Why does my very articulate ds SALT Assessment tomorrow? Am confused now, pls help.

[bunny3]

Ds, 7, has been referred to a SALT and we have just had an appt sent to us - for tomorrow. He is very articulate and has excellent vocab (not bragging, jsut think this is relevant to my question) so I am wondering why the SALT referral. He does have other issues and I am sure he needs some sort of support but not sure SALT is the way to go. Do they focus on other areas or jsut speech?

Also, will it be inappropriate to take his sisters as I have noone to look after them?

TIA

Does he ahve other issues to do with pronunciation, eating or muscle control ? I took dd to ds' OT assessment , so it will probably be fine . Could you be prepared to take them out if they are too distracting once ds feels comfortable( there was a small play area in the waiitng room).

I think that SALT was about the only referral we didn't have when school was convinced there was something very wrong with ds. Sometimes referrals are made willy nilly. You should always be told why the assessment is being made though. We were once referred for a hearing assessment because ds had a bit of a cold when he was tested and the HV thought that as there was such a long waiting list it would be a good idea to get him on it (I wonder why there was a long wait...). She was very sniffy when I refused the referral. Oh, and the only thing wrong with ds was that he was long sighted (oh and he is dyslexic but the SENCO doesn't appear to regard that as being a problem!) It may be difficult to take your daughters too unless you are happy to step out of the assessment room with them if they are distracting, but it doesn't sound like you have much choice.

thankyou for your responses. He has some problems with fine motor skills, organisation and following instructions. He also has some Educational Needs and friendship problems. The school are addressing these areas. He has been assessed 2X by an Ed Psych and by a paed when Aspergers was ruled out. I wonder is they are clueless as to where to turn next hence the SALT referral. Can a SALT help with things like following instructions and understaning body language?

It sounds quite similar to my son! He has mostly grown out of his "problems" but is still a bit of an odd ball. I can't see why SALT would help, but you never know.

Maybe to help him express himself socially better ?

I think they can help with social language but don't take that as definite. Is his pronounciation completely all there ?

DD had a SALT assessment after I realised that she couldn't say "thr" as in "three" and was getting teased. When I watched the assessment I was quite suprised to see that in fact there were a number of other sounds that she in reality wasn't making properly, but that I had just got used to her saying in a certain way.

I have taken DS to an SALT assessment she had years ago and that was fine.

Unfortunetly there seems to be a lack of help available for the understanding body language thing, I have that issue with DD and have failed so far to have found any useful help locally.

nooka, how old was your son when he grew out of his problems? Ds is 7 and sometimes I think he is getting better socially, other times not.

LIZS, I was wondering if SALTs could work on expressive language/ communication skills. He might benefit from that.

CT, that you have not found any help locally. For me reading and responding to body language is so natural but ds doesnt respond to the most obvious body language. I dont know how to help him, I have tried, numerous times to explain how it works but he misses the point completely.

DS1 has a language age of 16 - 21- and a speech disorder (SPD). it was only discovered because many APeds won't diagnose or investigate without a multidisciplinary investigation, rightly really. Its part of a fact finding mission- shows you're getting good care I think.

CT I would look on the NAS (national autistic society) website for that sort of thing, as it sounds up their street tbh.

I tried our local branch Peachy but unfortunetly they didn't come back to me and I got side tracked and didn't chase them up. I've had really positive experiences with just about everything else apart from this one area.

There is a helpful book on Amazon which I found interesting and might help a bit Bunny. I think DD has improved a fair bit the last year so that is good. She seems to take on board things when I explain them a lot more than she used to which is good. We should try to get together when you have a free moment....

Try the helpline on the website- if you email they get abck to you, and send reams of useful information CT.

I'll give that a go, thank you very much

CT, just read the reviews of that book. Thanks so much, it looks interesting and very relevant to us. I'm going to buy it now!

Of course all children are different, and it may just be surface similarities. For ds (who also had several assessments for autism, all negative or borderline) the organisational skills and following instructions are supposed to be related to his dyslexia, but I just think he is distractable, and too interested in his own agenda to be that bothered about what other people want him to do. Fine motor wise he's pretty good at using a computer mouse, it's just his writing and drawing that's appauling, but again these are not things he is that interested in. He had physio for a while, but this has now stopped because the physio and I agreed that he had phases of poor balance (something to do with hip instability if I recall) which came and went as he grew, and that the rest of the family seemed to cope with being clumsy, so really the resource could go elsewhere. He is still on the school's SEN for emotional and behavioural difficulties, but only because it accesses some extra resources, as his teacher wanted him off it, and we couldn't see the point when they wouldn't help him with his dyslexia. I was never that convinced his social skills were such a big deal as he has always had friends. Maybe they are just tolerant of his foibles though! He has always got on pretty well with adults, and I think is quite sensitive, just again can get a bit too emersed in his own agenda to notice how other people react. His problems were a big deal for the school in yr1, and have declined ever since, with tantrums turning into sulks, which I guess is more age appropriate!

How did it go Bunny ?

I think if you are offered a SALT referal then you should take it. It is very difficult for a parent to be objective about speech. If your child is not following instructions there might be a problem understanding language even if he has a good vocab and fairly clear speech.

My son had problems understanding instructions and it turned out he was deaf. Having a SALT referal helped establish that he had problems with understanding speech and it speeded up him seeing ENT.