Um I need help with my soon to be 5 year old?

Question

He will be turning 5 years old in august and as much as i try he can not pronunciate most sounds. His school tried to put him in speech therapy but school let out a week after he started. Is there anything I can do to help my little boy out? He does have an older brother that is almost eight years old that can speak just fine please anything i'm sure will help thank you for all your answers.

Answer 1

I recently graduated from a speech language pathology program with my bachelors. I am not sure where you are located but the school was a very good way to get started with his therapy services.

If you live in a bigger town you can also look under speech therapy in the phone book or health services. You are not looking for an early intervention group as they usually cover birth to age three.

Since your son is in school, whether or not its a preschool or pre-K program, they are legally supposed to provide you with any other information you request reguarding other sources of therapy services available to you and your family so you can also get into contact with them and find out what they recommend to cover any summer break concerns.

One question is: Has he had any formal testing at all? Did your sons school test him to determine how much of a delay he has? Are there any OTHER underlying medical conditions that my be the cause of his speech issues? Ask his pediatrician if he/she is concerned about his speech if so YOU need to request a referral to a speech therapist if they do not offer one to you. Most doctors offices deal with type of thing everyday and have a couple of Speech Therapists that they will send all referals to. This is probably the best way to start investigating other options besides school.

Keep in mind, unless your son does have a medical condition that will require more than speech intervention he will only receive about 30 minutes to an hour of therapy a week and that is no where near enough time to truly overcome any delay you SHOULD seek additional therapy services to truly help your son. Try seeking out local universities or colleges (with an ASHA (American Speech Language Hearing Association) ACCREDITED therapy program) most are therapy centered which means that the people providing the therapy for your son will be students that are completeing their bachelors degree or in their Masters degree program. Don't fret they are all supervised by full fleged state licenced Speech Langauge Pathologists, and these programs are usually cheaper than a private source.

Most state insurance will cover these types of services as well so if your son/family is covered under state issued insurance versus a private company more than likely you will not have to pay anything out of pocket unless you choose to seek an outside additional source of therapy then there my be charges to you which is where a college program comes in handy as the costs are usually cheaper.

I am sure I am forgetting something this is a lot of information to absorb so if you have any other questions and I can help I will. Please feel free to respond back to me via email if you do.

One last thing, I am in this field because all three of my children are either in speech therapy or are just getting out of speech therapy. I also have a 5 year old son who is experiencing pronunciation, or articulation, problems. My oldest has been in therapy since she was 2 she is now 8. And I just started my youngest, 2, into an Early Intervention program to help him now as he is already showing signs of having speech issues. So not only do I have personal experience with my own children I also have half a degree to back it up as I still need to obtain my masters.

Hope I was able to help.

Answer 2

My soon to be 5 year old is the same way. I kept pushing until the Dr recommend a speech therapist evaluation at the local childrens hospital. They determined he needs speech therapy once a week for atleast 6 months. If it is outside the school then summer break won't matter and it would give him some help before he hits kindergarten. BTW my 2 year old talks better than my soon to be 5 year old sometimes. Have they tested your sons hearing? Did they determine a reason for speech problems? In my family larger tongues causes the problem but some have hearing loss as well. Just keep talking to his Dr about it and ask for a referal to a speech specialist.

Answer 3

If he's not even five quite yet, and if school will have in back in speech therapy in the next school year, I can't imagine there's much time for you to be doing much more between now and the end of August/beginning of September.

Once school starts you could ask the therapist what kind of exercise you could do with him after school.

Helping a child with speech can be a long-term process. I don't see the harm in waiting until school starts again (unless you could have your pediatrician recommend a speech therapist he could see privately).

Answer 4

Look into private speech therapy and understand that at his age not all sounds are expected to be there. For example the R sound can take till 7 years to get and this is fine.

Answer 5

I find that when my 5 yr old daughter says her words wrong she gets less aggravated if I just quietly say the word properly to her, or even tease her in a positive way and we repeat the word together a few times while sharing a big hug.

I guess books would help, ones with large photos of objects and you could point to them and have him repeat after you what is shown on the book. Better yet have his brother sit with him and help him with some words. Find a book that suits his interested, if he likes trains & trucks then have him pick out a book with those in it (or if he likes animals do the same). It will enourage him while being fun for all of you.

Good luck.

Answer 6

Talk to him in a clear voice. And try to put him back in some sort of speech therapy program.

Answer 7

this may not be the problem, but my nephew had a speech problem when he was 5 and went through speech classes. the classes did not help. his doctor discovered that he was tongue tied(its is when the skin that is attached from the bottom of your tongue to the bottom of your mouth is to short at it makes it hard to pronounce certain sounds). the doctor made an incision in the skin to make it not as tight. he had an immediate improvement in his speech. it might be worth asking your doctor about.

Answer 8

Give him time. Children develop in different ways, and it is not uncommon to be slow in developing good speech enunciation.

This is NOT a reflection on their intelligence, and will likely correct itself on its own.

You CAN help him make progress in this area by insisting that he enunciate properly before you give him what he wants. Speech therapy can also help him improve. As he continues in school, he will also work harder to improve his pronunciation as he recognizes that clarity in communication facilitates helps him get what he wants from his peers and his teachers more easily.

Answer 9

I had the same problem growing up. In my opinion i dont like speech therpist. I kind of learned from my parents because they couldnt really understand me, my brother ( 4yrs older then me ) had to translate everything for them. But my parents use to tell me to slow down and help me say it the right way

Answer 10

find a speech therapist that goes in the summer!
or maybe a summer tutor.
i had a pretty similar problem and took speech therapy
and are fine now.

good luck!