adult DS speech issues

[Marmees]

My son is 21 and I worry about the clarity of his speech. He was always a little stuttery and says his 'r' as 'w'. When he speaks quickly he loses his consonants. I don't think the clarity of his speech was helped by having top and bottom fixed braces to correct an overbite, which were on during COVID and may have over-corrected? He is understandable most of the time, but he has to work at it to make himself clear and I worry about when it comes to work and interviews etc later on. I'm wondering about options - would a private speech therapist be the only route? Or would it be better to go back to a dentist to look at his jaw and see if there's a problem there? I want to raise it with him and give him a couple of options but not sure what's best.

Does he work? Study? Has anyone in a professional /educational environment said they found him difficult to understand?

Speech therapy ought to help as long as he wants to engage.

Thanks - he's a student and he manages well most of the time I think, he can do presentations in class and when he's a home and I hear him with his friends they seem to be able to understand him - although they'll ask him to repeat things when he jumbles his words together. So it's not chronic.

thanks, I'll have a look around and see what's available. I think he would engage and I feel bad that I didn't look into it earlier.

If R is coming across as W he has a speech impediment called rhotacism. Speech therapy can help but getting a dentist to take a look wouldn’t hurt.

Has he not had this since childhood?

In that case I'd say it's not that serious. Lots of people have speech impediments, stammers, are hearing impaired so speech sounds different. Or just have a heavy accent.

I guess there are videos online to help elocution or whatever but I think involving professionals might not really be necessary. He's an adult and if he's not seeking professional help himself then assume he doesn't need it.

He has - my husband and his father have it mildly too - and he can correct it when he concentrates, but it's more the jumbling of words restricting his clarity which I've noticed more lately.

How about Myofunctional therapy?