Does/Has anyone else had a young child with speech difficulties?

[celeste4]

My ds is 4 yrs old. He starts school in September. He has speech problems. He's been going speech therapy the last year now and although we have seen an improvement with his sentence construction, his pronounciation is still very poor. It doesn't seem to hold him back socially, he mixes well with other children but I'm worried it will hold him back at school. Also it annoys me when he tries to speak to adults and bless them they cannot understand him but they sort of refrain from trying to carry on a conversation with him. Me and dh can understand him but even my parents cannot understand him. Has anyone else had or have a young child with speech difficulties that can talk to me about how they progressed and how long it took?

Ime young children are very good at communicating with each other, I can't imagine it will hinder friendships. Although I'm not currently experiencing this, I remember very well my sister attending speech therapy (as a child I couldn't understand the fuss as I could understand her very well but even my parents couldn't). Anyway, as an adult she went on to become a legendary manager in what was traditionally considered a man's world and has absolutely no problems communicating now, in fact she is well known for her excellent communication skills. Try not to worry, you're doing everything right and he'll be fine, all the best.

Thank you. I know he is getting good help. Its his pronounciation that is the main problem. His speech therapist seems to be concentrating on sentence construction rather than his actual pronounication which i think is his main problem. His Dad had the same problem and he had to go speech therapy all through his primary school years.

One of our has had speech problems. We had speech therapy from 3 years old. You might find school helpful. There is a lot of phonics work in reception which helps the children hear & isolate sounds in a word.

Yeah he mixes well with other children and i feel his speech develops the more and more he mixes with other children so i'm hoping school will naturally bring him along a bit more. The speech therapist says she will be contact with the school to talk to them about his progress and needs. We've also had a chat with them too.

lol at the gobshite elder sibling miaow

Yeah the school have reassured us they have support in place and the speech therapist will also continue to see him once a week too at hospital.

I just feel sorry for him when he's trying to explain to adults something and they can't understand him and they just go 'oh right, yeah'. He can get quite worked up about not being able to express himself sometimes. Generally me and dh and fathom what he is trying to tell us though.

I also can't help but see other children his age speaking clearly but i know i should try and avoid comparing him to other children.