1st grader in speech therapy. Expert advice?

Question

My daughter is 6 1/2 and gets speech services through the school district. She has a frontal and lateral lisp and her IEP is written for t, s, l, r, digraphs, and blends. (In sum, she speaks like Sylvester and Tweety all rolled into one.) Two questions for which I'd like professional advice:

1. Her t, s, and digraphs improved drastically after ear surgery. But her speech teacher will not even start working on the lateral lisp until she turns 8. So progress has leveled off at this point. What can I do at home to keep up the momentum?

2. Her spelling is terrible!!! Our school uses "kid spelling;" children are taught to sound out words then an adult puts the correct spelling above it. So she writes the way she speaks. How can I help her, particularly with l and r which the school will not address for another year and a half?

Answer 1

I don't agree with "kid spelling" esp if she can't make a proper model.

Hooked on Phonics or Spaulding would help and yes, work with her at home. I saw Hooked on Phonics at Costco if you have that. I use it with my hard of hearing students and it's great.

Answer 2

The reason your daughter's speech therapist is holding off on the l and r is that your daughter is not matured physically to be able to make those sounds.  I am not a speech teacher, just a special education teacher who's students receive speech therapy.  Your best bet is to ask the speech teacher why she can't work with your daughter on those sounds and have her give you the explaination.  When I switched from teaching elementary to high school and my students weren't receiving the support from the speech teacher I thought they needed, I asked him and he told me that after the age of 14, direct speech therapy produces little to no results because the pathways in the brain are "locked".

If your daughter were mine, I would help her with the "l" sound by having her place the tip of her tongue between her teeth and push air out like she is trying to growl.  The "r" is harder because she has to have enough control of her tongue to flatten the middle of it and curl up the sides.

For the spelling, I would ask that it be put in her IEP that she is taught phonics - Zoophonics is fun for the kids and REALLY works because it combines visual (see the letter), audio (hear the name and sound of the letter), verbal (say the name of the letter and the sound it makes) and kinesthetic (a physical movement to cue the sound) to teach the sounds - and that "kid spelling" is not allowed for her.  Obviously she had hearing problems when she was learning the sounds of letters, now corrected by surgery, so she has to unlearn (hard to do) that while learning the correct sounds.  It will just be harder if the teachers keep letting her reinforce the incorrect sounds by using "kid spelling".

Keep pushing the school, ask questions if you don't understand the reason for something and don't give up the fight!!!

Answer 3

Keep her talking, talk with your daughter about a sign or a word you can use with her to make her aware of the right pronounciation but dont overdo it or she will become so self conscious that she wont talk anymore.

Answer 4

you can have her look at your mouth make the sounds of the letters, then give her a mirror so she can see her mouth and try to form the same sound. try to make a game out of it so that it is fun for her. no stress, just fun. hope it helps

Answer 5

Speak with the SLP that's currently working with your child. She'll give you suggestions on what to do with her at home and reasons why your daughter isn't ready to start working on her lisp. Sometimes, children will grow out of speech problems by listening to other adults/children.

If you feel that you didn't get the right answers from her SLP, another suggestion is to contact a university/college that offers an SLP program degree. Email a professor/director of the program ... I know my professors in school would often answer emails from non-students about their children in therapy.

Answer 6

Sassy Momma is terribly misguided and spreading disinformation. Parents (and apparently special ed teachers, too) are NOT speech pathologists, nor should they be expected to be. There are good reasons why it takes a master's degree to be a speech pathologist!

That being said---

Her IEP says her goals include the "L" and "R" "S" and blends. I fail to see why you say these won't be worked on this year. That's in direct violation of the IEP, which you and the speech pathologist agreed to (and signed) earlier in the school year..

It is interesting that you say her "S" has improved dramatically since her ear surgery. How is that? If the sound has improved, is it better because she can produce a lateral lisp better? Or, is it because she can direct the airstream frontally, but the lateral lisp persists? Her IEP includes "S", so she should be working on that, including getting rid of the lateral lisp. Weird.

Please email me with more info and a bit of clarification.

As far as the spelling goes, she needs help with what is called "sound-symbol association". You can use one of those alphabet books which show an animal or everyday object in association with the letter. The old standby "A is for apple" is one of the best approaches ever used, which is why we still use it today. You can ask her, " What sound does "a" make?"What does "b" make?", etc. Just be sure she can associate the particular letter with the sound, not necessarily the object.