speech therapy

[kitten_uk2]

hi there, my son is due to see a speech therapist at the beginning of next month, hes a late developer at 3yrs old.
and bummbles like a bumble bee quite often. i was jus wondering if any other parents have had kids that have seen a therapist and what exactly will happen,,,, please note my son doesnt have a long attention span, so im worried he wont sit and do as hes told.

[daffy654]

My son didn't speak at all until he was 4 years old.We tried speech therapy when we lived in Hull but walked out half way through the first session as the assistant pinned my son to the chair as he wouldn't sit still,when I say pinned I mean she knelt on the floor behind his chair and put her arms around the chair and my son and would not let go until I told her to.He had far better experiences when we moved back here but still didn't speak until he started at a special school.They had him talking within 6 months.He is now 10 and was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome about 4 years ago.
The therapist will usually ask you if he can say any words at all,they will ask how you communicate with each other. They start off teaching basic sounds then move on to words.Sometimes they will give you a booklet with pictures of common objects in it so that the child can point to the item they want.My son used to have tantrums if I couldn't understand what he wanted.If you get a good therapist they will include you in everything they do as the method they teach has to be used consistently at home as well as in the sessions.
Good luck with it all and try not to worry too much.

[annie0000]

My son went once for speech therapy - both boys were due to go for specific letter sounding problems, however, by the time the appointment came round, the older one had sorted himself out. My younger son could not say the "K" sound or "G" sound. Replacing them with T and D

He was probabbly about 3 and a half at the time - the therapist was very patient with him and made it more of a game to try to assess him, but he never really went for it at the appointment - to be honest I think he was winding her up. Anyhoo, she showed us the sticky fingure technique which was to help him keep his tongue down and he was sorted out in a matter of days - he didn't need to go back after that.

i guess it will depend on the therapist, but they should be able to deal with small children and make it interesting enough to assess and work with them without resorting to the awful experience that daffy and her son had.

P.S. My son finished the appointment with a massive tantrum about something or other and the therapist did not bat an eyelid as he was jumping about screaming and banging his head of the door.

My sisters son goes for regular speech therapy as he has a problem where although he can understand what you say to him, and he can make all the required speech sounds, his brain has difficulty putting them together or remembering them. He gets extra support at school, and is learning to read in a different way to other children. He has to learn by learning each word rather than using synthetic phonics which is the norm here.

Hope he gets on okay.

[Ice-Maiden]

Daffy - one of my sister's used to speak like that when she was young, and she had her tongue "snipped", which allowed her to form her letters properly. Kitten - my youngest son's been seeing a speech therapist for several years now. Unfortunately he's autistic with learning problems, but he's now able to converse in a manner appropriate for his age. I think development depends on the therapist, and if there are further problems with your son. The best of luck to you.

[kitten_uk2]

my husband has decided he would like to come to this appointment aswell. even though im glad hes showing an interest i think too many people there will just put my son off what he will be told to do.

[daffy654]

Kitten,if the therapist thinks your husband being there is distracting your child then he or she will ask that one of you leave and the other remain with the child.They are used to all sorts of family situations. When I took my son to the session in Hull it was a group session with many children and parents and both my older daughters came with me. I think your hubby being there could be a good thing though as you will both know from the therapist how best to help your son at home.