All About Delayed Speech

[leo]

mummyJune:

Audvis:

The polyclinic will refer u to see the KKH/ NUH medical doctor first. From there the dr will refer u to CDU doctor who sees kids with developmental problems. Be prepared to wait though. That time, I waited 2 months. Can't remember exactly the subsidy, I think it is 50%.

for polyclinic, do i make appointment through phone or do i walk-in?

mummyJune, I did walk in last time (many years ago) for the polyclinic. But understand that some polyclinics implemented appointment this year, so not sure about that. You might want to call / email their customer service to ask.

During registration, they will usually ask you the reason for your visit. You let them know and they will assign which doctor(s)/department to go to.

[mashy]

I just went for the speech therapy today. After subsidy is $42. Before is $84.

[phtthp]

wow! with the referal letter from polyclinic can save so much, it helps to save twice the amount $.


Thank you so much mashy, for sharing kind, generous info with us. My friend told me that outside private practice consultation is very costly. She brought her son before for consultation. I’ll let her know. Thank you once again, kind mashy.

[EASON MAGPIES]

Just some sharing and also latest update for those who know my DD story.


She is now 22 months, just started walking. Still cannot say papa and mama, just baby noises. Opinions from friends and family members are divided. Some say its ok to wait as some children developed slower.

Me and DW still decided to take action and visited polyclinic. With referral letter, we went to KK. Doctor and nurses are very nice. Maybe its the children section, they all seems nice than other govt medical staff I met in other hospitals.

The staff asked us a series of questions think more than 50. My dd can only do less than 10. My DD eyes also have slight problem as the pupils seems not very focus.

So there is a list of appts to see eye, ear and even neuro doctors plus occupational therapy. We are also advised to enroll into an EPIC program that supposed to help.

All seems so overwhelming and we wonder if the medical staff are over reacting. Still there was a sharing session with other parents of older children and some of them have kids 4 years old still having speech problem. All have one thing in common, they did not see anyone when their kids were younger and all wished they did.

So I guess we did the right thing in getting her help early. I still pray and hoped she will developed normally and perhaps all these test and appts will produced negative results. Still as parents guess we just do what we can for our kids.

Another good thing is we started learning more about how to communicate and train our DD. Never imagined it is so "nurtured" and requires so much work. Now we tried so hard to talk to our DD, end up quite tiring. Guess we also learn to appreciate our own parents more.

[xueyan]

Hi


Since I started this post in mid July, I would like to share with mommies here the progress of my child:

We brought Ds for the hearing test. Passed.
We (hubby and I) attended the workshop in Ministry of Health (recommended by KK) that teach parents some strategies to help kids that have speech problem.
That was in early September.

This is what i do when I talk to him
- Stood down to his level
- Look at his eyes
- Tell him slowly
- Tell him to repeat the simple sentence that I want him to learn e.g. Can you help me fix it
- Repeat the same sentence many times until he remember

Ds is now able to say more things. I am actually "forcing" him to speak before I give him anything that he wants. He is now able to say things like :
- Put there
- I want (chocolate, sweet, raisin, ice-cream…)
- Change channel (when he wants us to change to Disney Junior channel)
- Daddy funny
- Train coming
- Daddy go work


All in all, I am feeling more positive about it. I must say I really try very hard to help him. I now read books to him, watch TV with him and relate the characters in the programme, expand his vocab by introducing single words to him.
I think the speech and drama course that I signed him at Julia Gabriel helps a lot too.
He also managed to learn the letter sounds from A-Z by watching Leapfrog video. Recently he is able to count from 1-10.
Moreover, we managed to toilet train him.

All in all, I am happy that these few months he showed a lot of improvement. I am thinking of starting the Peter and Janes series very soon.

The speech therapist session is scheduled in end Dec and I am looking forward to discuss the issue further with the therapist.

[EASON MAGPIES]

Hi shirley


very glad to hear about your improvement with your DS. I am going to take your advice to stood down to her level and look at her eyes. Me and DW did try to talk to my DD more now but she sometimes ignores us. Think we will try what you have posted here.

I am also attending a talk too organised by child development unit of KK for us. We already attend the EIPIC talk and now considering which center to send my DD. Have your son attended any?

We stayed in the west area so now I am considering whether to send her to 1) Rainbow center at Margaret Drive(waiting time 1 year) SPD near Tiong bahru (new center so waiting time only 3 months but very inconvenient by public transport) or 3) Fei yue at Jurong East. We also have no idea which center is actually better. May have to pay them a visit soon to find out.

KK had also arrange for neuro, eye, ear tests and also occupational therapy all the appts in Nov. Now we pray and hope everything is alright.

[leo]

EASON MAGPIES:

Hi shirley


very glad to hear about your improvement with your DS. I am going to take your advice to stood down to her level and look at her eyes. Me and DW did try to talk to my DD more now but she sometimes ignores us. Think we will try what you have posted here.

Eason magpies, if the TV is on, off it. Alot of singapore families like to have the TV in the background. Kids get distracted very easily even if they are in teh other room (my DD, eg, will run out when she heard the jingle of her favorite advertisements, or her eyes will dart to the screen and she will forget about me (when I am trying to talk to her) when the sound sounds interesting.

[EASON MAGPIES]

Hi I know private speech Therapists are expensive, can anybody tell me what are their rates and any recommendations to a good therapist?

[schweppes]

Maybe u can peruse this thread for a better idea


http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17634

Here are 2 which u can consider:

Bridges in Communication - can look for Mary Yong or Catherine Pownall
Tel: 6463 4843
Email: [email protected]

Leapfrog
http://leap-frogs.com/

Not sure what are the current rates now, think they can range about $80 - $120 per session. Some might go even higher. Maybe some of the other forummers can advice current rates.

Waiting time is l-o-n-g. Best is to put your child on the waiting list. Time flies, and before u know it, it will be your dd's turn.

In the meantime, if u can continue to talk, read and interact with your child. Go to the library or Kinokuniya to get books on helping kids with speech and language difficulties. A faster option is to go to Amazon.com and search books on speech and language difficulties to see what are recommended. And then, either get the books online or go to Kino or NLB to see if they carry those books.

All the best.

[piyobaby]

I was recommended a speech therapy by PD located in turf city (can’t recall the name), called and enquire, was advised that the rate per hour is $185 and subsequent follow up sessions can be once weekly or biweekly thus the bill could come up to ard $1k per mth possibly.