- expressive language

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

It's been a while since I posted about but I have some questions for

you all.

is now 3 and a half....I feel like most of last year he spent working

on his mobility skills, and it was around his 3rd birthday that he started

walking everywhere completely independently and made huge progress with his

physical skills like climbing, balance etc. Since then our attention has

begun to focus on his speech (or lack of it!).

Up til age 3 most of the speech therapy input and early years teachers who

visit us said that due to his global development delays they were not

surprised that his vocab was still very limited. I looked back in the

archives and saw that I posted questions about his lack of talking to the

listserv just before he was 3 and I was re-assured by lots of your replies

that it would take time and that we should use Makaton singing in the

meantime. We have recently been doing this and has 30 - 40 or so signs

and has started to link 2 signs together. He picks up signs quickly. He has

about 30-40 words as well but again uses them sparingly and many of

them sound nothing like the word he is trying to say. He will also sing

along to a little nursery rhyme but " Horse-y Horse-y don't you stop " sounds

like " He ha, He Ha, ah ee dop " as so many constanant sounds are missing.

My worry at the moment is that his can't pronounce any of the S, Shh, Z, T,

J, G sounds - anything which requires more pressure in the mouth. We have

been referred for investigation into submouccous cleft palate...some words

are improving in clarity, a few months ago " No " sounded like Maa now it is

Nooooooo! And he can do a great " open " " oooooPen! " But many other words are

completely off, and for S sounds he just blows down his nose and can't seem

to produce that sound at all.

Does this sound familiar to anyone...do you have any advice??

is (In the UK, Mum to aged 3.5)