Quick question for the SLPs here

[MSWR0319]

At what age do I need to be concerned that DS is still saying "aminal" and "hosbital"? He also says "megative". I know there are other words he struggles with and they are all at least two syllables.

He was in speech for some time and then got released because he passed all of the tests even though there were issues and out therapist was leaving, resulting in the need to get rid of patients who "didn't really NEED therapy." She gave me her email to get ahold of her if I had questions down the road, and of course I have misplaced it to see if we need to get evaluated again. She did tell me she thought based on issues he had that we'd be back for articulation issues at some point. I just don't know when I need to take him in vs what's still normal.

[niccig]

There’s a few words EVERYONE gets wrong for some time because other sounds in that word affect the sounds. At my school, it’s animal, yellow, hand sanitizer, pretzel, ghost, and a few others I’m blanking on. I spent time today trying to teach 5th graders to NOT say “hanitizer” for hand sanitizer. They were surprised it was 2 words! None of them have articulation issues. Some incorrect pronunciations stick longer.

I look at individual sounds, what sounds they’re expected to say, are there any patterns eg do they always put /m/ instead of /n/ or is just in 1-2 words, overall intelligibility.

For my school, which is 95% English language learners, familiar words may be 100% accurate but an unfamiliar word that’s no more complex for sound production is incorrect as they’ve never heard the word before. It’s like me trying to say Spanish words as the language is new to me. Multisyllablic words are more difficult, but they can say dinosaur perfectly as it’s favorite toy, so say it often, therefore more practice with saying that word.

So there’s a lot to consider. Ask for an evaluation if you’re concerned. Meanwhile model the correct production with emphasis on correct sounds. I also slow it down, syllable by syllable and tap table for each syllable so they can hear the sounds.


ETA. You’ve asked before about your son and speech sounds. If he’s over 3, request an evaluation through school district. Even if he doesn’t qualify, you’ll get some information about his sound production. If a child doesn’t qualify as sound errors are age appropriate, I tell parent when to bring them back or if they’re at my school, I put on a list to check back on when older.



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[MSWR0319]

There’s a few words EVERYONE gets wrong for some time because other sounds in that word affect the sounds. At my school, it’s animal, yellow, hand sanitizer, pretzel, ghost, and a few others I’m blanking on. I spent time today trying to teach 5th graders to NOT say “hanitizer” for hand sanitizer. They were surprised it was 2 words! None of them have articulation issues. Some incorrect pronunciations stick longer.

I look at individual sounds, what sounds they’re expected to say, are there any patterns eg do they always put /m/ instead of /n/ or is just in 1-2 words, overall intelligibility.

For my school, which is 95% English language learners, familiar words may be 100% accurate but an unfamiliar word that’s no more complex for sound production is incorrect as they’ve never heard the word before. It’s like me trying to say Spanish words as the language is new to me. Multisyllablic words are more difficult, but they can say dinosaur perfectly as it’s favorite toy, so say it often, therefore more practice with saying that word.

So there’s a lot to consider. Ask for an evaluation if you’re concerned. Meanwhile model the correct production with emphasis on correct sounds. I also slow it down, syllable by syllable and tap table for each syllable so they can hear the sounds.


ETA. You’ve asked before about your son and speech sounds. If he’s over 3, request an evaluation through school district. Even if he doesn’t qualify, you’ll get some information about his sound production. If a child doesn’t qualify as sound errors are age appropriate, I tell parent when to bring them back or if they’re at my school, I put on a list to check back on when older.



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Thanks! DS is almost 6. He really has come such a long way, as he didn't talk till 2.5 and wasn't even remotely intelligible to anyone but me until almost 4. The SLP at school is so overloaded that I don't want to bother her unless it seems that it's really necessary. I'll continue to work with him at home and see how we progress. He just seems to struggle with switching sounds around with words that are two syllables or more, which probably isn't uncommon still at this age. My older one if gifted in language and was speaking paragraphs clearly by 2.5, so I don't have a real good grasp of what "typical" is for speech because we never experienced that with the first one, and then DS2 started out very slowly.

[PZMommy]

Thanks! DS is almost 6. He really has come such a long way, as he didn't talk till 2.5 and wasn't even remotely intelligible to anyone but me until almost 4. The SLP at school is so overloaded that I don't want to bother her unless it seems that it's really necessary. I'll continue to work with him at home and see how we progress. He just seems to struggle with switching sounds around with words that are two syllables or more, which probably isn't uncommon still at this age. My older one if gifted in language and was speaking paragraphs clearly by 2.5, so I don't have a real good grasp of what "typical" is for speech because we never experienced that with the first one, and then DS2 started out very slowly.

It may not hurt to have his school SLP do an informal assessment. At the very least they can give you some activities you can practice at home, and sometimes they even offer informal speech improvement classes for kids that need some help, but not enough to qualify for an IEP. My 6 yr old has a bit of a lisp (was diagnosed with low oral motor muscle tone, and had feeding and speech therapy as a baby-3yfs). The SLP at his school evaluated him, and said it was minor, and gave us some activities to do with him at home. She also stops by every so often (like once a month), just to talk to him and help him practice.

[niccig]

It may not hurt to have his school SLP do an informal assessment. At the very least they can give you some activities you can practice at home, and sometimes they even offer informal speech improvement classes for kids that need some help, but not enough to qualify for an IEP. My 6 yr old has a bit of a lisp (was diagnosed with low oral motor muscle tone, and had feeding and speech therapy as a baby-3yfs). The SLP at his school evaluated him, and said it was minor, and gave us some activities to do with him at home. She also stops by every so often (like once a month), just to talk to him and help him practice.

Not all districts allow the informal screening, some districts are only formal evaluations. I would though reach out to the SLP, discuss your concerns, and ask if the can do a screening.

Just give them time to call you back. I recently had a parent leave a phone message 11am one day and 8am next day was very angry I hadn’t responded. School office staff told parent I wasn’t there everyday when they left the message. Assistant principal ended up involved.


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