Throat/speech problems

[Toffees27]

My son has just turned 7, he’s been in speech therapy since he was two (private and public)
Still at 7 years old sometimes I cannot understand him, I understand most of what he says now but none of it is pronounced correctly!
He’s had his hearing checked, sleep study, micro array all his chromosomes checked and all came back clear!
The private speech therapist says it may be verbal dyspraxia but thinks it needs investigating further
He had his tonsils and adenoids removed 6 months ago and that made no difference at all (he got worse if anything) but the one thing I did notice was he did not cry or complain once, which shocked me as I heard horror stories about really sore throats,
THe sounds he struggles with most come from the back of his mouth and it got me wondering if he actually has any feeling in his throat, probably sounds stupid but he used to get tonsillitis and I recognised this by his bad breath not because he seemed unwell he was smiling at the doctor with pus all over his tonsils and happy as Larry
Any ideas anyone?
It’s really affecting his confidence
Also has a high palate in his mouth

My son has just turned 7, he’s been in speech therapy since he was two (private and public)
Still at 7 years old sometimes I cannot understand him, I understand most of what he says now but none of it is pronounced correctly!
He’s had his hearing checked, sleep study, micro array all his chromosomes checked and all came back clear!
The private speech therapist says it may be verbal dyspraxia but thinks it needs investigating further
He had his tonsils and adenoids removed 6 months ago and that made no difference at all (he got worse if anything) but the one thing I did notice was he did not cry or complain once, which shocked me as I heard horror stories about really sore throats,
THe sounds he struggles with most come from the back of his mouth and it got me wondering if he actually has any feeling in his throat, probably sounds stupid but he used to get tonsillitis and I recognised this by his bad breath not because he seemed unwell he was smiling at the doctor with pus all over his tonsils and happy as Larry
Any ideas anyone?
It’s really affecting his confidence
Also has a high palate in his mouth

Can he cough and Swallow normally? Can he copy you doing a k or g?

What are his physical skills like? His walking, movements and handwriting, ability to fasten buttons?

I would definitely explain your suspicions about lack of feeling to your GP? Mind you, there’s probably not much else ENT will do if he’s already had adenoids and tonsils removed.

What sounds exactly does he struggle with and what does he say instead?

Thank you for replying
He seems to be able to swallow ok and cough,
He can’t make the k or g sound has been working for 18 mo the with a private speech therapist and still can’t get it, also seen multiple speech therapist and they have used prompt therapy with him and he just still can’t get it
He can hold a pencil jump and all that no problem, defiantly struggling in school and can only write his name, some of his siblings names, mum, dad and dog
He can’t read at all 😢

What does he say instead of a k. I’m guessing it’ll be t? And for g does he say ‘d’?

Anyway, it sounds like he has possible verbal dyspraxia.

Regarding his reading, this is often very much linked to speech problems. Often children struggle to develop the pre reading skills when the have Speechh problems. It’s called phonological awareness and children need this to begin to read. Briefly, early skills would be syllable counting, identifying words that rhyme, producing words that rhyme, identitying first sound of a word, then last sound. Then breaking up a word in to sounds eg pin = p- i -n .

Then being able to blend sounds heard to make words eg I- ce = ice (never use written word at this stage). Skills progress from there in to playing with sounds in works eg If I remove the l in clap it makes cap. Etc etc

Back to sounds. With K, have you tried getting him to hold his tongue down using two fingers in their side between top and bottom teeth to hold tongue? Both these sounds and ng sound are called velar sounds.

Please pm for any further info xx

You are totally right about the the k and g being t & d
He has no velar sounds at all according to his most recent speech report which was only last week

It’s the most common sounds k and g are replaced for. It’s a process called ‘fronting’ .

Have you tried rhyming pairs eg coffee toffee and seeing if he can hear the difference when you say the word?

If he can then can make a difference?

Use pictures of coffee and toffee/. Key and tea etc. Say a word and see if he can point to the correct sound. Do this loads. If he reliably can hear the difference then see if he can produce both words. I would only focus on k for now as if he can get one clear velar sound, hopefotgat will help with the others x

Ps are there other sound he struggles with still?

Vowels sounds ok?
Sound blends/cluster (eg fl for flag, sp for spider, br, pl etc etc )