GD is behind in her speech

OP

Please do not catastrophize

She's is 4! Why would it be too late?

Measures have been taken to remediate it

Stop your anxiety cycle and step back.

Good news she has been picked up and will get some help. Try not to worry, it will work out.

Glad to hear about the referral. I don’t think it’s too late but sympathise (unlike others) with your concern that your granddaughter may be embarrassed poor thing. I think speech therapy a little sooner would have been good.

Hithere

Measures will be taken if needed

With the best will in the world, if things are sorted before a child goes to school, then measures can be put in place before they get to the classroom to ensure the best outcomes. Teachers with 30 pupils to sort and SEN's with many kids have to concentrate on those with the "worst" problems as the system is crumbling and funding tight. It is much harder to get a diagnosis for ASD through the school environment as the pathway is slow whereas a child referred through the HV to Child Development Centres often move quicker and definitely concentrate on children heading for school so they are not disadvantaged.

My son had hardly any vocabulary at the age of two. The health worker we saw said to send him to nursery a couple of times a week and he hated it (they made him eat cabbage). When he started school his play group pals used to tell the teacher what he was saying. As he got older people he spoke to sometimes couldn’t quite catch what he was saying and he got into the habit of speaking through me. What I didn’t understand was that, if I spoke to him on the phone his speech sounded perfectly fine. I worried about it for years and the worst part was not having those wonderful conversations with him that you have with little children. I felt as if I’d been robbed in some way and can still remember almost wanting to cry when one of his friends at play group said ‘combine harvester’ and my son could hardly say anything intelligible. He did have speech therapy for a while but I don’t think it’s easy to get that these days. And, of course, a hearing test should be done. I can’t remember when it stopped being a problem but I know I worried terribly about it for years.

My GS turned 4 last June.
He's just started proper school.

I would say he became intelligible only pretty recently to all, was just family before.

My DiL is a speech therapist specialising in children.

She never saw a problem neither did the nursery.

He was a bright kid, gabbled away at everything, keen to learn.

Just give it a bit more time, at 3.5 sounds pretty well within the norm to me.

I too wondered about glue ear, which is very common and my grandson (now 4) had. He too had a large vocabulary and could hear a pin drop in another room.
However if you have spoken to your daughter so I would leave it. Nurseries are usually on the ball with development issues and it will certainly be picked up at school if there is a problem,

Thanks for suggesting glue ear but I don’t that’s an issue as Dgd hasn’t suffered from ear infections and has pin sharp hearing. I have recently read about a disconnect with the brain and making muscle movements within the mouth.

Her male cousin (now aged 11) was also quite inarticulate but in a very different way as he spoke very fast indeed and fell over all his words. He’s improved immensely but even now, he’s not always easy to follow.

Your comments are greatly appreciated.