Speech therapy - nearly 3 yr old

I am wondering if anyone has any info or has been through speech therapy with their child?  DS will be 3 in a few weeks and his vocab is very limited, he has had his hearing tested through a plunket referral and they *think* he may have a mild hearing loss, it is very subjective though testing a little one, he will be retested whenever he comes up in their blimmen stupid waiting list but thats another rant!!  My plunket nurse is great and when I see her for his 3 year check she said she will do a referral for speech therapy, apparently he should now have around 300 words and be able to be understood by other adults This is obviously not the case and while I know all kids develop differently and this is just a guide I also know that he does have delayed speech and I am wanting to do anything I can to help him along.  He has made progress since he was first tested in august but his speech is still limited to one or 2 words at a time. 

Would love to hear any advice or experiences

Thanks Flissty  I have no idea at this stage whether MOE or hospital, he is seeing plunket on the 10th Feb, she wanted to wait til he was 3 to see him.  It does sound like it will be  huge help, do you think it is possible to get him assessed privately?  The waiting lists here are HUGE, esp for under 3's, hence the wait for his hearing reassessment and we are happy to go private if it will get him seen earlier. 

I agree with everything Flissty said ... I'm an SLT too, and from what you have said it does sound like it is worth referring him for an assessment. You don't have to wait for the plunket nurse to refer him, Special Ed (MOE) take referrals from parents too, so you can just phone them up and get him on the waitlist for an assessment now. If you find he improves a lot before the assessment comes up you can always cancel but at least then you have the option.

What about also getting your gp to do a ENT referral for you too. If they suspect mild hearing issues then it should get tested. My daughter had hearing issues and as soon as she got grommets her speech came away in leaps and bounds. We didn't even need the speech therapy in the end as she caught up by herself. I find it hard to understand that knowing there is a possible hearing issue they aren't investigating this as the speech therapy should come after ruling out any possible cause of the language delay that could be fixed first.

Just a thought. Good luck with everything. Such a stressful thing to go through.

Kiwi2 did your daughter have glue ear?  That was the only definite thing they could tell us - he doesn't have glue ear or any fluid issues, they did think from his tests that there was possibly some kind of what they called "minor" hearing loss, its so hard to know exactly what that means though!  So glad your daughter caught up, that is great!

Flissty yep the waiting lists for anything are huge here in Hawkes Bay - it stinks!

We had her assessed in the states. Yes she had fluid behind her ears. I am not sure if that is the same as glue ear or not but since grommets are the same end result I suspect it is.   She also had a 20% congenital (couldn't find any other reason for it) hearing loss in one ear. Not enough to impact her once the fluid cleared. They hooked her up to a machine which printed out a whole lot of information which they pointed to as they explained the whole thing.

Hearing is only a small part of why he might be language delayed. I am just shocked that after recognising it as a possibility they aren't looking into it more seriously. If he can't hear wouldn't the SLT be more effective if the hearing was fixed first. Better value for money etc. But who am I to tell the government lol. But then again I am not used to the system here either. (From diagnosis to surgery was two weeks for us.) Do you have insurance or it might be interesting to ask how much the consult would be for an ENT appt. Might be worth paying for it just to get it diagnosed or ruled out.

I agree with flissty though that you should start everything you can as it becomes available.

I am not a SLT but I happened to come across this book about a year ago at a second hand sale I went to and it was really interesting. It talks about language development in kids and what you can do to help them along. I have found it really good and it might be worth seeing if you can get it from your library and trying some of the suggestions, especially if seeing a SLT is still 6-8 weeks away. Here is a link to a review of the book:

Baby talk book

Hope that helps.

ETA to add that the book is called Baby Talk and is by Dr Sally Ward who is a qualified SLT who is also qualified in audiology so she knows what she is talking about.

Edited by Shelt

He had issues with recurrent ear infections as a baby which is why I was always aware that he could possibly have hearing probs in the future, my plunket nurse was great at getting him referred to audiology at the hospital.  Now that he is nearly 3 though it is a bit more obvious that his speech isnt where it should be. 

Thanks Linda, what kind of issues was your son having with his speech? (if you dont mind me asking). 

Thanks for the link Shelt, will go check it out!!

Kiwi2 I think it is because of his age, there is such a huge waiting list for under 3s and they are so shortstaffed 

Hey Char, in regards to his hearing and getting an appointment to see the ENT specialist... with Gia we paid to see a specialist instead of waiting to go public (unless you have health insurance then that will cover it).  It was $160 but we got an appointment about a week after the Dr referred her (she had ear infection after ear infection so needed grommets but public waiting list is over 6 months long!)  So once she was seen and she had glue ear in both ears she was then put on public waiting list for grommets which was about 3 months wait.  But getting to see the specialist so fast helped get her on the list faster.

 

Glad to hear you've already got in touch with MOE and can get him seen soon!

double post

Edited by arohanui