Speech affecting reading - I can see issues already

[k2bdeutmeyer]

What do you do when your child's speech affects their reading?

 

DD has trouble pronouncing "r". She speaks a bit like Elmer Fudd. I know that as far as speech therapy goes, this isn't really any issue until she's closer to 7 or 8yr. But, as she's playing on Starfall today, I've noticed that she couldn't figure out which letter to put at the beginning of "rip". She was trying to sound it out, but couldn't hear the beginning sound, because she doesn't say it right.

 

As soon as I said "rip" she immediately said "R"! How do you remedy this? or do you?

[The Girls' Mom]

We struggled through a bit with my dd (same r issue) until her speech corrected at around 9.5 years old. She had trouble with spelling too. I never found a remedy other than just plugging along and helping her out when she had trouble.

[*Lulu*]

:bigear:

 

We have had a similar issue with DD6. Even though her speech issues are now mostly resolved, she still struggles with phonics. I have been continuing to slowly plug away with the phonics, while we focus on some sight word reading to give her a sense of success. (This is my child who was approaching tears because she wasn't reading yet.) I would love to hear if someone else has ideas on this one!

[mama2cntrykids]

OP--I'm running into this with my dd also. She's 5.5 and her speech issues make more trouble for her with reading. But, she also has other issues with reading besides the speech stuff.

 

I guess what I'm going to do is keep plugging along and keep correcting gently. Best of!

[k2bdeutmeyer]

:bigear:

 

I found ds6 is having the same problem. He wanted to sound out dragon. Well, his r blends still need a lot of work and he ended up spelling it out jragon. I've seen this a couple of times and work with him on this as it comes up. He has some bad habits and his tongue gets a little lazy, so I have to correct it immediately and he can say it correct immediately. I have been going really slow with OPGTTR to catch any issues, build confidence, and so we can do it with sister.

 

At this point, she can't even correct herself verbally. We've tried to pronounce things really slowly for her and have her try to repeat, but she can't do it. The "r" never comes out right.

 

For example, red = "uh-wed" (when trying to emphasize the "r" sound)

 

I guess we'll just keep plugging away. She's doing really well otherwise.

[amydavis]

Just wanted to say we've noticed the same kinds of things with dd7. She does really well with spelling, until it's a word that utilizes a sound that she struggles with producing.

 

For instance, when asked to spell "tooth," she spelled "toof". There are a couple of others that give her difficulty, but I can't think of them off hand.

 

What seems to help the most, is redirecting her to not only listen to me say the word, but to watch me say it. I honestly think she sometimes can "hear" the word wrong, even when it's being said correctly by someone other than herself. I suppose it's just a badly ingrained habit. So, I make her watch my mouth, and that has actually worked well for us. HTH - but it is frustrating, for both mother and child!

[Virg]

DS11's speech issues are pretty severe and have not resolved even with years of ST. It really effects his reading and spelling. His Spelling pre-test was today, here is a sample: shall for share, carefor for careful, womy for worry, and firgone for forgotten. I don't know what we will do besides just keep slogging through.

[jayb842]

I saw with it ds when he was 6. He was spelling like he said it. For example he spelled with "wif" He was replacing his th with f. We have done a year of ST. It has done a world of good. He's about where he should be in spelling now.

[athena1277]

I just want to say thanks to the OP for posting about this issue. My ds is 4.5 and has been in ST for 1.5 years. He is developmentally normal except for a speech delay. I have really been agonizing over teaching him to read next school year.