What can I do at home to help my 4yr old that has a speech problem?

Question

He is in speech therapy with the school but its summer time and when thy do meet its only 1 day a week for an hour. When he talkes he does not finish his words.

Answer 1

You can start stressing the ends of your words when you talk.  It's hard to do, and it slows down how fast you can go, but it will eventually help.  

You can also do flash cards and see if he can say the words backwards.

Answer 2

i used to baby sit a little girl who had speech problems to and when she wasn't in school i would help her at home. her teacher said to take your time with them and try to speak slowly so that the child could her the full pronouciation of the word. if your child doesn't finish the words then have him slow down and take his time to tell you his story!

Answer 3

As a parent, you can request extra therapy time. On the days you aren't in therapy, do voluntary stuttering with your child. Allow your child to stutter on his word(s) and then have him say it again fluently. That usually helps

Answer 4

My son is in the same situation as yours. He is in speech therapy once a week but for an hour and a half only during the school year. I enrolled him in a preschool class, that is being offered through the city in a community center during the summer and he loves it. He has improved a lot and is know counting up to 20 and sings his ABCs.

You should find out if there are any programs where you live. Is your child in preschool?

My child has been in the waiting list for headstart since he was 3 but we have had no luck. I'm hoping that he will start school this fall.

Good luck with your son!!!

Answer 5

How about look at a book and have him read to you?  Of course he is not going to really read but let him tell the story in his own words page by page.

Answer 6

You  should usually ignore it as long as you understand what he is saying.  Then you can set aside a little "work" time each day when you pick two or three words he has not finished during that particular day and isolate each syllable, pronounce each separately and then ask him to say each syllable (i.e. one at a time)  When he can do that, have him do two syllables and so on.  If he does not get to the point where he can say the two syllables together, be content for now just to have him practice saying them separately and hearing you put them together.  Above all don't push too hard; if he sees you are stressing over it he may develop a stutter because kids sense your stress and they stress too.  If the school can't do more than once a week, you may need to pay for a speech therapist.  However, he is only 4 and a lot of this stuff straightens itself out in a couple of years, so I would wait as long as he can be understood.  By the way, when he does say something correctly that he formerly could not say, lavish praise upon him!  Good luck.

Answer 7

Ask your child's Speech Language Pathologist/Therapist (SLP) from his school to send home a homework sheet or a note about what they worked on together each week.  This way, you two are consistent in what techniques/activities/goals you are working on.  That will help reinforce what your child is working on and should make it more consistent.  

Speech therapy should really be tailored to the individual child so I would definitely recommend getting in close communicatinon with the child's SLP.  The SLP should be able to send home activity suggestions, and may even be able to loan you some materials to use or tell you where you can get some.  

For working with leaving sounds off of words I usually try helping the child look at real words that are only different in pronunciation because of their ending sounds, such as pictures of  : cow/couch, eye/ice, four/fork, boo [ghost]/boot.  You can find pictures of all of all of these items online, and make cards from them.  With cards you can play card games such as memory or go fish or do crafts with them.  During the games, ask your child which card he wants, (ie. the cow or the couch).  Be sure to emphasize the ending sound.  This will hopefully help drive home the point that these words are different and it is the sound on the end that lets us know which one you mean so it is important to put that sound on.  Only practice 5 or 10 min at home though because you don't want him to tire of this.

Best of luck  

P.S. The process of dropping sounds off of the end of words is called "final consonant deletion."  You may be able to search the internet for that term for pictures, craft ideas, and games :)

Answer 8

One thing I notice about children with speech problems is that their parents still "baby-talk" to them. The solution to that, of course, is to talk to them in a regular way. Teach them the proper way to talk and enunciate when needed.