What age for speech therapy?

[Anonymous]

My 5 year old can't say the "r" or "th" sounds correctly...preschool teachers have not mentioned Anthony's. Is it time for speech therapy?

[Anonymous]

Absolutely

[Anonymous]

No. Those are normal sounds not to develop until 5 or 6.

http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/wp-content/downloads/forms/sound_development_chart.pdf

Most of the boys (and some girls) in our class of all recent 5s has some obvious deficiencies in their speech still. Like some blurry or lispy sounds. We did therapy for our son ages 3-4 because of some serious articulation deficiencies (due to deafness from ear fluid). We stopped the therapy when our therapist left the DC area, and when we asked her if we needed to find another therapist, she advised that the main problems had resolved, and that since then they had been working on various sound combos and tongue placement. And that while she wants to make sure he gets all those sounds, and lots of kids at his age have them, 5-6 was a normal age to self-correct. she told us to wait a year or so and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

Just because issues are age appropriate doesn't mean you don't work on them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just because issues are age appropriate doesn't mean you don't work on them.

If there's nothing else going on, there are no 'issues'. Articulation issues at this age ARE appropriate. If, however, OP has other concerns, an evaluation would be warranted.

[Anonymous]

I will say the l sound self corrected a few months ago...
I have been trying to teach him the r sound but to no avail.

Thanks for the chart. I think I'll give it until the summer bc he just turned 5.

[Anonymous]

Preschool teachers often have no training or educational/special needs background. People often rely on them for advice but they may not have the experience.

Do get a speech evaluation. More than likely your child may only need a few months to correct it. The longer you wait the harder it is to correct and it can impact him in school. Many people dismiss it and say wait, but waiting is the worst thing you can do. My child has been in speech for years and gets penalized for articulation issues when it comes to reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Preschool teachers often have no training or educational/special needs background. People often rely on them for advice but they may not have the experience.

Do get a speech evaluation. More than likely your child may only need a few months to correct it. The longer you wait the harder it is to correct and it can impact him in school. Many people dismiss it and say wait, but waiting is the worst thing you can do. My child has been in speech for years and gets penalized for articulation issues when it comes to reading.

9:19 here. My youngest has apraxia of speech and is currently on his 9th year of therapy. He is still unable to consistently articulate certain words/combinations, especially in spontaneous speech. He is not penalized for this because he has a documented disability. If your DS does not have any underlying issues, he should be penalized for articulation issues as this is a habit he needs to unlearn and not the result of an underlying issue. It's not any different than vocal fry or ending every sentence with the inflection of a question. If your DS has underlying issues, get an IEP and he won't be penalized.

My two older kids also had ST for various issues, one for articulation issues when she was in 4th grade. After a few ST sessions, my DD was able to articulate her challenge words correctly in structured environments but it took longer for her to do so in spontaneous settings because of habitualization and she wasn't mindful. As people commented on her articulation, she became more mindful and replaced incorrect articulation with correct. I understand it is hard to unlearn a habit but if the skill is not developmentally appropriate for the age, there is no value in starting therapy early. It's like trying to make your kid learn to read or to walk earlier than they are ready. Even with my kid with apraxia, we did not work on his ability to say 'th' until he was in 3rd grade because it just wasn't developmentally appropriate - and 'th' is in his name! He pronounced it as an 'f'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Preschool teachers often have no training or educational/special needs background. People often rely on them for advice but they may not have the experience.

Do get a speech evaluation. More than likely your child may only need a few months to correct it. The longer you wait the harder it is to correct and it can impact him in school. Many people dismiss it and say wait, but waiting is the worst thing you can do. My child has been in speech for years and gets penalized for articulation issues when it comes to reading.

9:19 here. My youngest has apraxia of speech and is currently on his 9th year of therapy. He is still unable to consistently articulate certain words/combinations, especially in spontaneous speech. He is not penalized for this because he has a documented disability. If your DS does not have any underlying issues, he should be penalized for articulation issues as this is a habit he needs to unlearn and not the result of an underlying issue. It's not any different than vocal fry or ending every sentence with the inflection of a question. If your DS has underlying issues, get an IEP and he won't be penalized.

