Language group won't work on speech?

[2Siobhan]

Ds has been attending a language group since september because he is very behind with his speech and language. At his last progress meeting they (and I) said he was doing well with his language but his speech is very difficult to understand. SALT said she only works on language and there is no time to work on speech but has told me and his key worker to do some oral motor exercise and that she will try and find time to assess him further and seek some advice. Has anyone else experienced this?

how old is ds? know salt never done anywork with ds oral problems been all down to me

He is 4.3. He also has low tone which he sees OT for and SALT thinks the low tone is affecting the speech. Personally I think he ticks nearly all the boxes for dyspraxia but no one is attempting to dx. Thanks.

I found the SALTs stuff pretty useless for my DS, as they seemed almost uninterested in words, as they were so focused on language and the "pragmatics" of language (turn-taking, eye contact etc). I think they fundamentally missed the point, at least where my autistic DS was concerned, as they failed to address his two key problems : 1) verbal dyspraxia, where even words he did learn to say were really unclear and 2) motivation - as he has no "social desire" to communicate with others, due to his autism. We moved to ABA, and huge amounts of practice of echoics (practising all phonic sounds and then blends, incl mouth movements) in front of mirrors or facing tutors, has really helped his dyspraxia. For the motivation, they taught him that certain words got him good results - eg his first ever word was "push" as he wanted to be pushed on the swing. Without a social desire to communicate, ABA believes that you need to harness the kid's own passions/interests in order to get him or her speaking. Then the child learns that different words get them different results, and they start to get the point of talking. Your son is not autistic so no. 2 might not be relevant, but I definitely think practising echoically all the sounds, with you showing him the exaggerrated mouth movements, can help a great deal. I do not have much faith in the SALTs in this country (with honourable exceptions like Moondog) as they seem to just try and graft on their "normal" speech stuff onto autism, where it just doesn't fit.

my DS hasn't had problems with pronunication (just everything else(!)), so I didn't particularly notice it as an issue, but yes, in my area and the neighbouring area they separate out the language salt groups from the work on phonological issues salt groups, which does seem somewhat unfortunate for those dc with difficulties in both areas.

yeah see Ds does want to communicate and will try everything he can to make it happen

FWIW all the SLTs I've met have said there is little point working on language until you have some accurate speech sounds in place. If your DC's speech is so unclear that he can't make himself understood IMO he needs further assessment and certainly more help with speech sooner rather than later

I think SLTs do tend to leave the oro motor stuff to the parents just because it's really something you need to be doing every day & at every opportunity - but you do need guidance on this as well

i am hoping to get ds into S&l unit and hoping they will work on this but been told they might well refuse ds a place as to severe

Thanks for all your reply. When ds returns after half term I will have a word with salt about some guidance oral motor exercises and ask about further assessment. Senco is arranging for Ed phych to see ds next week also so will raise my concerns there too and see what happens. He also had a hearing test on monday and they said he had glue ear which they have said before but they don't want to treat at the moment and have asked to see him again in 4 months.