Anonymous wrote:My son just turned 4 and is in preschool (3 hours/day). We speak several languages at home. My son understand all 3 languages, but always responds in English and sometimes uses a word or two in our other languages (I believe he does not do this at school).
He seems to have some articulation issues and the teachers think we may want to do an evaluation. They mentioned tht at 4 100% of what he says should be easily understandable and with my son is closer to 70%. He has trouble with a couple of letters sounds.
He speaks in full sentences and a lot so we are only worried about articulation.

Will he pick up those missing sounds on his own or does he need therapist to teach him?
TIA

Why wouldn't you go? If the therapists don't think he needs services, they'll say so! And if he does need them, and you don't bother getting him evaluated, he'll have issues. Please just get him evaluated. I don't understand this attitude, frankly.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you! I contacted a SLP and the wait time is 6 months to 1 year. I will look into other places. please let me know if you have any suggestions.

My son has trouble sounding out the “s”, but also some words are not pronounced correctly even though he can make all the sounds (“grul” instead of “girl” and “aminal” instead of “animal”… these are the two words I can think of but there might be a few more).

The public school will do the evaluation for free, and in a faster timeline. What jurisdiction are you in?

OP, we had this issue with our 4 year old and I just worked with him myself. He would have trouble pronouncing "v" sounds and "r" and also mix sounds together with certain words, like your animal example. Each night after books and when I am tucking him in, I made it into a game of him repeating after me. We would work on same words over and over. "can you say...va nil la?" "can you say red? write? con struc tion site"? Things like that over and over and he would get better with time. Make it light, make it fun, just find a way to keep breaking apart those words and practicing each syllable. Sometimes he would bring up words he thinks are hard to pronounce and ask me "mommy can you say ..." and then we would practice that word together. That simply nightly game made a huge difference for my son. You can still get him evaluated but I am one of those people who think we turn to others too quickly when we can just set up and do it ourselves and develop a stronger parent-child relationship at the same time. Good luck!

Just to note- my five year old does speech at his school and he loves it. He gets prizes for his work, plays games, and has fun, and I’ve noticed a big improvement. I’m saying this so you know kids actually enjoy speech - not dread it!

Anonymous wrote:I did take my kid for a speech eval after the preschool teachers suggested it. They know what they are talking about and earlier is better. You only risk having the evaluator disagree and say no speech services needed at this time.

This. 4 is the optimal time for screening, and addressing issues if needed.

Anonymous wrote:Get evaluated now and get speech therapy. It will resolve much faster with help.

This is the kind of thing that is easier and faster to fix now (i.e., before starting K) than it is later on after habits are ingrained. As a bonus, because it can be fixed more quickly now less driving DC to speech terapist and also lower cost. Insurance will usually cover the cost, btw.

It is important as it affects early reading too - when they learn phonics and are trying to translate sounds to letters.

Absolutely get evaluated. I spoke 3 languages and had speech therapy (for a lisp) that was not related to the language. Same for my son, who speaks 2 languages and had not only a lisp but also r/l issues. Neither was strong but since I knew what to look for we had him in speech therapy before teachers even suggested it--and I remember how carefully and almost timidly they broached the subject, a lot of parents must fly off the handle at the suggestion. He was already in therapy by the time they mentioned it. Took about a year or maybe a bit longer--hard to remember, he graduates from college next week.

I'm often shocked at the parents/kids who have a clear lisp that was never treated, because it's cute when they're little and often because parents think the kids will outgrow it. They don't.

I think you are making the right choice. We got advice that it's a lot easier/more convenient to pull them out of preschool for speech therapy as opposed to early elem school. It will also keep them from potentially being made fun of when they are 6-7 and still having issues. There is nothing wrong with speech therapy - lots of kids do it! You'll be happy you did.

Why not get evaluated?