Speech Therapy

milkfloatquack

we have also paid for private SALT. I found the lady via the helpwithtalking website http://www.helpwithtalking.com. She comes to our flat, and charges £50 per hour, which is quite reasonable. I agree with Nicki - that you want someone that likes young children and can get your little one's attention/confidence. So you want someone used to working with young children at his level of speech. Similarly to NotreDame, the private SALT came with toys etc, and was flexible and informal in the way she assessed DS. Make sure your child has a hearing test to rule out any obvious physical issue with speech.

In the meantime: useful websites are www.ican.org, www.afasic.org, www.hanen.org and www.speechteach.co.uk. Also you might want to check if your speech therapy department or surestart centre run any courses to help parents help their kid's communicate.

scrimpingbadger

Help! (again). Anyone had experience of this?

My DS (3) (and lovely) has just started nursery. He's still not really talking much (although has come on leaps and bounds in the 3 months he had at playgroup previously). We've had him to the Speech and Language folks who are saying he has severe expressive language disorder. He's 'urgent' on their list but they can't say when they can start working with him:mad: . I, in the meantime, have got a private therapist on board (which ain't cheap). He understands what we say and he's bright in every other area and his coordination is excellent:rolleyes: .

Anyone else had experience of this? I'm not asking for miracle cures!!! (honest!). It just seems very strange to me - me and his dad make our living talking........

princess

Hi, I am a speech and lang therapist and although I cant comment on your sons particular case, I am happy to answer any general questions you may have. Presumably as you have been told he had an expressive disorder only then staff are happy with his understanding of language, which must be a great relief to you as a problem in understanding is often more worrying. Unfortuanately it is not unusual for there to be a waiting list for therapy, which you may find is delivered individually or in a small language group. The problem could have occurred for a variety of reasons (or it may be impossible to pinpoint why) - I'm sure your therapist will discuss this sort of thing with you. In the mean time do make good use of your private therapist, she may well advise you about activities to carry out at home, and any input you give will be really useful, as 'little and often' is much more helpful that simply once a week with an SLT. I wish your family good luck - keep talking to your boy as I'm sure you do and encourage any attempts he makes to communicate himself. Lots of children with these types of difficulties make huge improvements quickly!

scrimpingbadger

Thanks for that princess - I have been given useful strategies for him which I'm trying to implement. Your words are reassuring.

Lady_E

I am not sure if my experience will help but I have a 4 yr old with speech delay. I worried myself silly before he started nursery last September and although he had Speech therapy, I was worried that he was the child that grunted and didnt partake in class activities. Well how wrong could I be!!! We have been receiving excellent care from the SLT and with loads of "homework" he has progressed very well . He loves nursery and whilst some way off from being like DS1 (chatterbox) he is doing great . Perservere with the therapist and let your little one work at his own speed. DS2 understands all that is said to him , but he sometimes has difficulty in finding the right words to respond. Good luck HTH

beachbeth

My daughter has speech and language problems and we first noticed it when she was about 2. Its a sort of dyslexia but with the spoken word rather than with the written. Things have to be explained to her in an uncomplicated way otherwise she doesn't understand. Although now she is 17 she usually gets the gist even if she doesn't fully understand. She will have trouble explaining herself too sometimes. She talks normally and is a lovely, pretty and bright girl. You wouldn't know there was a problem if you met her. Its just if you were teaching her something you would realise.

I can understand your frustration at how slow things are taking but it was the same with us. I kept mentioning my worries to her nursery teacher when she was 3 (previous professionals had just said she was a bit slower than other children and that I shouldn't worry). Eventually, we were at our doctors because she had an ear infection and mentioned to him that nothing seemed to be happening. He got on the case and the next thing we knew we had appointments to see speech therapists, child development people etc and things began to happen. The reason they have other people (such as physiotherapists) looking at the child is to find out why there is a speech problem, as sometimes its because of things like autism and sometimes its just poor muscle development in the mouth.

All Im saying is that even though it can take time to sort these things out don't worry because there is still plenty of time. When you do get to see the speech and language people don't let anyone fob you off or treat you like you've just crawled out from under a rock (I can remember being in tears because we had people who questioned us as though we had caused her problems ourselves!!!) I think because they are used to dealing with a lot of parents from poor backgrounds, some of whom may be awful parents, some of these professionals treat everyone they meet as though they are the same. The amount of times I had to say that I wasn't a one-parent family (even though there are some excellent single parents!), wasn't in a council house and owned my own home and that I had a lovely family behind me you wouldn't believe! I can honestly say that some of these people looked disappointed that they couldn't pigeonhole me in the same way as everyone else!

