: I almost cried. My son is 4 and half he can speak a bit but doesn’t follow orders instructions at school and likes playing on his own when at school. At home he is fine like playing with us and is social or and lovely. We are having a meeting with school soon who are implying expressive/receptive language disorder but I have seen him improve so much over the last year (last year he did not speak, was in nappies, did not talk about his feelings . So much has happened that I believe that things will be ok.... so it’s great hearing stories like yours. Thank you!!!!!

I could have written this (I think I did) when dd was 2.8. It was horribly frustrating as she didn’t really get speech therapy (all geared towards sound production when she could copy but not understand) and no one had answers.

Now she’s 6. Her language has come on hugely, her technical vocabulary is good, you can converse and she can pass in many situations as having no difficulty. She does exhibit a difficulty in learning, so she does far better than I hoped. Her difficulty is specific m, other areas such as maths she’s age appropriate pretty much.

She did end up with an autism diagnosis at 4, but she’s not everyone’s image of autism. She’s literal, she doesn’t process language well and she has sensory difficulty- but she’s also happy, doesn’t greatly havebeahvioir difficultly, she has some close friends (she doesn’t want more!). She’s generally pleasant to be around and she uses other cues to replace her language weakness well and compensates a lot.

Another one wanting to add to give future posters hope.

My son has ASD, he barely understood anything at 3 not even the verbal instruction 'sit down' probably didn't even understand this at 3.5 years! He was massively delayed with receptive language he used to say much more than he understood which I know isn't usual. He could say mummy and daddy but he would call anyone mummy or daddy he genuinely didn't know I was mummy and his dad was daddy, he gets this now though.. he actually calls his daddy 'dad' haha!

I dropped him off at nursery for his first day at just before he turned 3, I had told them he was under paediatrics for possible autism and I had explained he didn't understand a thing you said & prepped them on everything and when I picked him up after his first day she actually said he really doesn't understand anything does he & he had a 1-1 worker from then on.

He's 5 in January and while he doesn't understand age appropriately more at a 2-3 year old level, he is much better compared to 2 years ago when he was understanding at a 1yr old level.

He now understands things like sit down, come here, give it to mummy, get coat, get shoes, what colour is this, bath time and all the simple stuff like that, he understands first you eat your dinner and then you get a treat (bribery at its finest!) he understands small questions not really got this yet but it's work in progress and it's coming! his still got a long way to go but he's come a long way too!

Visuals is what we believe has helped, saying it to him he just doesn't understand but showing him (using a visual picture card - we get a lot off eBay) and being very repetitive in showing him what we mean, he is getting there.

@danni0509 hi danni-my son is 3.8 and doesn't communicate just labels things and doesn't understand a lot . Still waiting to see paediatrics. What do you get off eBay ? There's a lot on there but not sure which is best , have recently seen a private speech therapist who advised we really need to nail PECS x

@Coco2891 if you type in on eBay

'Autism visuals'
'Visual timetables'
'Now and next'

Lots come up, i get the little cards that are sold laminated they last forever then.

Loads of choice and any would be ok.

Hi ladies I’m so glad I’ve found this post. My sons 2 and he has a receptive language delay he doesn’t understand anything other than no and get down (he climbs on everything 😂) we’re awaiting a paediatrician appointment to get any medical answers but its very clear he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t even acknowledge when we say his name. I was feeling a little lost as my eldest child didn’t talk until near 2 but she understood. I’m hoping we will get there eventually xx

Hi! I am just following this as my 16 mo has zero words or receptive language skills. Like your lo, he does not follow directions or have a clue what we are talkibg about. I am hoping to have him seen by a specialist. So far no one is saying it is Autism but we will see with time Insuppose.

If he like nursery rhymes and is connecting with that, what if you replaced lyrics with real life actions he needs to do? Or objects you want him to learn and use the actual objects in the song?