8 year olds speech. Anyones child had speech therapy?

[SparklePrincess]

My 8 year old dd doesnt pronounce her Rs properly, she pronounces it as a W (like Jonathan Woss) Ive only noticed it over the last year or so & hoped it would correct itself, but I think its getting worse. I was wondering if I ought to look into getting her refered for speech therapy or something before she gets too old & permanently pronounces her Rs as W`s?

Hi, I'm a speech therapist. You would normally expect the r/w thing to have resolved by now, and I'd suggest you ask your GP for a referral. Some services will allow you to make the referral yourself so it is worth checking.

Is your daughter aware of it? If so, is it bothering her/ is she getting bother off other kids? If the answer is yes, make sure whoever refers you puts it in the referral as it means you will get seen more quickly.

In the meantime, see if you can get her to raise her tongue towards the roof of her mouth when she attempts a 'r' sound (you have lip rounding with both sounds). The tip of her tongue should be level with but not touching the bumpy ridge just behind your teeth on the top.

Try saying some words that start with both sounds and see if she can identify which words start with which sounds (write the letters r and w on a piece of paper and get her to show you which). Sometimes this can happen simply because children can't hear the difference. If she can do this, then it is much easier to 'fix'.

Good luck - hope it goes OK!

P.S....Jonathan Ross could easily fix his speech if he wanted to, but it's his trademark! So don't worry x

Thanks empie

Oh, I'm not suprised Loopy! It's so much easier with the smaller children, who think they're just going along to have some fun and play some games with a nice lady! Older children, like yourself (as was) are acutely aware of why they are there, and it's often something they can be quite sensitive about, so it's little wonder you remember the whole incident with loathing!

(I usually work with adults, who mostly want to be there, so my job's a lot easier )

you could get an assessment done. my dd was 5 and it was excellent the progress he made. They taught him how to hold his mouth and tongue to get the sounds out. If there is no problem they will tell you and if their is, they can help alot.

Thats a worry Loopymumsy, as my dd is now 8 & a very sensitive child. Perhaps im better leaving things as they are & hoping that with us correcting her things will improve on their own.

Bumping.

My DD1 has group speech therapy, but she's only 3.10 so I imagine it's different for her.

I wouldn't leave it, I'd make it sound fun and take her. DS had speech therapy at 6 (Y1)and it was fabulous. He only had 12 lessons, in the school setting - so he felt he was just going off to another lesson (except on his own). 12 months later he just got a distinction in his first LAMDA exam.

I might mention it to the teacher & see what she thinks.

IMO your daughter is old enough to decide for herself whether or not she'd like to go. At 8, she will notice if her speech is different from other children's, and if she has received any comments about it, then ask her if she would like a bit of help with it.

If it doesn't bother her and noone else has noticed, leave it alone.

If you are seriously thinking of NOT going just because Loopy mentioned that when she went as a child she found it quite difficult then it's probably not enough of an issue for you to go anyway. IYSWIM