All About Delayed Speech
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Dear Eason
You can do an initial self check whether yr child has ASD by going thru the checklist I gave earlier. As for speech therapy, it costs 135 and up, depending on the seniority and experience of the speech therapist. As for frequency, it really depends on how severe the Child’s issue is, how fast parents want to see results and of course parents’ budget. In general, more severe case eg with drooling and refusal to eat solid food will need more frequent therapy. Indeed, speech therapy is very draining on the family’s finances and can cause a lot of conflict betw the parents, esp if they disagree on the frequency of therapy. But bear in mind that the earlier u provide intervention to the child, the easier it is for the child to overcome his or her difficulties. All the best! -
my heart cries out to those poor families who earn only around $2k, with kids suffering like this … got to feed family, etc. where got $ to send child for expensive speech therapy treatment costing > $100 per hour ? not forgetting that this is for life.
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EASON MAGPIES:
Just read an article by in the Sunday Times by a columnist Gerard Wong about his daughter who had mild ASD. She cannot speak even at 18 months and then was diagnose with ASD at age 2. My DD is now 20 months and also still cannot utter a single word. Now I am getting a bit worried.
Will probably bring her to the polyclinic very soon.
Can we diagnose this by going to KK ?
I heard Speech Therapist are every expensive and doing it 3 times a week will probably be hard on finances!
Hi eason magpies,
To reduce your anxiety, just bring your child to see the speech therapist asap. If at the end of the day it is a false alarm, then be it. At least an early intervention on your part not only ease any doubts or if you really needs such help. To reduce the cost, just go to polyclinic to get a referer letter to KK. But do take note that the slot to speech therapist is very long. It was mentioned that SGP is lacking speech therapist for the masses. So don't wait anymore, just go with your guts feeling. To me no point waiting for baseline of 3yrs or whatever especially the queue is so long.
I have a cousin that used to complain to me that she needed to wait at least 6 mths for the appointment.....that was last year. After many sleepless nights and crying silently, in the end she went to the private clinic which is even more expensive.
Take it easy and just work fast. :snuggles: -
I agree that poor families' kids are at significant disadvantage compared to rich kids. Poor families have to rely on subsidized intervention provided by KKH. But this intervention sucks, because there is LONG waiting time. At best they give u package of 6 lessons, after that u hv to go back to polyclinic get another referral and wait again for a few months for your slot to start.
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fyi - sharing …
actually, my friend’s friend had 2 kids.
elder boy #1 is autistic. At the age of 4 - once diagnosed autistic, she quickly gave birth to 2nd one, so that next time the younger boy can take care of the older brother, if she or her husband die one day. It was very traumatic news accepting the fact that the elder was born autistic. She cried buckets of tears over the acceptance of the fate of the poor kid.
luckily 2nd boy was born normal, just a little slow. But Thank God 2nd son was still ok.
in the end - to help the elder boy at home, she paid $150 for a professional to train her speech therapy at home. This way, she learnt and acquired the therapy skill, so that in turn she becomes a trained speech therapist at home and train her son daily in therapy treatment , bypassing all the horrible long, long waiting queue at KK hospital, bypassing all the expensive charges rates at private hospital for speech therapy.
it’s the same concept like going for Montessori lessons. Nowadays many parents go for Montessori lessons, so that they in turn can teach their own kids Montessori curriculum at home. Don’t forget - when Dr. Maria Montessori design the Montessori curriculum, it was for the sake of these kids facing learning difficulty. She was a great noble woman.
likewise, there is also such thing as go for training in speech therapy … so that can help poor child at home. Singapore is definitely in lack of speech therapy at subsidized rates. > $100 is so expensive… i mean 1 hour passes so quickly. -
Agree tt it is impt for parents to be involved in the therapy lesson. Afterall parents or caregivers are the ones who will spend the most time with the child, not the therapist. It is really not very practical to take the kid to therapy more than once or twice a week, due to time and budget constraint. Substantial portion of our pay went to these therapy lessons when my girl was attending therapy. Money disputes were frequent. It was a stressful period indeed. You can imagine my relief when the therapist said my girl can be discharged.
