Dreading SALT visit tomorrow

[TotalChaos]

DS's NHS SALT is due to visit tomorrow morning, to feedback after her home visit and 2 nursery visits, to talk about what happens next. Reason I am dreading this is because she apparently is due to "unpick" what is going on with his social communication. I am fed up to the back teeth with assessment (this is his 6th assessment appointment, as initial SALT he was allocated to wasn't experienced enough to treat DS ). I don't want a quasi-attempt to diagnose ASD, I want her to actually do some therapy. I probably am being wholly unreasonable, but my whole experience of trying to get DS help for the last 2 years has been so frustrating.

did you get any actual answers? i find they are often mising (NB: 'i'm sorry we really don't know' would be a fine enough answer.... all we get is well you never know do you?)

as for answers:- SALT thinks it's moderate speech delay. she's not concerned about asd at the moment but with the rider of 1)well if you want him to have another joint clinic appointment then you can ask for one, but she wouldn't be looking for that atm and 2)well we can't predict exactly how he will develop.

SALT doesn't think it's speech disorder as 1)she doesn't think his speech development is disordered (which I'm a bit sceptical about that due to continuing echolalia!, and since when is being able to name zillions of colours, animals and shapes before being able to label "Daddy" and "granma" normal speech development ?????) and 2)she thinks that his speech probably isn't sufficiently below the norm to be speech disorder.

pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffft is my general conclusion.

"SALT doesn't think it's speech disorder as 1)she doesn't think his speech development is disordered (which I'm a bit sceptical about that due to continuing echolalia!, and since when is being able to name zillions of colours, animals and shapes before being able to label "Daddy" and "granma" normal speech development ?????)"

If you asked her that what would she say? Ds1 was the same, when he was 2.5 he sat in the waiting room one afternoon whilst we were waiting to get Ds2 weighed by the health visitor and recited word for word the story of The Three Little Pigs I'd told him that morning. He was like a little tape recorder. I looked at him and thought "this is the lad who can't (at the time) say "mummy" and "daddy", ask for anything or point out anything. It took a lot of hard work to get him to the point he is now and even now his speech is definitely different from that of a typical four year old.
I remember how hard it was trying to explain to people who weren't professionals or who didn't see Ds1 on a regular basis that he wasn't necessarily speech delayed, but his use of language and his difficulties in communicating with people had a significant impact on both him and his development and on people around him. They still do a lot.
It is possible with things like the echolalia that the SALT is counting that as a delay rather than a disorder because it is a natural part of child development, which usually occurs a fair bit earlier.
One of the significant aspects to look for with ASD is difficulties in using language for social communication. Ds1 has come on very well but he still struggles a lot with language used for social communication, he knows what he has to say and he's not bothered if it fits in with what other people have to say.
If you think that there is good reason to believe that your ds has difficulties in these areas then perhaps you could ask the authorities not to dismiss it completely out of hand (which to be fair I do think they are hedging their bets over it), to implement or suggest specific strategies for helping him and if in a couple of years time his differences become more apparent then they will have the records to show that ASD was flagged as a possiblility.

According to Wikipedia which might reflect US ideas

Speech Disorder is problems with articulation of the speech sounds.

Language Disorder is problems with understanding of the meaning of language.

and ASD as we know is problems with communication at all levels - whether in spoken or unspoken language.

But what you need is help with the speech he does have. Can you just say, you don't really care what it is, his speech is not age appropriate and you need help?

I take your point cyber that maybe I shouldn't be fannying around seeking exact DX, but I suppose I feel that saying it's a "delay" if it may be something else makes it easier for everyone to minimise DS's needs and sweep them under the carpet. and thanks for the wiki quote, i meant language disorder rather than speech disorder.

TC, so did she give you an idea of how much help he could get? Will he get therapy?

she was completely non-committal, said it depended how much progress he made over the summer.

i mean non-committal in terms of how often she would see him, etc, she didn't seem to be disputing she would be giving him some therapy.

Will she see him for hands on work or to shove some communication programs at you in order to disappear again for 6 weeks that seems to be the main way SALTs work.

Agree about the words. DS1 aged 2 could vaguely articulate trapezium (da dee dium) equals (ahul) and all the other shapes and letters/symbols on a winnie the pooh toy he had. But didn't even try to say yes, no, mummy daddy etc.

I asked her that very question point blank! apparently she will be doing hands on work - when she was doing the 2 nursery visits she did some lotto games with him as well as assessing him.

Does having a DX help? My friend's daughter is being brought up bi lingual and she saw a SALT when she was about 2 because the english speaking in laws were so concerned about her lack of english. The (NHS) SALT agreed there was no real problem as the child could speak so well in German but offered to come every week if she was really wanted.

having a dx can help yes- not with outcomes perhaps but it can help you to access support (eg if dx is asd from the nas) from specific condition orientated bodies, it can help you explain to people, some schools require a dx (asd unit here does), it can answer questions (with us its whether ds's sn is related to a specific head injury caused by a child relation for which we blame ourselves), and it can sometimes help with therapy- with ds3 he can talk more than we thought,though not great deal, but doesn't seem to understand that he needs to communicate things- asd.

cyber - if DS was having weekly SALT from age 2 then I would be far less bothered about the diagnosis or not, and would not be posting on here moaning! As Peachy says, a DX of ASD can help with getting slightly more support. DX would also help with accessing NAS locally -= the one time I went to their support group they were a bit funny with me because DS didn't have a DX, and the people there thought he had language problems rather than ASD. Conversely a DX of ASD would probably be unhelpful if DS needed to be in a language unit rather than mainstream.