Does any one elses child have speech sound difficulties ?

[mummyloveslucy]

My 3 year old daughter has recently started having speech therapy. She has always been very keen to communicate and comes out with really long centences and loads of language but it just dosn't make sence. I find it very hard to understand her if I don't have any clues. Any way, the therapist told me that her communicative speach is very advanced and she knows exactly what she's saying, but can't make the speech sounds correctly. So to any one listening, it may sound like babble. She is starting to understand that people don't understand her and that she sounds different from the other children at nursery. I just wondered if anyone else had a child with the same problem and any advice regarding helping her. She mentioned that it could be verbal dyspraxia, if so will she grow out of it soon? I don't want it to affect her confidence.

I've no experience of this but am bumping for you, i've a nearly two year old who talks mostly rubbish but am not worried, they're so little

Thanks, I agree it's always best not to worry, especially at 2. It's important to trust your instincts, if I'd done the same I'd have got her some help sooner.

bump

Ds2 is dyspraxic and his speech is affected. He was diagnosed at a similar age to your dd. Unfortunately it's not something they grow out of, but with speech therapy it should improve.

After the diagnosis SALT started and we were sent home after each session with 'homework'. He found this terrific fun - lots of tongue poking, lip licking and games.

Ds1 has only just found the speech sound "L" - you could have been talking about him aged 3. He is nearly 5 now, and although his speech is still indistinct sometimes (He will say "You do i' like 'at!" instead of "You do it like that!") he is, in the main, keeping up with his peers.

It did distress him sometimes when his peers couldn't understand him, but the best thing I found to do was relax, do Jolly Phonics (these really really helped his speech sounds, funnily) and just wait.

At 3, she may not be old enough to understand some of the tricks the speech therapists use to help the sounds come. To help ds1 find L, the SALT got him to 'break' words - so "LLLLL - ight, llllll - orry, llllll - lick" etc.This relies on the child (a) having the concentration to listen to, understand and follow the instructions, and (b) enough understanding of word structure to know that words are made up of different parts.

The babble will clear up, if she is anything like ds1 (and she does sound a lot like him).

I found it difficult to stress to the playschool staff that if ds1 had pushed someone because they were being mean, it's not as simple as"Tell a teacher" when the teachers don't understand him. Make the staff aware that she is feeling frustrated socially and may need some support until she is struggling less (which I hope will be very soon)

And finally - I remember this feeling. It is nothing you have done wrong. Please don't wind yourself u to the point where you are dreaming about poking coins unto your child's mouth to make it 'work', as I was last year!

I know it's heartbreaking, but next year it will all be so different - the babble is a good thing in a way - it shows she has the urge to communicate and at least some vocabulary. The clarity will come.

Thanks a lot every one, coldits, I liked the bit about pushing coins in to her mouth to make it work. That's so sweet/sad/funny.
You always get the odd grandmother type saying "You need to keep talking to her!". I feel like replying "no shit Sherlock!".

I have 5 year old DS3 with Verbal Dyspraxia who has gone from unintelligible at 3 (sounds very like your DD - lots of speech etc) to mostly understandable at 5.5, after a lot of speech therapy and hard work. Speech therapists can work wonders but it does take a lot of time and effort at home too. DS3 has a Statement, so he gets 1-1 support at school to do speech therapy exercises.

Verbal Dyspraxia isn't something that goes away completely - when DS3 is cross or tired the speech slips again, and the SALT told me that will be the case throughout his life. It hasn't affected his confidence because he's a feisty, strong-willed little boy, and I've always praised his other skills so much. He has friends, and is a happy, confident child so don't worry but be prepared for bit of a slog ahead!

People will keep telling you "You need to keep talking to her" (an yes I kept thinking really? I though all I needed to do was shove him in a playpen with a bag of Wotsits like my mate with the perfectly articulate 2 year old does! Grr!) - one good piece of advice I was given is to try to speak at the same pace as a CBeebies presnter. They speak more slowly than 'normal' adults, and children like that.

I rattle like a machine gun, naturally. And ds1 was trying to copy me, and couldn't keep up - he couldn't make his mouth move quick enough. When I slowed down, he (sometimes) did too!

Does it affect their school work at all? I'd hate for her to have to struggle. I'm also concerned that the other children might not be too kind.

Ds1 is doing well at school and seems to get on ok with the other kids - a few of the kids at 4 and 5 have less than perfect speech, and a LOT of them have younger brothers and sisters and are used to deciphering unclear speech (and don't even seem to realise). Plus, many are egocentric enough at this age not to even really listen to other children.

Remember, as she gets older and more aware, and as her classmates get older and more aware, her speech will be maturing along with her age. This may not even be an issue in 3 years time.

It affects ds2's school work to the extent that he needs extra time to produce written work due to the motor difficulties. He's 11 now and has been given a laptop by school to use for lengthy pieces of work.

He had the misfortune to attend a primary school which were unhelpful to say the least. He arranged voluntary help for him which initially they welcomed, then on the say-so of a teacher who decided his diagnosis was incorrect, removed the help without my knowledge.

There's lots of positive threads on here about how helpful schools have been but if yours isn't be prepared to go down the private route to get her assessed by either an ed psych or clinical psych to assess what help is needed. The problem with getting assessments privately is that schools don't have to act on them.

Ds2 went through a phase of biting children because they would wind him up and he couldn't respond verbally quick enough. He earned himself a reputation which stayed with him throughout primary school but has now made a successful new start at secondary school. He rarely got invited to parties and children didn't want to see him socially, bar one who's he still good friends with.

He attended a group run by the local families centre to help his anger issues. It helped him deal more appropriately with his anger.

mummyloveslucy, ds1 in now 4 and has difficulty pronouncing certain letters, s, sh, f, th, l, r to the extent that whilst he had a great vocabulary it was often difficult to understand what he was saying, often his older dsis would translate for me It helped that the older he got he became more consistent with using the same sounds for the letters so that sh became y, ie shoes became yoos, f became w, ie fire became wire. At first i didn't see it as too problematic, then about a year ago, back in the UK we mentioned it to his preschool who said not to worry, but our HV noticed when checking our newborn and referred him for a hearing and SALT assessment. The SALT said it was not an issue and the hearing test said that he may have had fluid on his eardrum and he would grow out of it. We went back for another SALT assessment and got some really useful exercises, where I repeat what he is saying exactly as he says it and ask, do you mean yoos or do you mean shoes? so that the difference in the sounds is clear to him. As well as all the tongue exercises. This has helped enormously as has starting to learn phonics at pre-school, he is now aware of the different sounds. His speech has improved hugely in the last year.

Have you had hearing tests for your dd? I agree with the speaking slowly and a great deal of repeating clearly what you think she has said, listening to her rather than talking to her. Ds's confidence has not been affected at all, in fact I would go so far as to say it has helped develop it as he has had to find different, more effective ways of communicating. The other children in his preschool rarely mentioned it - children when they are little don't notice the same things as adults imo.

You sound like you are doing a great job, I'm sure you will see a big change in her in the next year.