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Of course when a parent send the child to speech therapist, one should not rely everything on the speech therapist himself/herself. It wouldn’t be fair to say that the improvement process is slow if everything rely on therapy alone. In all intervention, parents must also do their part wholeheartedly and daily. Not to forget that the child spend more time with the parents as compared to hourly per week therapy session. It is the same concept with tuition as well. JMHO
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hi shirley
why dont u bring ur child to a speech therapist to assess whether therapy is needed? my boy cant pronounce a lot of sounds well when he was 2+. he went Leapfrog at bt timah to see michelle. had 9 mths of therapy and improved immensely. i dont think speech n drama or enrichment class will help if its a sensory issue or articulation issue that directly affect the pronunciation of sounds. my boy at 2 cant pronounce s, j, k, h, etc. eg he said ‘old and’ instead of hold hands -
my 27mth old son(2yrs+) still doesnt call mama papa. he will call out to his younger sister. he calls her "meimei meimei" but doesnt call us or even ah gong ah ma at all. he can say A to J, say numbers also not clear, sometimes when he talks, he speaks in a language which we dun understand, my mil said is babytalk but 2yrs+ still babytalk?
we know that our son can talk but he doesnt want to open his mouth. the worst is he always cry for no reason! he can all the sudden scream & cry, and when he cries he will immediately lay down flat on the floor on his tummy, kick his legs & scream nonstop & this can go on for half hr to 1hr,nothing we do can calm him down, he refused to let us go near him, he will attempt to kick us when we touch him. my mil said very tired to look after my son.
my son is now attending childcare but he does not response when we call his name, even the principal & his teachers too. his teacher even asked me why does my son cries for no reason, even lay on the floor to cry. i told her his behaviour is like this.
my inlaws brought him to temple, to pray, see medium, scared got ‘dirty things’ disturb, fortunately they said nothing disturb him, this is his behaviour.
now when he starts crying for no reason again, we always tell him "u tell us what u want, if u dun say how do we know?" no use at all, he juz gives us his usual kicks & scream & cries until almost no voice. once he cry until he fell asleep. my hubby always say he knows how to talk juz tat he refuse to open his mouth, like to vent anger by screaming & crying.
he doesnt ask us for food/drink, its only when he sees us eating he will come over & look at us(like begging) to give him food. most of the time we call him to eat, he doesnt respond, we call him he also dun respond. after reading some threads here, i wonder does my son has hearing problem? juz few months ago, my hubby dig out a rather big-sized ear sh** almost the size of a pea with dry blood & its abit moist too. it took us abt 1hr to dig out cos my son scream & struggle nonstop. last week my hubby juz dug out 2 quite big size ear **** from my daughter’s ear too. we were worried duno will this affect their hearing especially my son.
we are thinking of bringing him to KKH for review? or where else can i bring my son for to see if he has speech delay or development delays etc? -
mummyJune:
If cost is your concern and you are a SG citizen and you wish to seek subsidised rate, bring your kid to Polyclinic for a 2yo developmental review. then ask for referral to speech/behavioural therapist. with referral letter, therapy is 50% subsidized. but the waiting time for appointment can be quite long (around 3-6mths). then can also ask if they can refer you to do a ear test for your kid.
we are thinking of bringing him to KKH for review? or where else can i bring my son for to see if he has speech delay or development delays etc?
my boy only talk 'properly' after 3.5yo. prior to that, only me and his elder brother knew what he was talking about as we spent a lot time with him (i am a SAHM). he started speech therapy (govt clinic) a few months before he turns 3.5yo. after diagnosis, we were only given a few sessions (6 i think) after the therapist taught us some tips because their priority are for more severe cases.
all the best.
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