It sounds like his speech deteriorating is due to some change in the control of his muscles of speech and/ or muscles of posture. Has he changed seating recently, if he is in a wheelchair? Is he tired due to some new demands in his life?. Is he stressed?. Is he holding himself differently?. Could be so many things. If it's a good SALT they will hopefully look at your son as a whole. It's apparently only very recently that speech and language therapy is taking posture into consideration in speech disorders, which seems crazy, but there you have it. 'Holism' used to be a swear word amongst orthodox practitioners. Now they are finally looking at the 'evidence' that a person's head is attached to their body ;-).

thanks mafala
yes he has had a lot of stress and change in his life just lately. His bungalow in a purpose built development has been broken into three times since Christmas. He has since moved house and a long term carer has had to be dispensed with for stepping over boundaries. He hasn't seen a speech and language therapist since he was twelve although his case manager says she will arrange for an assessment. However as usual it will be us who actually do the spade work. He has started seeing a physio and his face was one big beam when he was asked how his first session went as she is young, blond, pretty and bubbly so I gues he is going to work hard at his exercises.
rosie1

My 23 year old son who has Athetosis with ataxic overtones is having problems with his speech. He was about six before he could speak reasonably distinctly, thanks to intensive speech therapy but now his speech is deteriorating. I thought it was my deteriorating hearing which was causing me to struggle to understand him, especially on the phone but his team of carers have brought the problem up at a recent staff meeting with his case manager. Has anyone had any experience in this field. His case manager says she will bring in a speech and language therapist,(if she remembers). Incidentaly she hasn't bothered to ask my opinion.

Sounds like he is knackered from all that. It's not surprising his speech is affected.

I know what you mean about the spade work. My son is only 5 but I'm prepared to be doing the spade work a long time into the future. Sometimes it does worry me what will happen when we're not around. He is our only child.

Good luck with the new physio, there is nothing like a bit of motivation to do exercises!.