Speech problems in 6 year old

[Oakblossoms]

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?

[siloam]

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 ds has speech problems, probably from the ear infections he got every time he got a head cold as a child. I am using LiPS for speech therapy at home. It focuses on how the mouth moves to make each sound. Then moves on to phonological awareness (the ability to hear separate sounds in a word). I am finding that much of it takes time because they have developed the habit of using the wrong sounds, and it simply takes time to unlearn than and start using the correct sounds.

 

Straight Talk has a program that works on usage issues. I own the speech therapy program, and it didn't have the depth I and my ds needed, so I went to LiPS, but the language development package would at least give you a place to star with.

 

Heather

 

[merry gardens]

...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. ...

Any experience with this or thoughts?

I also use the LiPS program with my son. He never qualified for speech therapy because he can make the sounds--but he often doesn't likely due to auditory processing issues. My son also had the th/f confusion. LiPS program showed him how the tongue, lip and mouth positions to produce sounds. That helped. You mention a problem with the /er/ sound of r. R makes lots of sounds as it mixes with vowels. LiPS addresses r's a bit, but there's lots more speech material available that specializes on pronouncing various r sounds here: http://www.sayitright.org/EntireWorldofR.html

Edited November 27, 2009 by merry gardens

[gingersmom]

If you can't do private can you get a different public school therapist? Maybe one from another school.

 

I have had experience with public school therapists and know how awful they are.

 

Are there any speech therapists in your area who work on a sliding scale? Or maybe you could bring him in once/twice a month and they could tell you what to work on at home?