My nearly 8 year old son (end of July birthday) will often repeat the end of words as he is searching for the next word ("I thought-ought-ought-ought that we should go to the park-ark-ark this afternoon"). This happens particularly if he is in a new situation or if something is difficult. I was assuming that he would just outgrow it...he's always spoken this way. I've recently started googling "stuttering." "Early intervention" is something that seems pretty common, but I'm also reading this on private speech therapist websites. Is this something that we should have evaluated? Is it normal for a bright, energetic kid who thinks faster than his mouth can keep up? Should we wait to see if it will go away? Does any one have experience with this type of thing? Any practical tips to help him overcome it without causing him to be self conscious? Thanks in advance!

My friend is considering homeschooling her daughter who is currently in public school (New York State) with a 504 Plan. She receives speech therapy, etc. Her mother would still want her to receive these services while homeschooling. Is that possible?? How does a 504 Plan affect homeschooling? I would love to hear from anyone who has experience with this. Also, any links are appreciated! (X posted on the Learning Challenges board) TIA!

My son has poor speech, and as homeschoolers we don't have access to free speech therapy. His vocabulary is wonderful, his hearing is okay, he just has trouble making some very important sounds. CH, SH, Z, G. It's almost like he doesn't know where to put his tongue to make the sounds. Our insurance won't cover speech therapy. Does anyone know of something I could use at home to help him? I know with speech therapy the therapist will usually give the parent stuff to work with them at home. Anything like that?

I have a son who will be 7 this summer. His speech has always been unusual--I don't really know how to describe it. When he was learning to talk as a toddler it seemed like he put great effort into producing the words--I've never known how to explain that to someone, it just felt like it was taking huge mental and maybe physical effort to put thoughts into words, in a way it didn't for my other children. For the first couple of years he frequently repeated word endings, i.e. "road-d-d-d-"; I wouldn't describe it as a stutter, it was like he was listening to the sound and repeating it for himself to hear. His speech often has a sort of sing-song quality, and moves to a higher register whenever he particularly wants to make sure you are listening. And he sounds a little nasally. Enunciation-wise, he has struggled with a number of sounds in the past but has worked through everything except r. I've been told not to worry about that one until he is 7, but he'll be there soon. I've considered speech therapy several times in the past but have opted to just work with him myself so far on enunciation issues. I will be looking at it again in the next few months. Hopefully they can help him with the "r" sound--he's trying so hard but just can't get it. What I'm mainly wondering about, though, is what I think are speech processing/production issues. Are there ways they can help him with that? Does what I am describing sound familiar to anyone? It's on my mind this weekend because my dad was here for a visit and mentioned that he finds ds difficult to understand. I don't have any trouble understanding him, but then I'm his mom. I don't have much trouble understanding my 22 month old either and he hardly talks at all! I'm not a good judge of how easy my kids are to interpret, obviously. My dad lives halfway across the country and doesn't see the kids often, I'm sure the way he hears them is the way most people who aren't around all the time would hear them. It looks like I really should get some professional help, but I'm hoping for some insight from the hive first! --Sarah

I am new on this forum and this is my first post here. I need advice about my son. He is almost six years old, and I think he has some problems with his speech. Three years ago he was on speech therapy (for about six months) with private speech therapist. After six months she tested him, and told us that her job with our son is done. In her opinion his speech was fine. Before therapy he could not say nine sounds and all English blends. Instead of fish he would say sish, fox was tox.... Today, he can say all sounds and blends. He is reading very well for his age (kindergarten). He l-o-v-e-s to talk, but nobody understands him well except of me. I am concerned about how he speaks. He is bilingual, and the same thing is happening in both languages. For example, he will say: " I have a big. " What he really wants to say is: " I have a big blue ball. " He always says only half of sentence. He is a very smart, and very, very active child. How to help him? Have you ever heard anything like this? Is he lazy to talk, or there is a real problem here? Thank you in advance.

My ds8 has been discharged from speech services. Yay! He is testing at or above age/grade level in a series of tests our therapist gave him. We'll meet with her in about 6 months but we're on our own. My question: Does anyone have some good websites/books/games etc to recommend for oral motor exercises and pragmatics? I'd like to keep up at home, as long as it's helping him.

