some SALT ideas please

[anonandlikeit]

DS2 is 6 has mild CP & ASD, his vocabulary is pretty good & his understanding has come on hugely in the last 12 months but he has problems with word finding & organising his words/sentances.
So the theory is that when asked a question he knows what he wants to say but it takes so long for him to produce what he wants to say.
Often he gets angry with himself & ends up in tears on the floor.
Consequently he chooses not to speak much of the time. He is better in a very quiet 1 to 1 environment when there are not so many distractions.

The SALT has provided some picture type exercise cards the idea being he explains what is gioing on in the picture, but we don't seem to making much progress.

Any ideas or advice please?

Bumping for you.

Thanks puzzlrocks.

Anon, you need to go back to her really and tell her this.
I'm a salt but can't help with limitations of T'Internet.

Tbh moondog she seemed to concentrate so much on the fact that he was pronouncing the words that he is saying correctly that I don't think she has much of a clue about the rest.

She was very nice, said ds2 produced no spontaneous speech but when he was able toa nswer a question it was nice & clear. I also asked her for ideas about his lack of abiltiy to amke a choice & decision making. She wasn't sure if this is a SALT area & said she hadn't come across it before.

Is this something SALT can ehlp with.
Sorry for all the q's I appreciate your help.

My DS had an assessment recently and the SALT noticed something similar as well. He has trouble retrieving the correct word (even though he knows it, his brain cannot get to it quickly enough and accurately every time).

To be honest it appears to me that your SALT is not helping him enough, I would look for someone more experienced.

advice - as I understand it work on all aspects of communication are part of SALT's remit - quite possibly you need someone who is more used to working with kids with ASD. Am pretty sure we've discussed this issue in the past, and you felt that what worked with my DS (using PECs to get his sentence length up/retrieve words) would not be of use to your DS so can't really suggest much.

In terms of making choices - all I could think of is going back to basics - give him two things he really likes (so he has plenty of motivation) to choose from - and let him just point to the one he wants, and then once he's comfortable with that, work up to him verbalising the choice as well? apologies if he's way above that level and I'm misunderstanding the situation.

Anon, you said

'I also asked her for ideas about his lack of abiltiy to amke a choice & decision making. She wasn't sure if this is a SALT area & said she hadn't come across it before.'

I'm speechless. This is a fundamnetal aspect of SALT.What I work on day in, day out.

Blimey! Ask to see someone else.

Some word-finding strategies/practice exercises here

and here

There are probably other sugestions if you google 'word finding difficulty'.

Go back to your slt, as Moondog says. If you still feel as though she does not really grasp your dc's difficulties, ask her for a second opinion. There should be other specialist sp and lang therapists in her department she can ask to assess him and give further advice.

Thanks all for the advice,
Your right TC we have discussed this in the past, I am ususing some PECS type picture cards with him (i think after your suggestion last time so thanks), but with minimal effect.
Partly , i confess, becuase i'm probabibly not using them consistently but mainly I think because when he struggles most is when he has lots of distractions or stimulation & then he cannot cope with using the Picture cards either.
So rather than using them with every day conversation I have been using the cards as a prompt/practice game.
Thanks for those links desperatehousewife i'll have a read.
Moondog the school SENCO did phone the head SALT after receiving his most recent SALT report as she didn't feel the SALT who assessed him was really listenng to us.
She was told there was no one else available to assess him but she would put him on her list but it would be a several moth wait. She did add that the SALT who saw ds2 was new & had a very strict remit due to the high case load & extended language such as choice would not be somthing she would be able to advise on.

TBH I think i am going to have to look for a private SALT.
You don't know of anyone in East Anglia DO YOU?

Sorry, I do not know any slts in your area, maybe Moondog might.

For a private therapist, look on this website.

Look for someone with experience with school age children (as opposed to just pre-school) and asd.

at them allocating you such an inexperienced SALT. Had much the same with DS's first NHS SALT who "didn't normally deal with joint clinic cases". I don't know how your local services are structured, but oop north in my city they have 2 teams with more expert SALT - one being the ASD team and the other being the Early Intervention Team - I wonder whether your area would have similar. I found DS's excellent private SALT from the website linked to by DH above.

btw - are you on TClanger's language problem e-mail list? Might be worth bouncing the issues on this post on there as well.

Thanks TC. The pre-school services seemed to be organised similar to as you described but since coming under the school age service this is the 1st appnt he has had, & he only got that because the school & I shouted loud for it.

I ahve just emailed a SALT on the list who sounds hopeful & its a he & ds2 relates so much better to men so fingers crossed.

I'm not on Tclangers list, how does that work??

The website linked for private is the best one.
How ridiculous to say extended lang. not something to work on.

Join TClanger's list.Some fab people post on that.

if you have CAT, CAT TClanger. Otherwise I will bump the thread with her contact details on.

Sorry to hear that the school age services have been so ropey. I'm starting to wonder tbh how long it will be before Early Intervention dumps us - think he's only still on their books because he's not 100% echolalia free.

Thanks to you both again.
I don't ahve CAT so TClangers details would be great.
Th email i've just sent the SALT has just bounced back, something to do with my connections so I'll have to try again tomorrow.

Thanks again I appreciate your help.