After a long long wait i finally get an appointment for both my kids to see a speech therapist.
Just wondering what i should expect on the first visit? Charlie's is the first appointment and he's 22 months old. Lily's is a few days later and she is 3yrs 8mths old.
hello, my daughter has been seeing a speech therapist since about 3mths of age, it was while we were inpatients in the special care nursery so our experience may be slightly different as they kind of knew about her. depends on what your need for seeing them is (feeds, talking, tongue tie etc..). Isabella was on full naso gastric feeds (expressed ebm), had totally lost her suck reflex and didn't have any hand to mouth action. she was on no oral feeds from birth due to gut operations....long story for another time....in hospital for 6mths...anyway sorry for babbling - at the first appt they basically just assessed her and asked me HEAPS of questions about her and her daily routine, asked to explain exactly what she does and doesn't do, and had a bit of play time to watch her and gave heaps of tricks and exercises to try with her. she is over 1 now so we have just been referred to a new speechie thru DSQ (disability services qld) and had our first appt with her and same sort of thing. now her issues are more talking (she doesn't babble at all, has only just realised she has a voice!) and spilling heaps out the side of her bottle. but now no NG tube, fully orally fed and has 3 meals of solids. anyway sorry for the long post, but i think speechies are great, and ours were a huge help. hopefully will get talking or at least babbling soon. best of luck with your appt
Antheia, Paige has recently started seeing a speechie and on the first visit she asked me a lot of questions about her - age she started talking, can she follow instructions etc how she interacts with the older kids. She also asked about her birth etc if there was any trauma. Then she did a series of assessments where she asked Paige what things were called and also ones where she had to find the answer by following instructions. Once she figured out where her problem areas were she gave us some 'homework' to do to practice in between visits. It can be intensive at home because you get out of it what you put in. So if you want them to do well and progress, you have to put the hard yards in too. There is a thread we have going for those of us with kids in speech therapy that you can come and join in too for moral support and also to share successes and toss around ideas to help each other. Here is the link https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...ch-issues.html
I'm really pleased that you've finally got them in to see someone.
Last edited by Trillian; August 13th, 2008 at 11:07 AM.
When we did the intial assesments, they basically let them play and talk to the child while they were playing to see how they responded, and also asked myself questions about where they were at with speech. So it was all pretty easy.
So what if Lily doesn't talk to the therapist at all? Do you think that will be a problem? They have given me a form and on it asks if i am worried about other things about her and one of the examples was shyness and anxiety which i put down. But i know its going to be hard to assess her if she won't interact.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. Paige was a bit shy at first, but they are really good at engaging with the kids to make them feel comfortable and they will be able to give them toys to play with as an ice breaker and it doesn't take long for them to open up.
She will be fine Tegan. It won't bother them at all if they are shy. After the first appointment you wonder what you are were worried about. Kameron never had the privledge of going through a private speech therapist first he had to deal with the one straight in kindy, and he cried his way through the first few sessions, cause he was pulled out of his "playtime" to do it. Like Trillian said they have a way of making them engage.
Ashton never talked at his initial assessment at 18/19mths but he babbled, gurgled, smiled etc all of which was taken into consideration.
Child Speech Therapy
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