Speech concerns

So. Completely out of the blue, a friend of mine has raised concerns about DD's speech. She took DD to a party today and dropped her back, then messages me later to say she had something for me that she wanted to discuss and could she come down when the kids were settled? (Lives down the street)

She explained that at the party she noticed that DD didn't have a few speech sounds that you'd expect a 5yo to have - l, r, ch, sh. She suggested we get DD checked by the school speech pathologist.

I should add - she is a speech pathologist herself, not paeds, but qualified to make a suggestion. She also felt really awkward about it all so I don't have a problem with how she's handled it all.

I am just a bit shocked. I haven't noticed anything. Feeling a bit like crummy mummy.

So where do I go from here? If I don't/can't see the school speech pathologist, how do I book into our privately? Just ring up??

It takes a great friend to bring it up. I had a friend with a teaching background mention my daughters stutter seemed excessive, and I looked into it more.

Yes, you can just book into any speech pathologist of your choice and if you have private health, you will get a portion if it back.

Thanks Hun, you're right, I must mention that to her.

i organised speech therapy thru referral by mchn. not sure if this would still apply once school starts. but maybe worth asking if you have a good mchn.

Hugs hun you are an awesome mummy.

DS1 has speech issues and we have seen a speech for 2 and a bit years, sadly now over as was a pre school clinic but the school speech will pick him up but we may need to also access private as school is only once a fortnight for 30 mins. He doesn't have some sounds he should have and also has developed a stutter.

DS2 also has a stutter and some unclear sounds but un sure if his is from copying or an actual issue, I got a referal to a community speech who said without a health care card I will still be paying $120 a session!!!! Private when i rang around was $150-$180 a session.

You can get a health care plan from GP which gives you 5 subsadised sessions a year but they can charge you over the schedule so you can still be out of pocket.

Private speech you don't necessarily need a referal to.

Does your school have a speech??

Probably will be difficult to get her seen by the school speechie unless she is very difficult to understand. There just isnt enough service for all issues. But you can only ask and see.

Personally I think it's better to be there anyway, as the home practice you do is what will make the difference, so sometimes private might be more sensible. Private health may cover some of the costs.

We saw a lovely speechie at Malvern for DSDs speech issues... S and Sh... But don't know if that's too far for you.

The school nurse also checks out all the preps throughout the prep year for hearing and other medical things, so depending on when your school has the nurse visit they might have some local suggestions too. That's how we found out about DSD.

Otherwise you just call and make a private appointment - unless she has some other medical issues, I don't believe you will get anything covered by medicare.

Not noticing doesn't mean you are a bad mummy :hug: it's still normal development for kids who don't get all their sounds until they are 7 1/2 anyway xox

Thanks everyone. DH has been reassuring (that man is gold!) - just because we didn't notice doesn't make us bad parents. Bad parents would nod and smile at being told someone had concerns and do nothing about it. He's right, again ;)

I've emailed her teacher, who is young and will probably see the email tonight as she's been very quick with her techno-communications, so I'll see what she has to say tomorrow. My friend seemed to think the kinder should have picked it up, which is a bit disappointing.

Anyway. I've google-found a clinic near by that looks nice. Might ring them tomorrow as well, just make enquiries.

By 5 sh and l sounds most children can say
By 6 ch sounds most kids can say
By 7 r sound, most kids can say

Going by that she's not out of the norm.
DD2 is on the wait list for public speech because of some sounds.

DS sees the school speech pathologist and I'm looking into going to a private speechie too as he only gets 30 mins a week at school. He has always had speech issues and we did try speech therapy when he was 2 but that just didn't work as his separation anxiety was just out of this world! DS's prep teacher put a referral in at the beginning of last year and his assessment wasn't done with the therapist until the second last week of school because there are so many children to see and she is only at our school one day a week.

Your DH is 100% right ;)

Try your local community health service first. It took me about 6 weeks to get DSin. Although she may need Spath, it is fairly minor- not a severe speech issue, so it would be easy missed by you if you don't know what you are looking for.

Thanks for the idea Lilima but our community health service only sees kids to school entry, boo. Just checked.

Just chiming in to say that we found our speechie just through the GP referral, got in to see her quite quickly, get a portion back from health insurance. The ch and sh sounds are the ones that Moo has trouble with too, though I believe it is still within the realms of normal at this age :hug:

hey lovely
if you are worried there are some great speechy's in our area! It is normal for kids not to be able to pronouce some sounds at her age, but it wouldn't hurt to get her checked out to double check and get some strategies to help her and reassure you!!
Dont forget that DD will be assessed by the school nurse soon so they can check as well- as part of her prep assessment at school

There is are great clinic just down the road from where I use to live and they have great therapists in there. Also I know a woman who is a speechy who works for the dept of Ed and also does private work and she literally lives around the corner from you!!! I can also get her details as well. My DS has seen her at school for 2 years and she was the local speechy for our area, but just this year has been taken out of schools and into region!! She is young but experienced and really good!!

