Speech problem with 4 year old?

Question

Can anyone help. Speech problem which may have been caused by ongoing ear infections since a baby. Has had 'grommets' end of 2007 but doesnt seem to be improving language skill ie sounding letters. Due to start school 2008 so feel help required ASAP.

Answer 1

You need to contact your health visitor or talk to his preschool leader and they should be able to access some help from a speech & language therapist. Make sure any relevant information is passed onto his future school and they will continue with making sure he has the assistance needed.

Answer 2

I had this when i was a kid. The best thing is a speech therapist, i went for several years and it helped no end. Don't just let it sort itself out because it won't, you need professional help for this.

Answer 3

have you been working on helping with the tougher sounds ... practicing with words like playing word games.  I figured this would be the first step.  If you've been under a Dr's care I would think they would have given you some simple exercises to help improve speech ... if not ask

If you've done that and feel it's still a problem then go to your Dr and see if they can refer you to a speech therapist so that you'll have professsional guidance.  To wait too long into school may cause stress if your little one is hard to understand and sometimes young kids can point out differences in other kids, and that will make it even tougher on you if your baby is picked on ... good luck

My husband grew up hard of hearing and I know from his stories how tough learning sounds can be but it can be done with practice, so don't worry just try to make it a game - kids learn faster when its fun ... find songs to sing with the sounds, they just did a study on kids and learning, that's why I'm passing it on.

Answer 4

You may well find that his speech improves dramatically once he goes to school....Mothers tend to know what their child wants even though to others it sound nonsense...at school the child will have to learn to communicate with friends and teachers, and by listening and copying will improve his/her own speech....If a real problem see your GP and see if you can see a speech therapist...but don't worry, these things have a habit of working out.

Answer 5

A lot of children are quite late in learning to speak.

Have you tried using "Jolly Phonics" system with him??

I have worked with a number of children age 4/5yrs whom have had speech difficulties and improved very quickly when using this system.

I have put the link below for you to look at.

Answer 6

Actually your child should be eligible for voluntary Pre-K right now. I would check with your school district about that. This part of a new federal law. The reason I mention this is that children can start receiving speech services in Pre-K.

This is a very critical period for you child to learn and express language. If I were you, I would call my school district and ask to speak to the Pre-K department or the Child Find specialists. Tell them that your child has a severe speech problem and you would like him or her to be assessed. You want to know if this is only a speech problem or an underlying language problem. In addition, after the assessment, you child can be placed in a Pre-K program to receive services. The time to act is now!

To find out more about this, go to the Wright's Law website. This will discuss your rights as a parent with a special needs child. Check out the Pre-K section.

If you child is only speech delayed, he or she will have an Individualized Education Plan for speech only. Speech only kids are not really in special ed. The IEP is only to have a speech therapist from special ed work with your child on speech production. If there is an underlying langauge disorder, then your child can receive both speech and language services but will be a special ed student. This does not mean a special class necessarily. The school encourages to help these kids in the regular classroom.

Answer 7

Often children can't put the sound they hear into speach because of a lack of hearing or are just stubborn. My sister in law had a son that couldn't say "C" as in Coffee he always called it Toffee and the same with any word begonning with "Cw or "K" a kiss became a Tiss and so on. As he got older he stopped saying t's for c's and can speak fine now. A few years later she had a daughter who had exactly the same problem and she also grew out of it.

Answer 8

You should mention your concerns to your GP or health visitor.

If they think there is a problem then they will send your child to a speech therapist.

If you leave it till your child is at school then the school will pick up on it and they would also recommend a speach therapist.

I wouldn't worry too much.............. kids pick things up very quickly when taught the right way.