Thought this might be of interest to some of you who worry about their child's speech. I was at my local playgroup, which is run by Sure Start and a speech and language therapist came. She was just there talking to parents and kids. I had a chat with her and said I've been a little concerned about Imogen's speech and she was lovely and really helpful. She had me explain all the things Immi can say and what it was that was making me worried (Immi was too busy playing to sit and talk to lady herself) and she then went through where she thought Immi was and how I could help her speech improve. Basically she said from some of the things I'd told her Immi might be a little behind or lower range for her age but no real major concern. She said she'd ideally like to see progress happening in the next month or two, but if Immi showed no signs of learning anymore words or progressing in sentences then she'd start to worry. I said the last month Immi has really come on and has been saying a lot more and she said that was really good and I really shouldn't worry if she has showed signs of progression.
So anyway, she said I could contact her anytime through Sure Start, didn't need to see a HV first or anything. They also run speech &language group that I could sign up for. Typical it starts a week after baby due date so can't really commit to it.
Point of the post is just that that short chat really put my mind at ease and gave me lots of encouragement that the things I'm doing with Immi to improve speech are the right things and also gave me some more ideas to encourage her. So if you are concerned I'd really recommend seeing if you can have a chat with your local speech &language worker at Sure Start. It's all free and really helpful.
