speech advice about a nearly 4 year old

[Bobbinogtastic]

my DS, aged 3 yrs 11 months, and due to start school in Sept still has some difficulty form some sounds, esp "th" and "f" .. it all comes out as "b". So thumb and bum sound the same, and so to fight and bite. and his siter Thea is Bea! His pre-school teacher has suggested speech and language therapy.
What does the panel think about this ? I don't want to worry him (and me) if it will get better naturally. We are moving house in 6 weeks, so its pointless getting referred in this area, and it could be a while to get it sorted out in our new area. I was wondering if there were any SALT therapists on this site that could give me some ideas as to what to be doing in the meantime?

Bobbinog I'm no expert but my DS1 needed SALT for c and g sounds (he used to say t and d - the tar went round the torner).

I pushed for it at nursery stage but was told it was normal delay until he was actually 5 (ie at end of FS2) and finally got some help.

I would push for an assessment now to see if these are sound she should have acquired yet (FWIW DS2 couldn't say f for a while tho not sure how old he was).

Be prepared to be told not to worry tho. I remember being so relieved when the SALT told me DS1 did need help!

Is 'don't worry' one of those phrases all SALTs say? Saw a speech therapist for an initial assessment on my dd (3.8) today & was told that several times. The waiting list here (Midlands-ish) is quite short at the moment - only about 5-6 weeks.

The main thing I was told was to not stress the child out by forcing them to say sounds, but to repeat what they say as it should be said.

So if dd said 'Dat a dar' I should say 'oh yes, that's a car'.

I'm a SALT.

the "th" is not a problem at this age but the "f" needs help.

Can he produce a "f" if you describe how to do it (rabbit teeth on bottom lips and blow)? Try using a mirror.

He needs to be able to hear the difference between the "f" and the "b" before he can start producing it in a word.

You could try some simple sound discrimination work - draw a firework and a ball on two separate cards and ask him to point to the firework if he hears "f" (like a firework sound) and the ball if he hears "b" (as in the sound of a bouncing ball - b-b-b-b). You need to explain the sounds to him first.

thanks for the responses. Alison56 - thanks so much - will definitely try out the exercises you have suggested

alison my ds is 7 now and although he can do the"th" sound [when told]now,tends to revert to "f".
Do I correct him all the time?
I thought that was a bit much so this week I am correcting"think" and"thing" as he uses those most often.
Also should I be concerned~ he has always had trouble with it and it is improved but because he has been muddled along the way,he is spelling words wrongly too.
Maybe it will help when he has learned the spellings?

i don't think your ds will worry about SALT.

In some areas it takes ages to come through, so if it does sort itself out you'll have lost nothing.