BBC news item about speech delay

[cyberseraphim]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7398743.stm

I think it's not a bad idea to raise awareness about speech delay in general but I feel the article gives the impression that all problems will just clear up with some simple intervention by sensible adults who (unlike silly parents) know how to talk to children. Also if the child has no play skills as well as no speech, isn't it likely there is a more serious problem. I liked the bit though about being 'lucky enough' to have the problem picked up by an HV !

Anyway I'm probably just consumed by envy and bitterness but it does seem as it is focussing on NT children with minor problems . I know these children do need help but why is it so hard to get any communication help with an ASD child?

I wonder what they would make of Ds1, who coudl recite back the story of the Three Little Pigs, exactly as he'd heard it, at the age of two and a half, but not ask for a drink or understand "where's your shoes?" Or now, when he will focus on some minor detail to tell you about something but be unable to put it into context, eg "T and N turn off da lights" to refer to an incident that happened ages ago, or "go through da red door" to refer to a scene from Mr Happy.

On re reading, quite agree TClanger - i think I skim read too quickly -but I did think lack of play skills as well as speech delay was worrying as this might indicate ASD

That's really interesting. My ds is going for an ASD assessment tommorrow but I think he is more likely language delayed. The only ASD symptom he shows now is tantrums and lack of play with others. He defintely has a difficulty with processing language.

Very interesting article. I think that an issue which they ought to have touched on is how difficult it is to get your children access to facilities such as the Ican centre shown in the news item. And also the rather variable training of nursery staff outside specialist centres in dealing with speech delay and receptive speech delay.

In terms of cyber's comment about NT children - I wonder whether the unit has any policy about excluding children with diagnosed ASD or GDD, or if it is open to all children with severe language problems.

Hmmm. I don't really like the tone of 'oh, thank goodness we're helping out these clueless parents' either.

Like most of you, it was the other way around for us with me banging on to HV etc. that there was a problem and having to wait on endless lists to get seen. Like Rebecca, my DS had almost no language at 2 but we were told that because he wasn't diagnosed ASD (very few are) then he wasn't eligible for speech therapy as borough was short of funds. Grrrr. Makes me cross to think of it now (he's 4 now and doing pretty well). Nevertheless its good to get publicity for these things.

Cyberseraphim - must be so frustrating for you. And we're all getting different messages and levels of support from the health system depending on where we live/what our DCs 'labels' are.

That's ok - I know no one here runs the SALT services ! We do have a SALT now who wants us to start PECS which we are 50/50 about as it didn't work before and he can speak now though nowhere near age appropriate level.

At times, I think too much is made of the play element of autism. My brother, who was never diagnosed with anything as a child, but who has High Functioning Autism, never displayed any interest whatsoever in imaginative play throughout his childhood (and beyond). He has a degree in maths, is working as a computer programmer and is married with a child. He does not read novels, watch TV dramas or listen to music. He still has zero interest in anything imaginative or creative and will only read factual science books. The 'pretend play' element of the CHAT test seems to me to be the weakest part of the test. If a child could do everything else in the test, I can't see why anyone would be thinking 'autism' just because he or she did not make a cup of tea on request.. Although I do think an NT child would have a normal social response to being asked to make a cup of tea (even if they didn't comply). The NT child might push the cup away or refuse but would not display autistic blankness as my DS would have done at that age. Of course, my brother is ASD so his lack of play skills was significant but it did not mean ( in his case) that the underlying intelligence was lacking. This all sounds confused when I read over it but I just mean that lack of play skills should not always be seen as the death knell for your child's development. These tests favour the severely neurotypical and see any deviation from the norm as fatal.