Does anyone have experience with Speech and Language Therapy?

[Msclaireypants]

As the title says...has anyone had their toddler at SALT? Can anyone shed some light on what the initial assessment will involve? What's been your experience with it?

 

[MrsT2011]

We have!
I had a bit of a battle to start with as health visitors wouldn't believe there was anything wrong but when he turned 2 and 4 months we went to a SALT drop in and they ask lots of questions about the speech concerns, feeding, development etc. they give you some tools such as games and things to do at home and will assess if they think therapy is worth having. In our case B did need speech therapy and we had 6 sessions with a therapist (had to wait 6 months) and she visited B at nursery as well. The women was amazing and spotted the issues straight away and would do lots of fun games with B. It helped so much and when we went back for his update they were able to diagnose a speech sounds disorder and B will get more sessions next year to help with pronunciations but he communicates so well now with clear sentences.

Feel free to ask anymore questions Hun, I initially found it a quite distressing but the speech therapist was amazing x

 

[Msclaireypants]

Aww thanks so much, that's really reassuring. It's the unknown that worries me! That's interesting that they ask about feeding as well...he won't eat textured food! I'm looking forward to it because I can't wait to have a wee chat with him �� but im also a wee bit scared��

 

[MrsT2011]

Yeah they like to check their mouth just in case there's any medical reason for speech problems.

What's your speech concerns with your son?

I was really scared too but there was no need to be and it was never distressing for my son, she spent a lot of time getting to know him and did activities based on his interests x

 

[Msclaireypants]

Firstly, I was concerned by his lack of words...he's nearly 3 and only has about 20 words half of which are pretty hard to understand. I was also concerned about his lack of understanding when people talk to him. He had his assessment yesterday, she also thinks he finds it hard to understand and can't follow instructions. She is going to observe him in nursery next week and take it from there��

 

[MrsT2011]

I can understand why your concerned Hun and I'm glad she's taking you seriously and coming to see him at nursery next week - I had to wait 6 months and that was with me harassing her!
Also Bs understanding improved dramatically when he could talk.
I hope it all goes well, feel free to message if things get tough x