Parent of speech delayed child & proud of them

I thought it might be nice to have a little oasis for us mum's who's kids are speech delayed and need some were to vent, cry scream and be happy :dance:


*maz stands with hand up in the air*

Hi.
Im Maz.
Mum of four babies with 3 of them having/had speech delay/problems

My eldest son was told that he 'couldnt' start prep due to his thick german accent and lack of understandable speech by the kinder teacher. Kinder teacher was told in turn were she could stick that little bit of useless information :nahnah: and eldest son started at the correct time. Speech is fantatic and kinder teacher still doing the same boring job *giggle giggle*

Middle son was echolallic due to his autism. 2 years of speech therapy that really did nothing but annoy us more then anything. Middle son can spell ANY word out loud, has perfect speech and understand..he correct's us all the time.

Youngest son has a total of 6 words..is almost 3. Yes very delayed, loads of jibberish, screaming, high pitch tones...beginnings of echolallic chatting....undiagnosed (but quiet noticeable) aspergers. Speech therapist said that NO sighs on it even after our Pead agreed with me about the trait's he was demonstrating. We've been signing a few words which are helping, asked speechy for more and she gave me the sign's I told her we have already been doing :doh:

Youngest son is actually driving me insane atm....the pitch is so high Ive got a headache and have to squint my eye's when he makes the noises (usually when he's over happy)

*Maz steps down from mic and gets a cuppa and tim tam*

My eldest son didn't start speaking any words until 2 and a half. He is very tall for his age and people assumed he was 4 and would therefore try and converse with him. I used to get all sorts of pity looks, or people would even think he was rude :( He is now 6, and still a quiet boy, but he can chat away when he wants to and is bright, considerate, and very very sporty!

My youngest son is almost 3 and couldn't hear until he was 15 months due to glue ear. He is therefore very behind. He is also the happiest boy you will ever meet, despite his life filled with illness and dramas. I know he will catch up with everyone else, and will not allow anyone to pity him because I wouldn't have him any other way :)

My DS2 didn't start talking until he was 2. The only explaination I was given was that it might have had something to do with him being born with a tongue tie, which was snipped at 5 weeks, and because his teeth were slow in coming through.

DS2 used to hum instead of talking. Drs and ECHNs disagreed with me and told me he wasn't humming. I don't know what they thought he was doing though?! I was constantly told to give it time and he will come good. I was told not to bother with a speech therapist as they felt he didn't need one as he had/has fantastic comprehension and they felt he just was shy and would talk in his own time. It was also suggested that his much older siblings were talking for him and that may be why he wasn't a talker as yet.

He talks heaps now and will be 4 in Feb. I am still concerned about his speech and will be seeking out a speech therapist this coming year. He has loads & loads of words and puts together full sentences, but I feel like his speech is still about 12 months behind his peers.

My eldest went through 3 yrs of speech therapy, due to tongue tie that wasnt picked up.

My little Kane, 3, was born with cleft lip, gum and full palate.
So along with the ops, we have delayed/bad speech. And no decent speechie within 6 hrs of here.... :shakehead: so all the work we are doing on our own, with help from Westmeads on occasion.

We have him on the books for a program in Sydney which will give him intense therapy for a week at a time, just waiting to hear when our first app will be.

He is just gorgeous, so happy, but gets so frustrated when I cant understand him, and it breaks my heart...... he starts preschool in a few weeks and I am SO SO nervous for him.. they know about him and have met him a few times, and i love his teacher, but I still worry they wont understand him and he'll cry.....:cry:

Awesome thread Maz...xoxoxo

Hi guys :D

DD2 has a speech delay, though starting school has made an unbelievable improvement.

I started to worry when she was only 12 months old, coz she wasn't at DD1's level, but DD1 was really advanced with her speech. Looking back at home video's she was talking in sentences at less than 17 months old.
So I just told myself that DD2 was just normal. Though it still didn't feel right.

As she got older CHN's etc told me it was just coz DD1 was talking for her, which wasn't true. But when DD2 spoke, we could usually understand her, so didn't push it. Figured she would work it out on her own I guess.