I could go on for pages about this but I don't want to bore you! Just keep calm and if someone says you will get an appointment, for example, in February and you don't, then ring up and ask why - don't just carry on waiting. Try not to panic about your son. I was told that my daughter at 3 had severe speech and language problems and that she didn't know the difference between a real truck and a toy one in her hand (I told them that she most definitely did!!!) I remember feeling that my child was virtually brain damaged or !!!!!! or something and was worried about her future, but she is extremely bright and has coped very well at mainstream school with her difficulties, with some special needs help from teachers. She is the most lovely, caring and normal child you could wish to meet. So no matter how severe they may say your son is, don't think that he is going to end up in an institution or something because that isn't the case. He may just end up needing a bit of extra help at school.

I have to say though that although we met some people who were awful most were absolutely lovely and very helpful so hang in there! Good luck and I hope he gets on ok!

scrimpingbadger

Thank you so much! I thought it was just my paranoia!! The professionals do sometimes treat me though I may be in some way, well, less intelligent but it is because they do usually have to aim at the lowest common denominator. I had the same when I was pregnant - I was (and still am) overweight and the ob/gyn people automatically assumed, well, you can imagine. In the end I had to tell them that I was a Cambridge graduate and that I had a weight problem not a brain problem!! I can feel it happening all over again!!
Thank you again - I think that they have painted the worse case scenario to prepare us for a rocky road.

Thanks for your positivity - it was just what I needed!!

absolutebounder

Expressive language disorder is characterised by having limited vocabulary and grasp of grammar.
Hmmm should fit in on MSE. Buy him a computer and get him logged in here.

KathrynPenguin

My son has had similar problems. We are now at the point where despite him being assessed with many different speech issues, due to a lack of speech therapists he gets seen about once a term if we are lucky. Of course he then only gets assessed and we are given more exercises. His school are excellent and supportive but trying to get any help from Speech and language is a total waste of time. They don't have enough staff do do an effective job.

We chase up regularly, as do his school but it's pointless.

Get someone privately if you can as it's probably the only way your son will get any help.

My son started with being late speaking and despite us having been on at speech and language since he was just 2 years old we have got nowhere. In the meantime his speech has got worse with him developing more problems as time passes. He had one block of speech therapy back when he only spoke a handful of words and one group therapy block in 2006. He's been assessed once since then and now is scheduled for another assessment in Feb/March.

Sorry to sound so negative but we've been chasing this up again today which is like chasing your tail.

Because of the speech and language issues he has an IEP and was recently seen (again) by the ed Psych, who passed the buck back to speech and language - who are practically the invisible man!

specsappeal

my son (now 14) did not speak at all until he was 5. He had speech therapy from age of 2-5 and they couldnt get him to talk either - not even a single word. in the end we were having to resort to makaton sign language just to communicate with him. he was taken out of school and placed into a speech and language school where he was diagnosed with Dyspraxia. within 3 weeks of starting at the S&L school he as able to say his first words! However there have been knock on effects and he now attends a special school as his speech delay caused learning difficulties (he is around 3 years behind his peers). He can talk the hind legs of a donkey now although he can sometimes be hard to understand and unlike your child badger my boy also had big problems understanding language. I would say first of all - don't panic! (easy for me to say but i have been there). but also keep on at your local authority for more speech and language therapy now as the earlier he gets the correct help the easier it will be for him to stay on a level with his peers.
My son has been on a statement of special educational needs since age 5 and this will help if you can get your child one as regular S&L therapy can be written in it and if he doesn't get it you can sue your local education authority! (and yes - i have been there too lol).
My son only made grunting noises for the first 5 years of his life and i felt that he would never talk but when we were told that the main cause was vocal dyspraxia it was a relief. (vocal dyspraxia can affect the muscles in the tongue and mouth) after he had been given special exercises at school he slowly and surely started to talk. And your child will too.
sorry i seem to have rambled on here - anyway if you want to talk i am happy to share my experiences as i am at the other end now and i can remember how many sleepless nights i had worrying about him.