Our DS, 9, just had an auditory processing eval and we recently got report. One question I forgot to ask the audiologist was just so simple--does he have auditory processing issues? We did discuss the specific results, mostly normal but he didn't pass Auditory Continuous Performance Test (raising thumb for target word), or Memory for Sentences (repeating sentences w/o visual cues), or the RAN/RAS (perceiving visual symbol and retrieving name for it accurately and rapidly). Audiologist said sensory issues might well be a large part of it and also recommended ST evalu and language therapy for auditory working memory issues. Therapy to include things like visualization and chunking. Our son has sensory issues already (difficulty w/background noise esp), and does have an ADD diagnosis. Very, very bright but difficulty w focus especially in noisy or large environments like classroom. (Thus the HSing this year). If anyone can help me learn more about this, please, I'd so much appreciate it. Will definitely ask more ?s of audiologist. But I was wondering if these scores on a couple of tests constituted auditory processing issues or not. Just wondering if I'm trying to describe issues to someone new, would I mention auditory processing or not? Thank you so much for any help.... Amy

I've decided to pursue speech therapy for my 6 yo DD. Her speech seems to be getting less clear rather than more. We HS through a public charter school, so I'm hoping we can go through them to access free therapy. So, what should we expect? What types of assessments are used? How long does a typical appointment last? Any advice or suggestions? I'm completely out of my element here.

Have you ever heard of using fish oil to help children with speech disorders? If you give your child fish oil to help with speech, which fish oil do you use? What dosage? What are your results? I am considering using FO for my DS who has speech disfluency and mild speech delay along with county provided speech therapy.

Are there resources on doing this yourself? I am thinking this is where I would need to start with DS. Thanks!

I am posting this question at the request of DH. In fact, his exact request was "Well, could you ask that homeschool forum with the zillion other moms on it?"(:lol:) DS will be 20 months (!) next week and DH is concerned that he's hardly talking at all. Well, he talks when he wants, just not in understandable English. He'll say words once or twice, in a very deliberate manner (as if to prove that he *can* say them) and then refuse to use the word again. If we insist that he uses words to ask for something (like a drink) he'll either decide it is not worth it and walk away or use "this" and point to it. He does have a (very slowly) growing list of words and phrases that get used on a daily basis. I'm convinced that DS simply doesn't see a need to talk yet. He was much the same way with crawling - he crawled a few feet at 5 months and then absolutely refused to even get on his hands and knees for more than a second until he was almost ten months old. When he did crawl you could almost see the conscious decision "I think I want to investigate over there instead of staying where mommy put me" and so he did. When talking to my grandmother she told me that her youngest was the same way. He refused to use more than a dozen or so words and phrases until he was almost three and then overnight he went from not speaking to saying things like "Can I have a drink of water?" "Where is dad?" "I need to go potty" etc. Other than the talking thing he is developmentally fine and ahead in some areas. Sometimes he is downright scary with his smartness. He's been able to pick out both my mom's cell and home number out of mine, and DH's, contact lists since he was 13 months old, and will alternate calling them until he gets his grandma. He really loves helping me cook and bake - last week I was making the bed and came out to find that he had pulled a chair up to the counter and pulled down a mixing bowl, had un-baby proofed the cabinets and gotten out the sugar, flour, and chocolate chips, and he had stuck them all in the mixing bowl with a spoon. He has plenty of exposure to language. DH and I make a real effort to talk to him a lot - explaining what we're doing, pointing out objects and naming them, and reading to him (lots and lots, he loves books!). He also shows an excellent understanding of words and can follow complex, multi-task directions. I'm not concerned (like I said, I think it is just a matter of he'll speak when he decides that he wants too), but DH is and I'm pretty sure it is because this was the big milestone that he was looking forward to. DH never had any experience (at all) with young kids before DS was born, so even still he is less than fluent in "Baby" and "Toddler" speak and I think he feels left out sometimes because of that. I think he also gets concerned because I am quite crunchy, and by default that has forced him to become crunchy (when before he was probably as far from crunchy as you could get). We get a lot crap/judgmental comments from well meaning neighbors/church members/ and family and I think at some deep level he comes back and wonders "Are we screwing our kid up by doing x instead of y? Is that why he's not talking as much as [enter the handful of 18-22 month old kids that he knows with a larger vocabulary than DS]?" So... long post (sorry) to simply ask: would you be concerned? For reference, in case anyone is wondering, he'll say these words and phrases on a daily basis: Mama Daddy/Papa Ummma (grandma) Ampa (grandpa) Nick (my brother, but he holds the i out for several seconds and usually adds the ending sound as an afterthought) Meow My Meow (in reference to both his favorite stuffed animal and a picture of the kitty that he has deemed his) Tales (Veggie Tales) Love you Ta-dah! (used for any/all reasons he deems celebratory) Ball Yeah Words and phrases he uses at least a few times a week: Eww, bum! My up (wants up, usually to get at something) No Tory (story) Hi! This There is (typically while playing hide and seek or peek-a-boo) Words that he's said a couple of times and then refuses to say again: Shoe Balloon Drink Bath Out Done train milk nurse bye-bye bed truck

