Should I deal with the lisp or chalk it up to her being 5?

[wagnfun]

We've been playing with flashcards. 5 yr old dd drew pictures on a card and was asking dh to put the beginning sound on the back. She said put a "P" and when he turned it over, it was a "person", then she said to put a '"s" and on the flip side was a snake.

 

All was going well until she asked dh to put a "W".

 

The flip side was a wocket (ROCKET).. She thought ROCKET started with a w-ocket. :001_huh: He didn't have the heart to tell her she was wrong.

 

Obviously he isn't the one that gives lessons!!

[Jen500]

I wouldn't worry yet. I think the 'r' sound is one of the last sounds kids master.

[melopher]

PS doesn't usually start speech therapy until 1st grade, because their speech is still developing (my oldest son went for his "s" sounds). My 7yodd got past saying 'w' for 'r' by practicing growling...it's a hard sound to learn to make and the growling made it fun.

[Adrianne]

We've been playing with flashcards. 5 yr old dd drew pictures on a card and was asking dh to put the beginning sound on the back. She said put a "P" and when he turned it over, it was a "person", then she said to put a '"s" and on the flip side was a snake.

 

All was going well until she asked dh to put a "W".

 

The flip side was a wocket (ROCKET).. She thought ROCKET started with a w-ocket. :001_huh: He didn't have the heart to tell her she was wrong.

 

Obviously he isn't the one that gives lessons!!

 

My ds9 outgrew it. Ds5 now speaks the same way. We confuse th and f. I only correct them when we are learning phonics.

 

Good for dad for helping out!

[clwcain]

I correct my children's pronunciation constantly. I'm a militant pedant when it comes to diction.

 

YMMV, but I don't think you need to worry. Stress the differences in the sounds and mention it to your pediatrician if you're really worried.

 

HTH

[Ananda]

I would be proactive about correcting it.

 

As a child I said s's & z's incorrectly. (I put my tongue outside between my teeth on the sides resulting in mushy buzzy s & z). When I turned 4, she tried to get into speech therapy. The school told her I would out grow it. When I was 6 and started kindergarten the school decided to put me into speech therapy. I could make the "s" sound, but did not use it. After two years of speech therapy the school decided to give up on me. I had no problems with correct pronunciation when concentrating, but in daily life my reflex was to revert to old habits. I never could hear the difference and I had done it for 6 years so it was automatic.

 

Now I say my s's & z's correctly when in formal situations, but I am making a concerted effort to focus. For the day-to-day I still have a lisp. My mother was rather upset that she hadn't insisted I speak correctly sooner, before it became an ingrained habit. My brother's r to w problem was corrected well before kindergarten at her insistence.

[keptwoman]

I would work on it with her.

 

I've been working on DDs speech as she is delayed in a few sounds:

/f/ /v/ /k/ /g/ /r/ /th/

 

I started with the /f/ sound, I printed out some of the Enchanted Learning books with words starting with that sound/letter. Then every day at least once a day we went through it and practised using the right sound. When we were driving in the car we would say the word list, and add in frequent things she says with the sound.

After the sound was clean and easy for her in the more formal situation, I started asking her to correct specific words everytime she said them. A week or so of that and she consistently said the right sound. It was really easy, and what was interesting to me was that at the same time she corrected the /v/ sound with no specific work on it.

 

Now we are working on /k/ using the same process, we are up to correcting the sound in everyday speech. I started two weeks ago with the print outs. Then about a week ago I added in gentle correction in her speech by consistently correcting her brothers name, then added in a few new words. In the last few days she is self correcting the sound in other words, and interestingly seems to be self correcting the /g/ sound at the same time, I guess it's because they are formed in a similar manner.

 

Next on my list is the /r/ sound, which she produces as /w/ At the same time I work on the correct sound, I also work on learning to recognise, sound out and write that letter, a two birds with one stone type thing.

 

Anyway, all that to say, if that is her only issue I really encourage you to just try it yourself. It's so much easier and cheaper than speech therapy/assessments/appointments etc!!

 

I have also found with our kids that mis-pronunciation of sounds does impact the ability to correctly sound out and spell the words. So I really want to deal with DDs asap. Her preschool teachers have noticed a huge improvement since I've been working with her.

[PameliaSue]

I would be proactive about correcting it.

