I can't understand why my daughters SALT acessment scors are so low!

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, I have recently had a report back from the speech therapist who acessed my daughter. I was quite shocked at the results. She will be 5 in march, and has been having speech therapy since she was 2, with very little sucess. Her regular SALT has said that she has verbal dyspraxia.
She had a different SALT as part of her 6 day acessments.
The results are:

Core language.

Sentence structure= percentile rank 2

Word structure= percentile rank 2

Expressive vocabluary= percentile rank 16

Core language score= percentle rank 3

It says that a percentile score of 50 is a mid-point score with scores between 16 and 24 being low averadge and 76 to 84 being high average.

It also says that she would benefit from a visual daily diary of picture to help her understand what's going to happen in her day.
I think this is compleatly undessesary, because if you tell her, she understands. If I say "You're going to school, then grandmas house" she'll remember when I collect her from school and say "We're going to Grandma's now."

I' not sure why her scors were so low. I know her language sounds like what you'd expect of a 2.5- 3 year old, but this score is extreamly low. If anyone understands this please could you let me know.

well just had a look to see what it was and the definition i got for it was thus.

The child has difficulty making consistent speech sounds or producing words because the speech area does not send out consistent messages to the tongue, lips and larynx

so perhaps yes her understanding it good but the speech therapist doesn't think she is getting word and sentence structure quite right.

Also ring them and ask then to go through why they thought this

Thanks, I think I will give her a ring. She was very nice so hopefully she won't mind explaining it.

mummyloveslucy, it is very easy for a child to drop through the percentile ranks, which is why early intervention is key. 10 months ago DD had a test (I believe the same type from the score ranges) which gave her receptive comprehension age 2.6, 13th percentile. She was 3.1. So 7 months behind. Last week at 3.11 she had the same test and she achieved 2.11, but 5th percentile. So in that 10 months she only progressed 5 months. For her to catch up she would have had to learn at 1.5 times the speed as NT children - not going to happen.

I would ask what a mid point 50% child can say - the answer might be scary or re assuring based on what you know about your DD's speech. DS1 is verbal but possibly not any centile though I don't really know. DS2 is younger but the range and complexity of what he can say really shows the gap !

Thanks everyone! Starlightmakenzie, that is a fantastic idea. Thank you. This would be very helpful, as she gets confused about when things will happen and the language, before, after, now, later etc. I will write down your ideas and design a wall plaque with pictures.

I think her language sounds so much worse when repeated by an adult, because her pronounciation is so bad, she sounds very young. This means her langage skills seem o.k.
When the therapist repeated her answer of:

"because him want he mummy, he worry he fall over"

It sounds very bad, but when she says it, it dosn't. IYKWIM

This was actually her answer when she saw a picture of a little girl up in a tree crying and was asked "why is she crying?"

I think what that is suggesting is that 50 would be the "average" achieved for her chronological age ie if you put 100 children that age in order of ability that is the level of the 50th child.

So the vocabularly she attempts to voice is borderline on low average measured against that "average" score but the way she puts it together ie use of verbs, full sentences, pronouns etc is lower. So she may have ideas she cannot coherently voice and make understood, due to physical and/or processing issues.

A visual calendar may help her make better sense of what is happening and in what order, just her repeating back what you said doesn't necessarily indicate understanding the sequence, links and using vocabulary to show it, so it could help to prompt as you describe. Gradually you can elaborate on the sequence, so "today we'll go to Grandma's house then the beach" to "tomorrow we'll drive to Granma's house in the car so we can have lunch. Then we'll walk to the beach through the park and later come home for tea"

Did they score Receptive language separately as that is more about understanding and processing. You could ask the SALT to give you an indication as to what her speech ccorrelates to in terms of chronological age, if that would help you understand it more easily.

Hi, yes, I've let the place go for several reasons. I do feel that she should be entitled to an EP as we pay taxes, and it's something the consultant feels she needs reather than something we'd like her to have.
If they won't give her one, then we'll have to take a state school place and then they'll have to give her all the help she needs anyway, which will cost them a great deal more. I feel it's a really unfair system.

It is unfair, but in the end it is more important to get the support sooner rather than later to improve her chances later on . Ask her current school if any funds would be available to help you out if you need further Ed Psych input - the response may be telling. Do they offer Learning Support in house? If you take the option of dd repeating Reception, tempting though it may be, if you do have to move her later she may well be expected to skip a whole year which could be more difficult. Lots to consider.

I'm not sure to be honest. I know that because it's such a small class, they are able to give her a lot of attention. She enjoys school, and I feel she's making a lot of progress. She has learned some new speech sounds (not covered by the SALT) and is really gaining confidence.
It might be the case that she goes in to year 1, but goes to reception for extra phonics practice etc.
Although I think it would probubly be good for her to repeat reception, I'd like her to stay with her class mates. She has been with them since she was two and has some really lovely friends.
The consultant has said that she will eventually catch up on her own, which is good. I may end up sending her to a state school if I feel it would be better for her, but I'd like to wait until she can communicate better, and is propperly toilet trained.

It also says that she would benefit from a visual daily diary of picture to help her understand what's going to happen in her day.
I think this is compleatly undessesary, because if you tell her, she understands. If I say "You're going to school, then grandmas house" she'll remember when I collect her from school and say "We're going to Grandma's now."

mummyloveslucy, I strongly recommend the book "Visual Strategies for Improving Communication" by Linda Hodgdon to you. The reason I like this book so much is that it explains why visual aids are so important. Once you've realised how much you are relying on visual aids in your own life all the time, putting them into your child's life seems much more natural.