hfa/speech disorder and nursery questions

[RaggedRobin]

my first thread - at last i've stopped hijacking others' threads.

ds had his second salt assessment today. she says we are looking at either hfa or speech disorder, but that it is too early to say yet. she says he displays traits of both, which i'd come to terms with from many discussions here with all you helpful mums.

so everything was much as i'd expected - however, i was a bit surprised when she mentioned a special needs nursery. i had anticipated that ds would go to the local ms nursery with support. i have some knowledge of the particular sn nursery that she suggested and i'm not very impressed with it. i wanted to ask how your dcs coped with nursery and whether you think that my hopes for ms are realistic?

ds is due to start nursery in january.

let me know how he gets on with this! i'm to say that i am a signer (british sign language) and i've never really used it with ds. i think that, because he is VERY verbal (very repetitive/learned phrases), i've never really thought he might benefit. but i've never thought about the fact that, because it's a different mode of language, it might be one that is easier for ds to access. not sure, so would be very keen to hear how you get on.

Kettle, is it the verbs that are limited? I think you've said he has 600 words which sounds like quite a lot to me....is he combining much?
Or do you have some doubts about whether he's really "got" words?

my ds is loving doing the makaton he loves copying mr tumble and have taughtm him a few of what i learnt the other day and his enjoying doing it

im doing it as when his ill he jumbles his words and his sppech becomes unreconisable at times so to save frustration we can still communicate its really worth it he enjoys learning new things and yesterday learnt mummy, daddy and the sign for home and good morning bless him

it would be worth teaching your ds if you know it as they learn it at school now so would be great fopr them to have that head start

heh heh... i've started signing along to some of his favourite songs and he looks at me as if to say, "what are you up to now, mummy?"

update:

ds's nursery have been allowing him to come in for an hour a day this week to give him a taste before he starts in january. i was soooo glad about this as i won't be able to settle him into nursery; going back to work on 18th dec after maternity leave.

anyway, we have had major meltdowns at both visits, which i wasn't really expecting . staff are lovely and were very reassuring, but after his first meltdown, they were asking for the salt's phone number.

i've been rereading this thread tonight to go back over people's advice and i'm beginning to see why pecs might be useful for ds. each meltdown has occurred at transitions between activities.

i am due to see salt again in early december, but she hasn't been returning calls for two weeks [frustrated emoticon]. when we finally set up a meeting, i'll be asking what she thinks about pecs for ds.

had a disappointing discussion with gp (one i'd never seen before) who poo-pooed the idea of going on dev paed's waiting list. she said she didn't think it would be a long wait, but that it would be better for salt to refer him.

if the rest of the nursery visits continue to be problematic, i'll talk to nursery staff about bringing in the ed psych for a chat.

sorry the nursery visits have been stressful - hopefully though nursery can already pinpoint areas to concentrate on and can get some sense out of SALT. does your boy have any issues with understanding of language - as I think that can also make transitions etc difficult if they don't know quite what is expected of them.

yes, his receptive language is very poor. i'm not sure whether that is because he is too busy with his own agenda, or he is busy with his own agenda because understanding is poor. chicken/egg?

i think that, although it has been stressful, it has been very worthwhile for the nursery to meet him regularly before he actually starts. they seem to have an excellent staff and i'm sure they'll be very supportive. it has just been a bit upsetting to see that he might find a lot of situations distressing.

he is very excited about going every day though, so i'm hoping we can hold on to his enthusiasm.

i think i am getting mixed up with visual timetables and pecs? i think i meant that a visual timetable would be useful for transitions.

Well I would see there being 2 issues with transitions - the stress of the actual transition in having to move to another activity when he may not feel ready - and any stress that might be caused by not understanding what is required of him. So the visual timetable would help both aspects - as I imagine that it could incorporate pecs or other visual aids could help with the understanding.

DS' receptive language was very behind at 3 as well - and it was hard to get him to concentrate on something not of his choice, and then hard to get him to move away - as his receptive language improved, his concentration massively improved. What I think helped for DS (as well as a dose of luck/maturity) was that I had very very low expectations of what DS could understand just by language - so gave lots and lots of visual cues/choices, and kept language very simple.

thanks again, tc, have just ordered the "now, next, later" visual board from ebay. we'll try using this with him over christmas and if it seems to be helpful, i'll suggest it to the nursery for when he starts in january.