Mindee & slow language development

[loobyloo168]

Hi,

I have had a new mindee for a couple of months now and have noticed their language is really delayed. The child had been with another CM since a few months old and is now 26ish months.

Mum did say when they first came to me that she got the impression that child was left to play all day with little adult interaction as cm looked after many children at once ?

The child language is all gaga, baba, dada, iyswim ?

Child recently had a two year check and the HV pointed out the language delay and child has to have a follow up in a few months.

Since having the child parents have noticed that childs language has come on a great deal in a short space of time, but i do find working with this child alot more challenging than the other children i have and certainly my own when she was this age.

Child has a very short attention span and i find it hard to get the attention for even a minute or so. There are very few words that child says clearly.

Although i have noticed that when child repeats after me the word child repeats is the same sound each time although clearly not an understandable word for an outsider, for example if i say Blue, child makes a sound, and thats the sound he makes each time for blue, then if i say circle child makes a sound for circle, but these sounds are not the actual word and dont even sound anything like the word but its the same sound each time.

I hope i haven't confused anyone yet.

I also find that parents of child will say words for child instead of letting child say a word, the other day child learnt a new word so when Mum came i tried to demontrate but because child paused when i said "whats this" Mum just said what it was and child didnt get a chance.

Im feeling a bit useless really, and not sure what more i can do. Im starting to understand the noises the child makes for different words, and im worried im going to start letting the babble take over from child learning to pronounce proper words.

Im always repeating words and sounds to child with very little coming back although child does point at everything and says "whats that" (one of the very few things thats understandable) when you say what it is, its just a noise back. Im not worried yet as the HV is aware, just wondering if im doing enough really ?

Thanks for any advice and sorry if i havnt made sense x

[The Juggler]

I would see how quickly he comes on in your setting as if it is down to lack of interaction that will quickly change although if mum and dad are interacting well at home this should have lessened the impact.

As mum is concerned I would have thought that she understands the need for interaction so it might be worth getting it checked out. I would advise her to ask her GP or health visitor for a referral to speech therapy at the review (in case of any physical problems with speech) and for a glue ear test just to rule out hearing problems - but all children are different and it may just be he will suddenly catch up.

I know so many children who pass their hearing tests but never have glue ear tests until much later and then find out grommets would have helped with their hearing and speech so much earlier on in life (my ds included). It's hard to detect glue ear by observation as these children appear to hear quite normally as they react well but they hear everything in a muffled way so speech is hard to pick up.

[PRINCESSDAISYFLOWER]

my own ds has the same probs.

I was told not to ask questions such as "what is this" but to give him the word like "this is a ball, can you say ball?"

[green puppy]

Just keep doing what you are, lots of short sentences, pause between each word to give the child time to hear it and take it in, get down to the childs level and talk face to face, use lots of visual aids when you talk. It's important that you get the childs attention first so they know that you are talking to them, so say their name first or tap their shoulder so they are looking at you. Children need to learn how to listen before they learn to talk. Read lots of stories, sing songs and rhymes. If the child can point to tell you their needs perhaps you could do some picture cards with words for activity time or snack time etc..... You sound like you are doing fine, the I can website is good and if you google Every child is a talker you may get more info from that. Good luck.

[Pipsqueak]

Have a look on the ICan website for lots of information.

sounds like you are doing all the right things - lots of talk, pointing things out, making noises (blowing raspberries and bubbles etc) and mouth movements, rhymes, hand clapping and foot stomping (beats)

you need to start from basics as you would with a baby and build from there.

[loobyloo168]

I do all these things but nothing. Just feel like I'm not doing my best for the child.

I think because I get very little back I'm doing something wrong. I'm a trained nursery nurse and mum to a 5 year old but feels like all my experience is useless in this situation.

I don't think parents are concerned really. The comment about him being left to play were in passing, and excused because the other cm had other kids. It's only because the health visitor did the 2 year check that it was mentioned really.

Child understands everything and points and asks "whats that" all the time., but hardly repeats back despite me trying everything.

I find aswell that any pictures I send home that the child does just get folded up and left in their bag so I'm not sure really how much interaction there is at home.

[green puppy]

You can only do as much as you can when the child is with you and as you are doing that you have no reason to feel useless! The child is still young and it's a good sign that he understands things. Some children store up words and spend a long time taking everything in and getting it straight before they begin to respond. Children have so much to learn that something has to take a back seat at times. My 26 month old mindee has only begun to say more in the last 3 weeks, I haven't been concerned about her lack of speech because I know I am doing all the right things and her overall development is fine. I did give her parents some general leaflets on speech development just so we are all working along the same lines. If the child is making new sounds and trying to repeat things back to you then thats a great start, there are lots of different sounds to learn, carry on as you are and check progress over the month and I'm sure you will notice a difference. Unfortunatly we can't monitor things at home but you can make the most of the time you have with the child like you obviously are.:thumbsup:

[Helcatt]

Its so hard, isn't it. I have a mindee very much like this, but saying even less. No consonants, its all ooo, aaa, i i , ay

And ay could mean anything, face, paint, cake, train and it really is a case of guessing. I am sure he can hear fine because when I guess the wrong work, he frowns. His brother has glue ear so thats interesting about how it muffles the sounds but is hard to detect. All is showing ok in the hearing tests

Anyway, I was answering just to say that I know how you feel. I ahve had this lad since this time last year and really feel like I have made little or no progress with him. He has obviously made progress in other areas and knows his colours ooo for blue, eeee for green, eh for red - he doesn't even attempt yellow!

I am more and more convinced that this lad has some physical issue, as he still dribbles a lot, his tongue sticks out a lot and when I have tried various activities, it appears that his upper lip has very little movement. Will be interesting to see if the speech therapist comes up with the same answers

IF there really are issues though, the parents need to refer asap. It can take a very long time and it can be such a knock to their confidence

I have also noticed the parents jumping in and answering. Or if he makes a squeak, people will interpret for him and I think that while they do this and he doesn't HAVE to try to say it clearly, he wont

I try to do the open ended questions where as mum says "where's ....?" so all he has to do is point rather than try to verbalise an answer

Fingers crossed things improve soon

HX

[loobyloo168]

Ahhhh, thanks for the advice everyone. Feel alot better now xx

[The Juggler]

and it is far more skilled for a child to communicate in other ways than through talking. It shows real people, self-control, and problem solving skills if they can do this without getting frustrated and showing behaviour problems.

I had a child who left me at 2 1/2 who could only use 1 word at a time, with poor pronunciation and very few words but I hardly ever had a problem understanding what he wanted. I occasionally had to guess a word he was saying but he would shake his head and we'd laugh together at my useless efforts to guess, making out it was me that couldn't understand rather than him who wasn't able to tell me.

[green puppy]

On my ecat training, the speech therapist said that referrals should take place if their is concern with the following:

No language at 2-3 years
Unintelligable speech at 3 years
Poor understanding
Continual repeating of phrases which have no meaning at 3 years
Stammering at any age
Persistently hoarse/husky voice after an ent assessment.

Obviously this is just what I was told on my training. Your lo is making sounds and understanding so hopefully will pick up more with your interaction.
By the way we need to learn 20 vowels, 24 consonants, a vocab of 50,000 different words but we will understand 100,000 more and their are around 500 rules of grammer. So alot to learn!