my son is nearly 4, and he is still having difficulty talking?

Question

he sometimes gets his words jumbled, it is frustrating for him and me, has anybody else had this problem, I am taking him to a speach therapist, but it is worrying as my daughter was talking well at that age

Answer 1

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Bud

Answer 2

I'm going threw the same thing with my four year old daughter. People have a very hard time understanding what she is saying and when you keep having her repeat what she said or mistake it for the wrong thing she gets mad and some times won't try again.

Instead of saying "i want" she says "me want" she doesn't use the "th" "d""v" (to name a few) and says uck instead of duck and uve instead of love.

her twin brother is talking fine so I was worried and went to a speach therapist and got her inrolled in a speach program that she takes while she is in preschool. They told me there are alot of kids that can not make these sounds. Some kids need the speach service untill they are in middle school.

Some thing you can do to help your son to form the words is have him stick out his tounge and move it back and fourth and have him touch it to the roof of his mouth then flick his tounge out. My daughters speach teacher said it helps the kids stretch their tounges to form the words.

Also if your son is getting frustrated because he can not say certian words, like my daughter, you can use the phonics method where you motion out the sounds your having problems with. This helps the child remember how the words are formed.

And keep up the praises!! Like you can say "that was a very good try at saying ---- but the correct way of saying it is-----. I bet you can get it this time."

If he tries to talk too fast, my daughter gets excited and tries talking a mile a minute, try to calm him down "after"he talks and ask him to say it again but slower.

I would say get him enrolled in a speach class once he starts school (if he's going to public school) or if you are home schooling him have him see the speach therapist 1-2 times a week and keep up the help at home. It just takes time. I know how hard it can be, and the questions that can be asked by other adults and the frustration by hearing other kids that are younger then your child talk crystal clear.

Answer 3

I understand your frustration. You are doing the right thing by getting him checked out and treated early. Continue to give him encouragment, let him know what a smart boy he is, and don't spend a lot of time correcting his speech. It may take time, but he'll get there eventually.
For what it's worth, my 4 year old had horrible troubles with speech, didn't say a single word until he was almost 3. The words started coming about 8 months ago, and his speech therapist just tested his vocabulary. He has the vocabulary of a 6 year old. Hang in there, and good luck!

Answer 4

My five year old brother can still barely speak. He does good with singular words (not alot of them though) and is supposed to be in speech therapy for it twice a week. It is worrisome but he has started to get better the more he started to interact with other children. The people at his daycare also work with him alot. It's been really tough because the time to put him into preschool is drawing closer and it is scary to think he might be left behind because of it. The doctors say the problem that he has is his brain has a hard time turning the things he hears and learns into speech. Repeating words over and over seems to help out alot to. Some children just have a harder time getting started speaking. Good luck and stick with the going to the therapist.

Answer 5

Yes, you should have him evaluated by a speech therapist. Children this age should be talking in pretty clear sentences, and word jumbling, or syntax errors, can be a problem for children as they get older. If they have difficulty thinking out the way they want words to come out, or the words come out in the wrong order, this can affect the way they write later on. If the brain is having difficulty organizing information into a standard way of communicating, then it can be hard for a child to sequence stories, write details, or tell a story in order. A speech pathologist will be able to help you to teach your son how to think in order so that the words come out in order. You can have your child assessed for FREE through your local school district, since he is over three (in the US).

Answer 6

My youngest needed speech therapy at four til five and a half.
We were shown how to pronounce letter sounds, where you should have your tongue in relation to your teeth etc. We were given games to play at home. The favorites for us were
Magnetic fishing. - cheap pound shop magnetic fishing line (came with a few brightly couloured plastic fish). Cut pictures from magasines etc and put a paper clip on. Make sure about fifty per cent of pictures have a letter sound he is struggling with. The rest should be things he can say well. You dont want to discourage him too much. Who ever fishes - the point goes to the person who names the object in the picture first. He can be very successful at this!!!!!

The second game we had to buy was pop up pirate. When the pirate poped up we called out his name. Ours was called Bert as we struggled with the B and the T sounds. Or Greg once we mastered those sounds as the G was still a bit suspect. With regular practice lots of praise etc we got there. Stick with it and give lots of praise. Our speech therapist insisted we did not over correct my daughter as doing so could make her reluctant to speak, and make the problem worse.

Good luck, it is hard work, frustrating at times, but worth it in the end. I worried my daughter may struggle at school, and that this in some way reflected her intelect - neither of these turned out to be true. She is doing well and very happy at school. None of the earlier problems has held her back.

Answer 7

It's fairly common for kids to have speech problems. There are kids in my daughter's first grade class who have minor difficulties, but they were worse when they were smaller. One little girl was impossible to understand at the age of 4 and 5, but now at 7 you'd never know she had any problems. Stick with the speech therapy, and also read and talk to your son a lot. Reading is one of the best things you can do for him. One of the suggestions on here almost sounds like they are telling you to punish him by making him say the word over and over until he gets it right, please don't do that. It will only make him feel bad and will seem like a punishment for something he has no control over. Good Luck.

Answer 8

My son also had problems when he started talking, but we got through it with the help of the Speech Therapist, and i'm sure you will too. The only thing I can suggest is, ask for an extra hearing test just to make sure there's nothing there that wasn't picked up earlier on. Good luck and I'm sure he'll be fine.

Answer 9

I'm very glad to hear that you have your child receiving speech services. That 's great. Why not talk to the speech pathologist about your concerns? It is actually quite common for boys to have speech delays. It accounts for the majority of children in preschool who receive special services. Be patient and helpful with him and talk to the SLP about any concerns. Maybe the SLP could give you some ideas or activities that you could do at home to work on speech. As you know him the best and spend the most time with him, you are the best one to help him with his speech. If speech is his only developmental concern, I think you can relax and hope that with the help he is getting that he will be speaking fluently in time.

Answer 10

The fact that you're taking him to a speech therapist is a move in the right direction.
I have a sept daughter who was still having problems with her speech to the degree of not being understood when she started school.
My son now at two and a half is rabbiting away and making himself understood very well.
They are both of similar intellect, though it was discovered that my sept daughter needed ear gromits.
The only advice I could or would give is that every child is different and develops in they're own area's at their own pace, so don't try to compare, espeacially if they are of the opposite sex.
Unless there are difinative signs of a development issue, in which case seek expert help, as long as your child is happy and healthy, just enjoy them and let them develop at their own pace.
Have you tried using sign language to maybe reduce some level of frustration for him?