:iagree:

 

My ds 6 has been in speech therapy for a year now. Our therapist explained that once the child learns to read they really take off with their speech because they can see what the word 'should' sound like. So with this in mind it would be imperative that you correct her phonics.

[kalanamak]

 

The flip side was a wocket (ROCKET).. She thought ROCKET started with a w-ocket.

 

My son would probably still do this, and I would spend all day correcting him if I was inclined to. I have taken a middle ground. When we are doing our school work, I slow him down and have him say something until he gets it right (and he literally giggles and blushes during this...out of nervousness, because he likes to be "correct"), but when he runs in and tells me about what he did in the park, out of breath with running and the joy of telling me about it, I don't stop and correct him.

He is slowly improving. I hear lots of kids to this. The breathy -th- sound is tricky for him two. Both have to do with tips of the tongue.

HTH

[TraceyS/FL]

PS doesn't usually start speech therapy until 1st grade, because their speech is still developing (my oldest son went for his "s" sounds). My 7yodd got past saying 'w' for 'r' by practicing growling...it's a hard sound to learn to make and the growling made it fun.

 

Not all of them - my now 4, but she was 3 is receiving speech at the public school. They start at 3 - IEP in place and everything. She needed it earlier - but we needed to go private with a referral and the ped kept saying she's outgrow it. :banghead: We could self refer to the county when she turned 3, so we did.

 

The earlier they get them, the easier it seems to be to get quick results.

 

All that said, my DD is the only one of her age getting services!

[Stacey in MA]

My sister is a speech therapist, and so I asked her about it last year. She said that age 7 is the upper end of it being "normal". If it had continued past then, then we may consider there may be a problem that needs addressing. It's not to say you can't work on it with her. My sister said it can help. But some kids' muscles and brain paths just aren't ready to make those sounds correctly yet.

 

FWIW, there are certain sounds that are "normally" made incorrectly (like the W instead of R - wocket instead of rocket) (and so likely to be grown out of), but other sounds that are not normally misspoken, and so may need more attention without waiting. I don't know which are which, but a speech eval will tell you for sure.

 

GL and HTH! - Stacey in MA

[Laurie4b]

It is probably being 5. R is one of the latest sounds to come in. I'd call a speech therapist and just ask. (Or maybe a couple). Imo, if it's a developmental thing, no need to do the speech therapy--unless you want to, especially if that's the only sound she has issues with. You could just work with her on your own. Stand with her in front of a mirror. Have her watch as you make the two sounds. Talk about where your lips, tongue, etc. are. Have her imitate you. Speech therapists use mirrors and cognition of mouth position all the time. What you don't want to do is just correct her and have her listen for the sound.

[Spy Car]

PS doesn't usually start speech therapy until 1st grade, because their speech is still developing (my oldest son went for his "s" sounds). My 7yodd got past saying 'w' for 'r' by practicing growling...it's a hard sound to learn to make and the growling made it fun.

 

I like the "learn by growling" idea!

 

If my child had this problem, I think I'd try to find a fun way to "teach" past the difficulty.

 

Maybe I'd invent a little song:

 

The happy dog says: Ruff, ruff, ruff"

Ruff, ruff, ruff

Ruff, ruff, ruff

The happy dog says: Ruff, ruff, ruff"

And the naughty dog says: Rrrrrrrrr!

 

The naughty dog says: Rrrr, rrrr, rrrr

Rrrr, rrrr, rrrr

Rrrr, rrrr, rrrr

The naughty dog says: Rrrr, rrrr, rrrr

And the happy dog says: Ruff!

 

Something like this would appeal in my home, especially if we made really silly faces and laughed when we went Rrrrrrrrr!

 

Bill (who is neither a speech pathologist, nor much of a lyricist)

[jacqui in mo]

Cute song! But coming from my Speech Therapy background, if you have your child say this ditty you'll probably get just "wuff, wuff, wuff". But isolating the Rrrr is a good way to start! Then you would add saying nonsense syllables with the Rrrr. You have to get the child making the new (to them) R sound all by itself before you can get them past their habit of substituting W's for R's in real words and then into conversational speech.

[jacqui in mo]

Speech therapist here. You've gotten good advise. Most kids develop the R sound by the time they are about 8. There is nothing wrong with being proactive about working on it as others have described though. But don't stress out about it. BTW this W for R is NOT a lisp. Lisping is usually referring to S & SH type sounds. If you want to be technical, W for R is called "gliding". HTH Jacqui