At 3 we had her hearing tested, all was good. We booked her in for speech therapy, but there wasn't one where we were living, or within 2 hours, so we never got there.
After 12 months there we moved here & booked her in for therapy here.

She started at about 4. It was a PITA to be honest. The therapist is young (very early 20's is my guess) & while I've no doubt she knows what she's doing, she doesn't know much about kids.
Didn't help that DD played up the whole time we were there...

I sent her to school & gave up on therapy at 4.5 (start 2010). The difference is unbelievable! Family & friends are always saying something about it :D

Still alot of work, but in the past 10 or so she's gone from barely understandable to almost perfect!

The day I heard he say Car, not Tar the first time I almost cried! She never got past that first letter at therapy!



PB - we were in Coonamble & they were waiting for a new one in Coonabarabran then. 2 years later they might have one. Its still 2 hours away, but better than 6 hours :dunno:

My second DS didn't start talking until he was 3, he is now 12 and talks non stop, even in his sleep. He was seeing a speech therapist at school because of a slight stutter.

Regards,
Dianne

My middle child, R, has recently been diagnosed with a severe global language delay at just shy of 3 years old. His receptive and expressive language is about 18mths+ behind where he should be. His speech was practically unintelligble, except for rare moments with me, and he has a slight stutter. It was thought to be because of a hearing issue but he was tested and given a Ninja hearing A+ for it so we are still puzzled as to whats caused it; esp when our other two boys have fantastic speech. He's been going to speech therapy since September 19th and has made amazing leaps and bounds. He now uses 3+ word sentences and other people are starting to understand the gist of what he is saying without him having to repeat it. His talking gets sloppy when he is over excited, tired or upset but I am happy we have progress. We're now going to be exploring the avenue of Auditory Processing disorder which could account for his language delay and a few other behavioural issues.

DS is 2.5 with few words. He mimics phrases but they are often jumbled and hard to decipher. Strangers have no hope of understanding him.

DS1 has slow speech development. At 19 months we went for a hearing test which he got 100% for so no hearing issues.
Returned to pead who suggested speech pathology, MCHN sent referal to public hospital waiting list for me.

Got GP to do a health care plan and we saw a speechy for 5 weeks at home (friend of a friend doesnt normally do private work) and we saw some improvements. After 8 weeks waiting saw hospital speech for assesment and they suggested group sessions (eg like a playgroup things run by them) that was in may we were rang in nov and offered a spot but its in 1 day a week that DS1 was in occasional care.

He is imrproving slowly but surely, he was a late crawler didnt walk till 21 months so I am not surprised.

I actually postopned last pead appt as he is improving, it is very frustrating and at times upsetting when kids in mothers group and chatting in sentences and DS1 is still using single words, but they all progress differently. He is nearly 2 and 1/2 now.

I know where your coming from.

DS only just started walking at 24 months and still only has 3-4 words and only just starting to understand a few simple actions of sign language.

We have seen a speechy but stopped. He doesnt want to try and copy words yet so he's not ready and I have to accept that

my DD2 will be 4 in 10days and just had her 2nd set of grommits on the 12th dec and it is like her whole world opened up alot of people still dont understand her but my DH and i do most of the time. I feel bad cause it was due to her having constant ear problems and due to her not hearing she has a hearing test in a month so i have my fingers crossed that all goes well and her speech therapy starts in 3wks i have pushed for speech for a whole year and was told not to bother cause her hearing is ****house (dr's own words) she also had grommits in feb last yr and they fell out pretty quick

I get shirty cause she is a big girl and people mistake her for being older I get funny looks when she tries to have a conversation with them and they cant understand her or ask her name she tries to say charli and they say oh abby i always feel myself saying no its charli grrr or her pronouncing is off eg hoilet for toilet but her talking is getting better so i try and stay positive and just work with her myself

Also did anyone elses child get like a sorta stutter eg I I I I I I want a drink its like her brain doesnt work with her mouth