DD 3.4 and significant speech delay

[Eveiebaby]

Hi - I have not posted on here before but I am looking for some advice regarding my DD. She had a speech session today and the therapist described her as being significantly delayed. This was not a surprise but I am annoyed at myself that I did not ask any further questions. We are having another session in a couple of weeks time so I will ask more questions then. The SLT introduced PECS and has given us exercises to do at home. SLT said DD did well at the exercise as she had expected but I realize we were starting at a level she could cope with and that we have to start at the bottom and then progress upwards ie shortly I hope we can progress onto sentances. DD is verbal she can put short phrases together but a lot of her language is "learned phrases." She does use echolalia and jargon as well. A lot of her language does not seem to be her own original thought. She had an assessment done at pre school which highlighted lack of social skills. I am very stressed. Does/Did anyone else have any little ones with language delay and can I hope to see improvements in time. I know I have to put work in at home with the PECS and any other future suggestions from SLT but I am totally committed to this. Also, her play skills are a bit limited she likes playing with soft toys and making them talk to each other but I think she is just copying this from TV. She likes to put mine and DP shoes on her feet and comb her own hair with her dolls brush and attempt to put dolls clips in her hair but I would say that her imaginative play in limited in that she does not create long sequences of events. She has appropriate eye contact, smiles and pulls sad faces at appropriate times, likes to be near my and DP almost all the time and seems to look and share toys and experiences with us ie if she sees something she likes on TV she will look backwards to see if I am looking too etc... Only other concern is that she is fine wherever I take her busy supermarket, busy swimming pool but if people start to talk to me she does not like it and starts to cry. This does not happen in every instance but about 80% of time she just seems to take a dislike to particular people who get to close and gets stressed. My main concerns are delay with speech and social skills has anybody had any experience where the two have been linked ie once speech has improved social skills have improved too.
Sorry this is a ramble - I sound like a mad woman I know but I am so concerned about my beautiful DD.

Hi, my DS was quite a lot like your DD at 3. He only really had single words and odd phrases at that age - sentences were all learned from tv episodes (and usually out of context). His pretend play was also somewhat limited. As his language improved, his pretend play and social skills improved. 2 and a half years on, he has improved a hell of a lot - speaking in sentences, usually able to verbalise his needs pretty well - and to try and initiate conversation - but still has remaining issues. tbh as the years go by, achieving that elusive "normal" becomes less important - it's all about building on what your child can do as an individual and helping them learn/develop. We used PECs with DS at this stage - it really helped him turn a corner with structuring sentences - within ten days he went from a garbled "havva more juice" to "I" "want" "more juice". Then about 3 months after that he started putting together more complex sentences "I want mummy run on grass".

btw if you haven't already done so, get her hearing checked, to rule out any physical reason for the speech problems.

Thanks so much for that Totalchaos. I know all our little ones are different but your story is so positive and really gives me hope. I am encouraged by the pecs as DD seemed to pick it up quickly - I am going to attempt to make a few more cards of my own! I really hope that we will be able to progress onto proper structured sentences soon. We had her hearing checked about 18 months ago and all was well and TBH I think she has good hearing.
It sounds like you DS has made huge progress - thanks for sharing

Hi

DS3 is a bit different in that he has autism as well, but I thought i'd share as he has made so much progress with PECs also. At 4 he didn't really have any useful language but was lucky enough to some PECs tuition from a charity; shorrtly after that we reached the top of the SLT waiting list and he now has it weekly with a SLA in school (and another 3 sessions with school as he is in a SNU). His speech has come on immensely; we still ahve big issues with getting him to do autisticy things (conversation doesn't happen, and he's often not repsonsive) but he now has a vocab that's only mildly delayed, and whilst his phono production is affected by a scar on his mouth, it has come on immensely. We are quite shocked sometimes at what he comes out with 'DS1 wont give me my DS cable' was a particular one DH and I were over recently.

He is six now and still has (will alwaya have) soem lamguage problems that will be disabling in themselves, but without BIBIC and PECs I truly belive we woulds till ahve him non verbal and probably be too late to help him as he'd ahve gone into his own world.

My main concerns are delay with speech and social skills has anybody had any experience where the two have been linked ie once speech has improved social skills have improved too"

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