SALT going terribly, can anyone advise?

[AmIWhatAndWhy]

DS (3.5) has speech delay and other behavioural issues. We are still waiting for the dx but we saw the paed last month who said he is certainly ASD.

His preschool is wonderful, his keyworker is the SENCO and they have lots in place for him, such as a visual timetable.

I have a real issue with our SALT though, she has been singularly unhelpful for many reasons and I am so disappointed as we have been waiting a long time to see her.

I told her my concerns after the first session but she failed to take them on. Tobe hones I'd rather DS be in preschool rather than having to miss a morning and travel on the bus for something I don't see as helping.

Sory for bumping, I need to pack the pc away shortly and would love some advise before.

tell us a bit more about why you find her so unhelpful. is she experienced with children with ASD? DS's first NHS SALT wasn't all that helpful as she wasn't "used to dealing with the joint clinic cases" .

Sorry I didn't want my op to be too long, should have given more info really.

We missed our first appointment as Ds had been in A&E with a fever the night before, the second we arrived 15 minutes late (even though I left extra early knowing how difficult DS can be). It started raining halfway there which he hates so we ended up sheltering in the park pavillion until it stopped. When we arrived she had left already and left me a snotty answerphone message telling us to arrive early next time.

Then the first session she pulled out a puppet to sing the 'hello' song which DS was clearly terrified of, he was hiding behind my legs. She carried on the whole song, and then produced it again for the 'goodbye song. Second session, same happened.

I had also mentioned her to hide any toys we were not using at that moment (they have huge wall to ceiling cupboards so easily could) and to not use bubbles as dS has a fixation on them, both times, the room was full of toys and she used bubbles with pecs. After that he only wanted bubbles and wouldn't do anything else.

I just feel she has a prescribed agenda for the sessions and isn't tailoring them to suit his needs. Maybe I'm expecting too much?

wellllllll - on the one hand I do tend to find NHS SALT (other than Hanen courses ones) not to be terribly flexible at times - but on the other hand they should be able to tweak things a bit around an individual child, and recognise when puppets etc just aren't helping, you don't have to have puppets for a hello song and to teach hello/goodbye! I wouldn't ditch SALT completely, as that could cause delay further down the line if you ended up having to get re-referred say if school need some input. I would try in first instance to speak to her in a nicey/nicey way - that your DS doesn't seem to respond well to some of the traditional songs/toys in sessions, and what is the best way to deal with it, and then if no joy, see if you can get him referred to another SALT (in my area we have a separate early intervention team for kids with social communication probs (i.e ASD type language issues) and learning disabilities), things improved a lot once he got referred to that team.

actually we have the same sort of problem with our SALT - it seems shes been taught how to do it, and thats the way its going to be!

Moondog suggested asking for another SALT, since you've already discussed the probs and she doesnt seem to be listening. Follow the chain of command and ask for a swap and explain that perhaps its a personality clash, or that her particular methods arent working and you need to see someone else, a second opinion if you will.

HTH XX

also - have you done the pyramid course yourself for PECs, people like Moondog and MrsTurnip always recommend it and can advise further. With the right backing there is a lot as a parent you can work on communication wise with your DS.

totalchaos I haven't, but we have a fab new childres centre that his care is organised from and they do pecs classes for parents. Tbh PECs don't seem to help.

As an example, in yesterdays session she laid out pictures of a crocodile, a ball and bubbles.

She wanted him to give her the card for bubbles, he was saying ''no, no picture, bubbles please, bubbles again again'', then threw the cards on the floor in temper.

I'm worried about 'stirring' things by asking for another salt. We have three more sessions booked maybe I should just stick it out?

SALT - great in theory but in practice... Going back a long long time (he's nearly 21 now) my first son had speech problems. Eventually we were seen by a SALT who said "He can't talk." Bring him back in three months. After three months same again then third visit she said "Oh, he can talk, now I can help him." WTF? Six pointless sessions followed. I was much more impressed with the the spiel of my modern SALT who sees my third son (nearly 4, ASD, very delayed/disordered speech) but she only sees him every few months (that's the theory) but then she's so flakey she hardly ever sees him at all in fact and she's never sent me or the school any report and... just... aaaargh!

Hi my did 4 has verbal dyspraxia poss. asd/adhd no words till 3

I think my SALT must have been on the same course - was obsessed with bubbles lol (you don?t like in Wales do you?)

My DD had to miss a whole morning of nursery that she loved to have a very miserable hour with the SALT - always made her cross and uncooperative - so to be honest we stopped going

We did the Hanen course which was useful - but we did feel we were doing most of it already and it was (I felt!!!) more suitable for children with more severe disabilities (only my opinion!)

We just carried on reading to and her talking to her she has now gone to school and come on leaps and bounds! The SALT has assessed her in school and been astounded by her improvement - not even sure if the verbal dyspraxia diagnosis will stick now!

What I?m trying to say is - trust you instincts - if it?s not a positive experience donnt do it! Find things that work for you on an every day basis

well if you can bear another 3 sessions it probably is worth just sticking to it, and hoping that he gets a different SALT next time (so that you only make waves if that doesn't happen).I can see why you are so frustrated by inappropriate use of PECs - have to say a few other ladies on here have had the same experience of SALT and PECs with verbal children, it does sound most frustrating. Private SALT did introduce PECs with my verbal DS to get his sentence length up, so it can be used well with verbal children (I appreciate though that my experience of it is different from someone with whom it was use as the primary communication system).

Welsh - I know what you mean about Hanen - as the course was geared towards kids with 50 words or less, I had to fight a bit to get us on it - but the home visits were very useful indeed, and the SALTs doing it were ace - one was a US trained ASD specialist SALT, so a very positive dynamic lady, and other lady had a grandchild with significant language problems, so had a good insight into the parents' persepctive.

I guess that your DD had no receptive language problems? Just that I found that reading and talking weren't enough in itself with my DS.

Sorry to hear of salt problems. I think you are wise to weigh up advantages of session and travelling against being in a good school placement anyway.
As a salt myself, I think clinic visits are unnecessary and artificial (and am not shy of saying so to colleagues). I would never work in a clinic again.

PECS usage with verbal child who is vocally refusing cards is a bit odd. As TC says, PECS can (in its later stages) be very useful for improving sentence length and content but in this case, the SALT would absolutely whizz throguh early stages.

I know and love PECS like the back of my hand but the fact is (and i am not commenting on your SALT in particular as i don't know what is going on) that many many supposed 'professionals' haven't a bloody clue how to use it properly.

WW raises a good point; never underestimate your own ability to help you child.Perpetuating the myhths that only 'professionals in clinics' can do it is untrue.

TotalChaos - not even sure what recptive language is lol - Have seen it on loads of boards just never checked it out -

Moondog - hannen was very good in that it promotes everyday activities as therapy -

Having 3 kids with SN I do belive so much in ''the power of everyday'' - things that can be done while leading as normal as life as possible

receptive language = understanding of language.

Thanks - always did wonder

Very wise indeed WW.
Life is for living and learning can and is part of that

Moondog - you sound loverly - my SALT was nice but quite young and did not 'connect' with my DS3 -

What is PEC's ? yyou said it can be used to improve sentance lenght and content ?

Thanks (I'm not really nice though!)
Info. about PECS although easier to understand if seen than read about