zigzag Posted November 3, 2015 Posted November 3, 2015 I have a little girl who was four in September and has been with us since January this year. Her speech and language is not developing as quickly as I would be expecting it to. She is very bright and understands everything and happily chats away to other children and adults. I am very concerned that her actual speech is not clear and we are struggling to understand everything that she says. I have broached the subject with Mum and they do not understand her all the time at home. I am going to refer her to SALT. But as I do this I would like some ideas from you fab lot of what more we can do to help her. We do all the usual things such as lots of talking with her, modelling lots of varied language, repeating what she is saying, slowly and clearly. We read lots of stories and sing all the time. I have also just ordered some games to add to our collection to encourage language and communication development. Any bright ideas of things I can do? We used to have her sister at the setting and she too had babyish speech, which slowly improved over her time with us and apparently her grown up brother used to be the same.
Rafa Posted November 3, 2015 Posted November 3, 2015 We have a couple of children with similar immature speech. One has SALT on board and shes not really concerned - says do all your doing: commentary, modelling, extending, repeating etc. Additionally we have scgs and offer games that involve speaking - using one or two key words - for instance using photos - choose - 'tell us whats happening in you picture." eg - The BOY is on the BIKE - building a clear sentence. we make it fun by making it in to a magnetic fishing game kind of thing. Our SL therapist says that providing there is good understanding and listening and attention then speech will mature in time.......does'nt help the listener tho does it! 3
zigzag Posted November 3, 2015 Author Posted November 3, 2015 I have been reluctant to call in SALT as I know we are doing everything that she will tell us to do and I know how busy they are. Its just the fact that school is getting nearer and I did not want to leave it to late to ask for intervention. Still not sure that I will.
Rafa Posted November 3, 2015 Posted November 3, 2015 I have been reluctant to call in SALT as I know we are doing everything that she will tell us to do and I know how busy they are. Its just the fact that school is getting nearer and I did not want to leave it to late to ask for intervention. Still not sure that I will. Yes this is where we feel the pressure and the responsibility weighs heavy. Has the little girl had a hearing test? I suggested this to the mum of the child who isnt under SALT and she took him and hearing was fine. His speech is very poor but chatty, happy and understanding very good - so we are just doing all I wrote before and will keep doing so.......
zigzag Posted November 3, 2015 Author Posted November 3, 2015 Yes I thought about this earlier and will ask Mum tomorrow.
green hippo Posted November 3, 2015 Posted November 3, 2015 Hi, I would agree that you are doing all the right things. I have had a few children in recent years whose language is good but clarity of speech is not! The only other thing you can do is identify the sounds that she is struggling to pronounce correctly. There is a chart on this website: http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/?p=754which shows the typical development of speech sounds. You could use this chart and start with the earliest speech sounds that she isn't pronouncing properly and then you can play little games using pictures of objects which start/end with those sounds. If she is struggling with 'c', then you can ask her to lie on her back while she says the 'c' words as it's helps them to get their tongue in the right place! If it's poor language then the best thing you can do is model back the same sentence but with the correct grammar. The only sentence that you should ask a child to repeat correctly back to you is if they are using 'me' instead of 'I'. Green Hippo x 1
lashes2508 Posted November 4, 2015 Posted November 4, 2015 ICAN are fab and you can use their phone service and speak directly to an SLT for advice , they do some fabulous packs with some great ideas for games etc 2
Foreveryoung Posted November 4, 2015 Posted November 4, 2015 In addition to everything you are already doing which is like you say everything they would suggest anyway, with our older ones (so 4ish) syllable clapping to help them breakdown and help the flo of speech we usually find this works wonders for the listener and child too, however only works if they have good understanding x
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