Speech update (in case you recall this from awhile back)

17 years ago

Just an update:

Remember back when we were trying to figure out how to approach getting A__ into speech therapy?

Way back last spring we talked to BM who said something along the lines of "You can take him if you want, but I can understand him, so I don't think he needs it"

I wanted to shake her and shout "Yeah, great, you can understand him, bu the rest of the world doesn't have a freaking clue what he's saying!" but we just said "Oh, good. We'll take him then"

So over the summer we had a consult with the public health system (because school was out) to find out what to do with his speech. They suggested working on his /th/ and we made awesome progress! We play speech games at home and we practice sometimes in the car.

He still has a little trouble hearing the difference between final /f/ and /th/, but says it correctly.

He still has a little trouble with the buzzy /th/ in words like "father" or "those" and it comes out as /d/ if he is not paying attention.

We are starting on /r/... Which is going to be very hard for him, as he can only make the /r/ sound about 10% of tries, and has never managed it in a word or in combination with a vowel. But with help from the school speech therapist we know how to practice it now and will be working on it this fall and winter.

He (generally) has a very good attitude about speech practice and looks forward to the games we play with it.

We have recently made a Speech Book where we write a journal entry each time he practices to say what he did and how he felt about it.

Of course we want him to make progress in his speech, but the most important part is that he has a good attitude and that he wants to make progress, so that's where we try to focus.

BM and GM still do nothing with him for speech.

But it's going very well anyways!

Thanks for all your help late last winter when we were starting this ball rolling.

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Comments (7)

justnotmartha
17 years ago
I'm so glad to hear that! I couldn't say my r's when I was just a little younger than A__ and had a name with 3 in it! I went through therapy - they offered it in the schools - and it was the best thing. If I'm tired, or had one mojito too many, I can be known to slip up on them a bit, but otherwise those 6 months or so of help did the trick.

It's wonderful you are spearheading this. I just wish g-ma and mom could see the importance in it and get on the train.
sweeby
17 years ago
That is such great news!
And I'm not at all surprised at your great results -- You two sound like fabulous parents.

Those R's are tough, and I still have trouble with them sometimes, especially when they're near W's. "Welsh Rarebit" is my speech nightmare!
When I was working R's with John, we called them "his growly" sounds, which helped him remember where to put his lips. Seems like a long time ago...
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imamommy
17 years ago
That's great!!!

I went to speech therapy when I was in grade school. It was helpful because I could not make the /sh/ sound. It came out as /th/ and it was humiliating. I just remember feeling like there was something wrong with me because I couldn't even say my own name right. Learning the correct enunciations helped, but my parents let it go (probably thinking I would outgrow it?) that I believe it has a little to do with why I became so shy. I never wanted to talk because I feared people would tease me or laugh at me.

Not sure if it's true, but I was told that the reason I had speech problems is because I burned the inside of my mouth by putting an extension cord in my mouth as a baby & was electrocuted. (my mom swears I died... turned blue & she ran a few blocks to the hospital where I was revived) I was a crawling baby so it was before I talked so I don't know if that is really why I had speech problems.
ceph
Original Author
17 years ago
"I never wanted to talk because I feared people would tease me or laugh at me."

We really got the ball rolling when A__ told me that kids were making fun of him for "talking weird" and that it bugged him sometimes. So we didn't want him to become afraid to speak, and started up then.
FDH and I had talked about it before that, but we weren't sure if A__ was ready for it yet... We were quite sure that we needed for him to WANT to work on it, or it would never be successful. (I think we were right)
sweeby
17 years ago
"We were quite sure that we needed for him to WANT to work on it, or it would never be successful. (I think we were right) "

I'm sure you were right on that --
That's the only reason we discontinued John's speech therapy -- because he just didn't care anymore. He was able to speak perfectly in a therapy setting, but wasn't carrying it over into everyday speech. We worked on generalizing for a long time, before giving up, but figured if he wasn't willing to make the effort to speak well at school, then all the therapy in the world wouldn't make him put forth that effort. We figured teasing from his classmates would do the trick, but darn it! These kids are so nice that hasn't happened! ;-)
ashley1979
17 years ago
I had a hard time with DS with his /L/ sounds. I would say "repeat after me.....yell." and he would say it just fine. Then I would say "repeat after me......mommy don't yell at me" and he would say it just fine. Then I would say "repeat after me.......yell....o" and he would say it just fine and then I would say "repeat after me.....yellow" and every time he would say "lellow". LOL! This was the case for like 4 years. He would also say "yight" instead of "light". I guess he just got his /y/ and his /l/ sounds mixed up. But it finally came along. Now all I have to contend with his his Northern Louisiana accent he got from his dad. All words ending in /th/ get a /f/ sound. For instance, "with" becomes "wif". Not sure how to contend with that, but I son't think it's necessarily a speech issue as it is a proper pronunciation issue.

Good job, Ceph! You're gonna make a great SM!
finedreams
17 years ago
sounds like a progress!

DD used to say "s" instead of "sh" and then "z" instead of "zh" and "s" instead of "ch". It sounded actually very funny the way she talked. But when i took her to speech therapist i was told she should overgrow it and I was told to wait and not bother wiht that. she overgrew it and never had problems with that.

Speech update (in case you recall this from awhile back)

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justnotmartha

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Speech update (in case you recall this from awhile back)

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justnotmartha

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imamommy

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