4yo *may* have speech problems. Can anyone offer advice?

[Birdsnotbees]

DS1 has just turned 4 and is in a lovely pre-school. Had mtg with his teacher & they said he has some slight speech 'issues' - he can't pronounce 'c' or 'z' in particular, although there are also some other sounds he struggles with. They are referring him to speech therapists, but this will take 6 months. Teacher will meanwhile gently begin to tackle it through sounds/phoentics as DS is about to start learning to read.

DS is very chatty, very good vocab, very bright and very happy atm. His last (shitty) nursery did mention the problem but not to us (only to him, FFS) and I suspect they have made him feel a bit 'aware' of the issue as when we correct him when he says, e.g. 'zoo' (he pronounces it 'yoo'), he just says flatly that he can't make that sound. So we don't push it at all. He's very sensitive also, and I say that not in a PFB way but because he is - he understands a lot and will also really take stuff to heart.

Anyway. 6 months for a referral seems like a long time. Does anyone have any experience of this sort of problem, and have any books/links/exercises/advice we could try. I don't want to make a big deal of it at all but equally would like the time to gradually sort it before he starts getting embarrassed about it.

This is a fantastice website www.talkingpoint.org.uk/Parent.aspx
www.hello.org.uk is also very good
It doesn't really sound like that much of a problem- children are not expected to be able some pronounce all sounds until they are 6 or 7.
The waiting times have got quicker, it used to take longer than 6 months in most areas.
Most SALT have a drop-in centre in a local health centre at least once a month. The nursery should have details of this. You can just turn up without an appointment and speak to a professional. Or you can consult a private speech therapist.

Ds age 4 is under SALT.
One thing they say is don't correct, just model it back to them. He says "Going to the Yoo" You say "That's right, we're going to the Zoo".

C is a sound they should have got at that age, as it's the first sound they've been working on with ds. He now will say it when the word is on it's own, but in a sentence usually forgets, but that does mean it's coming so they may well next session move onto .

For the c sound they sarted with playing a game, and every time they scored a point had to go "c...c...c" Then the next session they got him saying "c...c...c...ar". Then they did similar next session with different c sounds, then moved onto trying to get him to say "car", "cake" "key" by using pictures of the items to play pairs. Then it's trying to get him to use the word correctly in a sentence.

I think the z/s/sh sounds aren't worrying at that age, but there may be other sounds he's missing, so they will assess him in the first session.

I hope this doesn't sound dismissive as your DS may need SALT, but DS2 couldn't say those and several other consonant sounds at 4 (half his words started with the h sound) but by 4.4 he was able to say everything clearly.

He had been considered as a possible case for referral but in the end he didn't need it (for this, anyway!).

i'm a SLP in the states the /K/ or "c" as you stated is a sound that he should have my question is can he produce the sound in isolation can he say k-k-k-k think about how you produce the sound you do it by bringing your tongue up in the back of your throat. talk to him tell him how you make the sound can he say /g/ this is the matched voiced sound of /k/ if he has /g/ or /k/ in isolation as a single sound he will get it eventually. see if he is stimulable for the sound or sounds you are worried about if they are present in isolation he will get it eventually. once he has the sound in isolation then you can move onto single word form. keep it simple like /cat/ or /kite/. correct him in connected speech but have fun with it. can he hear the difference if you say /yoo/ instead of /zoo/ does he hear that you said it incorrectly? if he does that is a good sign then at some point he will hear himself making the mistake. hope this helps let me know

Thanks everyone for the advice - I really do appreciate it. DS's teacher isn't unduly worried but said there are sounds he should be making - like the 'c' sound - that he isn't. DS is about to start synthetic phonics (learning to read) and his teacher says this may resolve things, as it mostly focuses in the beginning on letter sounds.

And then we have the referral if it doesn't sort itself out - I guess I want to move on it sooner rather than later and make the learning incremental rather than dramatic, if that makes sense?

I've never paid much attention to the way he speaks, mainly as I understand him just fine. But no, he can't say c, k or now that I think about it, g. He can hear the difference with the z/y sound but is less aware of the other sounds (he pronounces 'c' as 't' or 'd', for example). Argh, OK, thanks for the advice - I'm going to start doing some research.