Expressive Speech Delay

[benniebud]

My son (17 months) was diagnosed about 3 weeks ago with an expressive speech delay.  We chose to have him evaluated because at 15 months he had no words. They evaluated social, cognitive, and speech development and he was only found to have the delay in expressive language.  He qualified for therapy twice a month. 

He has had four ear infections this winter and near constant sinus congestion.  I was wondering with the kind of delay he had if it is reasonable for me to request a hearing evaluation.  He always responds to me when I am in the same room (unless he has an ear infection and then it's like he can't hear me at all), but he almost never responds when in another room. He never covers his ear against loud noises.

Also, for those of you who have been through something similar... what did you feel really helped your kids?  I know the SLP will tell us things we should do, but we haven't seen her yet and I wonder what I could be doing in the meantime.

[Kcthepouchh8r]

Regardless if your child had a history of ear infections the standard protocol when you have a child with a speech delay is to rule out hearing difficulties. You definitely want to get that eval set up.

In terms of helping with speech simple games that make your child start to mimic sounds is good. I remember an early one I learned was putting a silly object on my head pretending it was a hat and dramatically saying ah-ah-ah choo like I was sneezing and the hat fell off. Kids found it funny and they learned to Mimic that simple sound/communicate it when they wanted To play that game.Anything like that you can play to encourage vowel sounds is a good start for a kid with no speech.

[benniebud]

Thank you fr responding.  My pedi retired at the end of the year and I just didn't want to walk into the new pedi's office, ask for a hearing eval, and have her look at me like I have my crazy pants on.

[soxin2]

Feb 23, 2015 15:46:22 GMT -5 benniebud said:

Thank you fr responding.  My pedi retired at the end of the year and I just didn't want to walk into the new pedi's office, ask for a speech eval, and have her look at me like I have my crazy pants on.

That was actually exactly what we did.

We moved and got set up with the new pedi and I had an early intervention referral and assessment wI thin weeks.

[Emerald1486]

My son has a developmental speech delay specifically in expressive language (he is 3 1/2 years old, diagnosed just before he turned 3). He started speech therapy twice a month back in June. He has undergone hearing evaluations and his hearing is fine. He did have a 12 week ear infection when he was younger though and had tubes put in at a year old. The doctor said that was not the cause of the delay though, but sometimes I wonder.

Definitely get a hearing evaluation. You want to rule that out.

The speech therapy has definitely helped him. He is saying more words, but we still have issue with him pronouncing the final sound (i.e. HorSE, SnaCK, HouSE). Reiteration and positive reinforcement are the biggest things. When DS says a word correctly, we get him to say it 3 or 5 times correctly in a row and praise him for it. I made him start saying the word snack correctly if he wanted a fruit snack. He started saying it correctly on his own after awhile, knowing that is the only way he would get it. His therapist also does games with him. An example is building Mr Potato Head. If he could say a word correctly 5 times in a row, he got a piece to put on Mr Potato Head. Last session, he did so well he got Mr Potato Head, Mrs Potato Head, and 2 little Potato Heads built.
Another system she used was a signal for each word. Running your finger down your arm to signal the S sound. Hand at the mouth for the P sound. Pointing to her throat for the CK sound.

With his delay, XH and I got DS evaluated for an IEP. They determined that the speech delay was severe enough to qualify and has been enrolled in preschool as a student with disabilities. He received speech therapy at school once a week. We have seen a lot of improvement with speech clarity in the month since he started preschool. Your DS is still too young, but it is something to keep in mind as he gets older.