Wow, your stepson speaks exactly the way I did when I was in kindergarten. My mom wanted to take me to speech therapy, my father thought that would make me feel self conscious. Luckily, my mother won, so I got to go to speech therapy every Saturday for -- I don't know how long, definitely less than a school year. Therapy was very easy, I really enjoyed it, made me feel special. Btw, I had no idea I had a problem, so no way I would have been able to "outgrow" this challenge, which definitely would have been a significant hindrance. I was Elmer Fudd! These days, every time I self correct, I bless my mother. Your stepson is lucky to have such a keen stepmom; bravo.

Why can't dad take him? Even if you only have him every other weekend, find someone who works on Saturday or even just for long breaks, find someone who can see him daily for a few days in a row.

Anonymous wrote:DH just asked him if his mom had taken him. He said he got it in school. Then he paused and said sadly, "I'm still self-conscious about it". Hopefully DH will re-engage.

Poor guy.

Please try to get him some more professional help. My DS had a lisp and /r/ issues which I noticed when he was K/1st grade. (I used to lisp as a child, too). He went to speech therapy in English, and it corrected the issue in 2 languages (bilingual family). Even at that age it took almost 2 yrs of weekly sessions.

Maybe show your DH this thread, many people have been down this road with their kids, or themselves.

My DS had "R" issues that he dealt with through speech therapy in his FCPS school starting at around age 8 or 9. He kept working on it with the school speech therapist through 5th or early 6th grade, I think. At 14, he has no detectable issues and I never spent a dime.

My child has been in speech therapy and our insurance does not cover it. It has been a large expense for our family. However, we did not want our child to grow up with major speech deficiencies that would hold them back later in life. I would take your child for a second opinion. Laura Rubinoff & Associates in Bethesda is great.

Every patient is different,so you will need to see what the underlying issue is for your child. Ours required much work with orofacial myofunctional therapy BEFORE any work could be done with articulation. Most likely at 10 it will need to be more than just a few months of articulation.

Good luck.

Take him to a speech therapist for an evaluation!

We had a great experience through Children's in DC. Went to the location at 1630 Columbia NW.
http://childrensnational.org/choose-childrens/locations-and-directions/outpatient-centers/scottish-rite

Thorough evaluation including hearing test, covered by insurance. Funding from Scottish Rite covers many of the copays, too.

I'm sorry to hear he is going through this, but there is hope. You will be doing him a huge favor to address this now.

DH just asked him if his mom had taken him. He said he got it in school. Then he paused and said sadly, "I'm still self-conscious about it". Hopefully DH will re-engage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, my ten year old stepson cannot say the "r" sound. It was cute when he was little. As he got older, I flagged it for DH. I don't know if he thought his ex was going to do something about it or what. Anyway, it seems really late to do something about it now, but I'm willing to nudge DH again if there is a possibility speech therapy can help him. Anyone have any experience with a tween who can't pronounce R's? Any chance he will outgrow it? (I think DH and exW think he will outgrow it and that is why they haven't done anything about it).

This should have been caught years ago. It is one the last sounds that kids learn so in K and sometimes in first speech therapists will overlook it. However he should definitely be receiving services at age 10. Even if the parents weren't concerned his teachers should have been.

Speech therapists are not monitoring all kids in the school, they only work with who has an IEP. And if the /r/ sound doesn't affect spelling the teachers wouldn't be referring him. Services in an educational model are for kids who can't access the curriculum and this child does not seem to be having an academic issue due to speech. Which means the responsibility falls to the parent.

No one suggested that the ST monitors all kids. If the teacher flags an issue they parents could have looked into getting an IEP early on. I have the feeling mom just dropped the ball. Perhaps it was around the time of the divorce - we really don't know the whole story here. In any event the kid needs to have support to overcome his issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, my ten year old stepson cannot say the "r" sound. It was cute when he was little. As he got older, I flagged it for DH. I don't know if he thought his ex was going to do something about it or what. Anyway, it seems really late to do something about it now, but I'm willing to nudge DH again if there is a possibility speech therapy can help him. Anyone have any experience with a tween who can't pronounce R's? Any chance he will outgrow it? (I think DH and exW think he will outgrow it and that is why they haven't done anything about it).

This should have been caught years ago. It is one the last sounds that kids learn so in K and sometimes in first speech therapists will overlook it. However he should definitely be receiving services at age 10. Even if the parents weren't concerned his teachers should have been.

Speech therapists are not monitoring all kids in the school, they only work with who has an IEP. And if the /r/ sound doesn't affect spelling the teachers wouldn't be referring him. Services in an educational model are for kids who can't access the curriculum and this child does not seem to be having an academic issue due to speech. Which means the responsibility falls to the parent.

Anonymous wrote:or = or (no problem)
alright = awwight
more = moie (I don't know how to spell how it sounds)
ender chest = enda chest (we're playing mine craft lol)
Dragon= dragon (no problem)
World=wuld

DH says he asked exW about it maybe last year and she took him to a therapist who said he'd grow out of it.

He will not grow out it at 10. Can hubby take him to be evaluated?

Anonymous wrote:Speech therapy is expensive, and R is very difficult.

Unless it is impacting his spelling (documented by teacher), or causing emotional/social distress, it will be very hard to get them to address it at school.

You could try recording him saying words with R and then your DH and you saying them so he can hear the difference.

If he is in public they will provide the service. And he should be getting services. It is cute when the kids are little but at 10 it will impact him down the road.