I need to make a decision between SL, HOD and MFW to use with a 6 yo with a mild speech delay. His speech is like a 4yo. We will officially start K this fall. Though he started to read and spell shorter words , he has speech ( articulation ) and language ( lack of words) delay .We do read a lot of books but he also seems to have comprehension issues due probably to his delay. So the books he enjoys right now are more for a 2-4 yo . Which of these programs have you used and noticed an improvment in your dc's speech ? I have a feeling that HOD will work best combined with WWE when he is ready . Other suggestions for LA are welcome !

Our youngest son has speech problems. He was in speech therapy. Private speech therapy went really well. Then we had to go with public school therapy and it went downhill. The therapists attitude towards us and all our children was not acceptable. She would tell me every session how she had no idea what was wrong with him and she could not come up with any diagnosis. He is not in speech therapy currently. I'm seeing some marked improvement in this past year. He is learning to read. That seems to help with his speech. He pronounces a lot of his words with a thick East coast accent. Like bird is pronounced boy-ard. Does that make sense? We have never lived near there and he has no influences from there. He puts his tongue in the opposite direction. So, th might sound like f. He isn't tongue tied. He has no vision or hearing problems. He uses me for himself instead of I and Us instead of We. We still have to interpret for a lot of people. His speech is getting clearer and his sentence structure is doing better. I've been working on it through reading lessons and through oral narrations. He did seem to do better on a GFCF diet. But, that was 3 years ago. I'm considering trying it again. His oldest brother was diagnosed with PDD-NOS possibly Aspergers. But, honestly they are light night and day. Any experience with this or thoughts?

My 4.5 year old son just started to read and it was THEN that I really realized how he sounds when he speaks. (I can't believe I didn't realize it before this....) He sounds like this: When saying the word yellow it comes out as "lellow" (doesn't say the Y sound) When saying his own name, Jake, it comes out as "Take" (doesn't say the J sound) When saying the word blue, it comes out as "boo" (doesn't say the L sound) When saying the word brown, it comes out as "bown" (doesn't say the R sound) If he were going away to school he wouldn't even enter kindegarten until the year after next as his birthday is in January. A friend (and co-worker) who just graduated from a Master's in School Psychology program was over last weekend and I was musing that, "he just started reading this week and I can't believe I didn't notice the sounds that he doens't say until this week, what do you think?" and she said, "I would have him evaluated". Tears welled up in my eyes. I couldn't help it. When he was 2 we had him evaluated because he wasn't talking yet. He had a hearing test, which he passed with flying colours and we were about to schedule the next test when he started talking. He hasn't stopped since. Big vocabulary, loves books, loves to read. Do you see this as a hinderance? Would you jump to get him evaluated or would you take a wait-and-see approach? Please be kind. I have not only a genetic legacy of guilt, but I seemed to have inadvertantly majored in it in college, as well. My first thought was, "I didn't breastfeed him long enough!" :001_rolleyes: (When he was 9 months old I discovered that I was pregnant with his surprise baby sister!......exactly three days after giving away all of my maternity clothes. Our first two were created with the help of fertlity drugs so I had no idea that this could happen spontaneously.....) But, I digress. What says the hive?