Also you can self refer to a speech therapist- so you only need to go through your local doctor to get your health care plan where you get 5 visits for free (or heavily subsidised) so any speechy you go to , make sure they are happy to accept these plans as payment before you start. You will also need to get their details etc for your GP so they can grant you the visits

Hugs hun and you are an awesome mum so dont ever doubt yourself xxxx

So, she's up. I just asked her about the party yesterday - she told me about playing with Charlie and to my ears the CH was fine. We sang rock a bye your bear and the SH sounded fine.

But when I asked who's party it was, struggled. Lola's party. Woh-wah.

Hmm.

We couldn't hear the difference between DSDs Sh and s either... It took a while to realise what it should sound like. Ch and z are similar sounds is my understanding, DSD has difficulties with a lateral S which means the air comes out the sides of her mouth rather than the middle. Might not hurt to have a quick check with a speechie specialising in children, at least it will reassure you xo

Even if you do go private, I'd be getting her assessed and on the public (through school) waiting list sooner rather than later, as the wait could be long (was 18 months at the school I last worked at!), and private speechie's get expensive after a while! Hopefully, by the time she gets to the top of the list she's fine. ;)

DD2 had her speech brought to our attention by a visiting speech therapist at the Kinder. She was there to see another child, but happened to notice DD2. The kinder was able to organise sessions though the hospital. That has now stopped that she is at Primary school as we have to go though another body who visit the school. The teacher organised the paperwork for us for that, so now we are just waiting.

We were a bit shocked by it. We thought she was a little bit babyish a times, especially when tired, but it seems she has a mild lateral lisp. Tiredness has a huge affect on her speech, along with how comfortable she is with a situation. She takes time to settle into new routines.

I got a note home last week of when sounds are generally mastered, l, ch, j, sh says 5 1/2 and r 61/2. Also says your child may still make errors on these later developing sound.

So, an update. After speaking with DD's teacher yesterday morning I decided to have her assessed privately and go from there. The teacher reiterated that she wasn't concerned, but said she wasn't a speech pathologist and if we wanted to have her assessed to go for it. They do the Jolly Phonics program and haven't done L and R yet so the teacher suggested leaving it til they have covered those letter to see if there's any improvement.

But I wanted to get her assessed anyway. I got an appointment for today for a free assessment at a clinic near home, took her and DS1 in to get checked. Pathologist was lovely, she said that we shouldn't worry about DS1 yet as he's still little (3.5) but DD needs a bit of help.

She's missing the L sound everywhere - beginning, middle and end of words. Not getting it. She's also missing the sh sound. She seems to be able to say "shh" as in "shh, baby sleeping" but then says "fiss" instead of fish.

So, we made an appointment to go back and get some exercises to do at home. She was quite relaxed about it all, said she likes to check in fortnightly or monthly, whatever works, we can just see how we go, which is good.

I think she knows how to say things... But has learned the wrong thing and now it's habit. Hopefully a bit of help and we'll be back on the right track.

OP I just saw this. How are you feeling? It's always a shock when something like this comes to our attention. But your DH is a smart man, what matters is how you deal with it. With something like speech unless you are an expert it can be so hard to know what is age appropriate and there is such a broad range of "normal" anyway. I am pleased your friend was able to approach you, what a really great thing, even though it was probably a hard thing for her to do.

Early intervention is best and that is what you are doing. She's a determined girl that daughter of yours and I know with the extra help you are getting for her she will flourish.

Janie xxx

Thanks hun. I got all teary reading that. It was a huge shock. I think I went into solution mode... Now that's sorted (well we have our appointments etc) I need to chill out a bit about I think.

Sounds like a good appointment. Certainly agree that the earlier you work on it the better. I'm sure with the home practice you will have it sorted in no time xox

We took a while as we only have DSD on weekends and her mother wouldn't do the homework. But even we got there eventually

Many kiddies have Spath. I think of it as a positive as you are being proactive. My DS had Spath and OT. at first I thought of it as a negative - about what I did wrong, but now I only see the positives. He doesn't need Spath any more- because thanks to the intervention he is back on track. Your DD will be too soon.

Thanks guys. DH took her up for her final testing session today and explained how she went, the teacher has recommended we wait and use the school speech path as it will be free. If there's no urgency and that's really the only concern, wait and see how she goes with the jolly phonics for L and get some exercises from the school speech path and take it from there.