My two older kids also had ST for various issues, one for articulation issues when she was in 4th grade. After a few ST sessions, my DD was able to articulate her challenge words correctly in structured environments but it took longer for her to do so in spontaneous settings because of habitualization and she wasn't mindful. As people commented on her articulation, she became more mindful and replaced incorrect articulation with correct. I understand it is hard to unlearn a habit but if the skill is not developmentally appropriate for the age, there is no value in starting therapy early. It's like trying to make your kid learn to read or to walk earlier than they are ready. Even with my kid with apraxia, we did not work on his ability to say 'th' until he was in 3rd grade because it just wasn't developmentally appropriate - and 'th' is in his name! He pronounced it as an 'f'.

My child does have an IEP and is in both private and school speech therapy. He's been in speech for many years. Yes, he is penalized and he is placed in much lower reading group as the teacher reports he is not pronouncing the words properly. IEP's are only worthwhile if the teacher and SLP will follow them. Ours will not.

Regardless, its far easier to correct minor articulation issues if you do it sooner than later. Most school SLP's do not help with articulation issues if it is the only language concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Preschool teachers often have no training or educational/special needs background. People often rely on them for advice but they may not have the experience.

Do get a speech evaluation. More than likely your child may only need a few months to correct it. The longer you wait the harder it is to correct and it can impact him in school. Many people dismiss it and say wait, but waiting is the worst thing you can do. My child has been in speech for years and gets penalized for articulation issues when it comes to reading.

NP here. I agree with this post.

In preschool, DD had one problem: Pronouncing "th" as if it were "v" -- father came out favver, and so on. It's not uncommon but it's also not good to leave it alone. Our preschool had a speech therapist who came in weekly and worked with all the kids on sounding out letters and words (yeah, it was a great preschool and had a lot of extras like this). She contacted us about the "th" problem but was very careful to note that she could provide a list of possible speech therapists and was not trying to get the job. Long story short, we did use her; she told it us it likely would take about four months, maybe a bit more, to work through the problem, and that's just what happened. After four months DD was done and no longer mispronounced "th." We worked a lot with DD at home, too. It was key that the therapist was great with preschool-aged kids and made the therapy sessions a ton of fun.

I agree that the longer you wait, the harder it may be to correct problems. I've heard parents do the "They grow out of it, right?" thing and their kids are now young teens and I'm hearing speech issues that no one ever got around to dealing with. I work with middle and high school aged kids a lot, and am sometimes so sorry that parents didn't get some kids speech therapy long ago.... Get your child evaluated and if need be, get your child speech therapy.

[Anonymous]

My child does have an IEP and is in both private and school speech therapy. He's been in speech for many years. Yes, he is penalized and he is placed in much lower reading group as the teacher reports he is not pronouncing the words properly. IEP's are only worthwhile if the teacher and SLP will follow them. Ours will not.

I can't understand why you haven't you called a meeting with the principal and his case manager. Sounds like you've just given up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My child does have an IEP and is in both private and school speech therapy. He's been in speech for many years. Yes, he is penalized and he is placed in much lower reading group as the teacher reports he is not pronouncing the words properly. IEP's are only worthwhile if the teacher and SLP will follow them. Ours will not.

I can't understand why you haven't you called a meeting with the principal and his case manager. Sounds like you've just given up.

They all know. There is no case manager as far as I am aware. Yes, I have given up. I have spoken to the teacher and SLP and principal multiple times and they just dismiss it saying he is dong well. Thankfully we have private speech therapy that is far more helpful.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like it's probably developmentally appropriate, but if you're concerned it's always good to ask to speak to the speech path. Even if they don't think it warrants a full evaluation, they might give you some ideas for how to work with DC.

[Anonymous]

Sounds developmentally appropriate, but if worried get an independent evaluation (vs going through school). We worked with a private speech clinic for one year+ and my son had a great experience. As follow-up care, they recommended we use the Articulation as a fun "game" from time to time - especially if we noticed certain sounds slipping; his SLP taught me methods for using the app and for addressing things in everyday conversation without policing the situation or making my son feel embarrassed.

If it is difficult for you or others to understand your child, start early. I don't regret a penny of what we spent.

[Anonymous]

Pp here -- Articulation is an iPad / iPhone app.